Anniversaries

southernbelle0915

So the Mother's Day thread sparked an interesting convo about gifting and who gifts for what. 

DH and I didn't really buy each other gifts for our first anniversary. I made him another wedding cake and served it on a paper plate, because I had read that paper was a traditional 1st anniversary gift. We did exchange cards that were really sweet.

Do y'all do (or plan to do) gifts/no-gifts? Do you have $ limits? Traditions? Do you follow Hallmark's traditional gifting thing? How do you celebrate, if at all?

climbingsingle

We got married the day after H's birthday and on my birthday. So for our anniversary every year, we're going to take a trip to celebrate all of that. This year will be a short trip to the resort we were married at. Next year we're going on an Alaskan cruise. 

littlepep

We don't really celebrate our dating anniversary to be honest. I think we'll celebrate our wedding anniversary but probably with a weekend trip or dinner out. I'd much rather spend money on that than a gift. 

NowIamMrsKlein

We don't do cards or gifts. Our second date was the date where we both 'knew' that this was it. And on that date we had actually gone on this wilderness hike in a national park. On our first and second anniversaries we went back and took a picnic and spent the day hiking and enjoying each others company at the place where it began.

Since we now live far away from that place, I'm not sure what we will do. (3 years next month!). We love to get outside and do alot of trail hiking 5 days a week to begin with, so depending on whether or not FI is on call, we may try and drive farther out that weekend and do a hike that we havent done before in 'spirit' of our tradition.

If we cant then we will probably just cook a nice supper and drink wine. because. Wine..

novella1186

Usually for whatever occasion we agree on no gifts (especially this year because we were paying for wedding stuff and didn't have extra money). I don't like the pressure of buying stuff for each other just because it's a certain date. 

For our first anniversary, if we decide to go big (like if we have the time and money and feel like taking a weekend trip) we might go back to the town we're getting married in, rent a house on the beach for the weekend, and go out to dinner. If we don't want to do all that, we'll most likely just go out to dinner somewhere local, because it's nice to have a break from cooking. 

JennyColada

We are planning on going back east (NYC and Washington DC) on what just-so-happens to be our first anniversary. For dating anniversaries we didn't really do gifts, we just went out to dinner.

I have contemplated various gifts, but for Valentine's day I crafted a mason jar with little paper cutouts of "Reasons why I love you", which actually would have been great for a paper first anniversary! But oh well.

Cookie Pusher

We're not gifty people. I'm too practical, and no one likes giving practical gifts.

knottie9c5ed33df4bbd226

We are still on dating anniversary time so we do celebrate it, usually with a nice dinner out and maybe a movie. We stopped doing gifts probably within the last 2 years. I imagine we will probably do gifts maybe for our 1st wedding anniversary but probably not after that. 

Maggie0829

I got H a card for our first (or was it our second) anniversary but only because I thought it was funny/cute.  But typically we really don't do anything for our anniversary besides using it as a reason to go out to a more fancy dinner.

lyndausvi

We do not do dating anniversary.  I couldn't tell you the date anyway.

1st anniversary.   Dh was sick. I partied with friends.

2nd anniversary - nothing.  Maybe dinner with some friends.  Yeah, I think that is what we did.  It was more like  "oh we have an excuse to celebrate? Let's go out with friends" type of thing.

3rd anniversary I just moved to NOLA (dh was already there).  Our actual date we drove home from a weekend in TX.  Friends gave us a gc to Ruth Chris for helping with their wedding.  So a few days later we used the GC to celebrate.

4th - 5th - I can't remember.   Maybe dinner?   I do not even know.

6th - we attended DH's sister's wedding (same date). We drank, had a great dinner, ate cake (okay, so did all the other guests).  We even got to dance to our wedding song thanks to my awesome SIL.  

Jells2dot0

This year will be our 3rd anniversary. The first two were spent apart because of work and cancer. So, this year, we're taking a trip to Punta Mita, Mexico. I imagine we'll try to do a trip every year, barring any long term work travel that may keep us apart again. My SD is tentatively planning her wedding sometime in August next year (our anniversary is August 10), so we may be taking a trip to CA for the wedding instead of taking a true vacation.

labro

I think we plan to sort of follow the "traditional" gift giving plan. I was considering tickets to an event (paper) and commissioning a watercolor painting of our house since it's our first home.

julieanne912

Our first date (which I guess we consider our anniversary date) was a Saturday afternoon Avalanche hockey game (against the Canucks if anybody cares), and then to a pizza place afterwards, and was the day before Super Bowl.  Next two years, we did the same thing on the same Saturday.  The schedule didn't cooperate with us this year, and we were moving into our new house on the actual day, and FI proposed in the new house

But, no, no gifts or anything like that, we don't do gifts for Christmas or birthdays either. 

littlepep

lyndausvi said:

We do not do dating anniversary.  I couldn't tell you the date anyway.

1st anniversary.   Dh was sick. I partied with friends.

2nd anniversary - nothing.  Maybe dinner with some friends.  Yeah, I think that is what we did.  It was more like  "oh we have an excuse to celebrate? Let's go out with friends" type of thing.

3rd anniversary I just moved to NOLA (dh was already there).  Our actual date we drove home from a weekend in TX.  Friends gave us a gc to Ruth Chris for helping with their wedding.  So a few days later we used the GC to celebrate.

4th - 5th - I can't remember.   Maybe dinner?   I do not even know.

6th - we attended DH's sister's wedding (same date). We drank, had a great dinner, ate cake (okay, so did all the other guests).  We even got to dance to our wedding song thanks to my awesome SIL.  

You let someone else steal your wedding date?!? HORROR! Your wedding is ruined. You should probably re-do it. 

lyndausvi

littlepep said:

lyndausvi said:

We do not do dating anniversary.  I couldn't tell you the date anyway.

1st anniversary.   Dh was sick. I partied with friends.

2nd anniversary - nothing.  Maybe dinner with some friends.  Yeah, I think that is what we did.  It was more like  "oh we have an excuse to celebrate? Let's go out with friends" type of thing.

3rd anniversary I just moved to NOLA (dh was already there).  Our actual date we drove home from a weekend in TX.  Friends gave us a gc to Ruth Chris for helping with their wedding.  So a few days later we used the GC to celebrate.

4th - 5th - I can't remember.   Maybe dinner?   I do not even know.

6th - we attended DH's sister's wedding (same date). We drank, had a great dinner, ate cake (okay, so did all the other guests).  We even got to dance to our wedding song thanks to my awesome SIL.  

You let someone else steal your wedding date?!? HORROR! Your wedding is ruined. You should probably re-do it. 

I know right?  How dare I share a wedding date?  The Horror.

On a serious note.  I give HUGE side-eye to people who complain about sharing an anniversary date.  Like WTF?      I haven't seen it recently, but there have been posters who cry because they can't go on a trip for the anniversary because someone they know is getting married.     Seriously?     What a strange thing to cry over.   I get being a little disappointed, but it's not the end of the world if you have to spend your anniversary at a party with other people. 

Bubblegum5586

For our first wedding anniversary we kept with the traditional theme of "paper" and we got tickets to Patriots Home Opener (which fell on our actual anniversary) and we had a blast! So much that we totally forgot to eat our croquembouch (type of wedding cake we had) and drink from our toasting flutes as we passed out as soon as we got home. So now its 5 months till our 2 year and the croquembouche cream puffs are still chillin in the freezer... I should probably toss those?

We never give gifts, it started because we never had money and now we rather spend the money on something to do together!

Maggie0829

lyndausvi said:

lyndausvi said:

We do not do dating anniversary.  I couldn't tell you the date anyway.

1st anniversary.   Dh was sick. I partied with friends.

2nd anniversary - nothing.  Maybe dinner with some friends.  Yeah, I think that is what we did.  It was more like  "oh we have an excuse to celebrate? Let's go out with friends" type of thing.

3rd anniversary I just moved to NOLA (dh was already there).  Our actual date we drove home from a weekend in TX.  Friends gave us a gc to Ruth Chris for helping with their wedding.  So a few days later we used the GC to celebrate.

4th - 5th - I can't remember.   Maybe dinner?   I do not even know.

6th - we attended DH's sister's wedding (same date). We drank, had a great dinner, ate cake (okay, so did all the other guests).  We even got to dance to our wedding song thanks to my awesome SIL.  

You let someone else steal your wedding date?!? HORROR! Your wedding is ruined. You should probably re-do it. 

I know right?  How dare I share a wedding date?  The Horror.

On a serious note.  I give HUGE side-eye to people who complain about sharing an anniversary date.  Like WTF?      I haven't seen it recently, but there have been posters who cry because they can't go on a trip for the anniversary because someone they know is getting married.     Seriously?     What a strange thing to cry over.   I get being a little disappointed, but it's not the end of the world if you have to spend your anniversary at a party with other people. 

Or, you know, celebrate your anniversary a week later.

ashley8918

I honestly hadn't even thought about it at all.

lurkergirl

lyndausvi said:

littlepep said:

lyndausvi said:

We do not do dating anniversary.  I couldn't tell you the date anyway.

1st anniversary.   Dh was sick. I partied with friends.

2nd anniversary - nothing.  Maybe dinner with some friends.  Yeah, I think that is what we did.  It was more like  "oh we have an excuse to celebrate? Let's go out with friends" type of thing.

3rd anniversary I just moved to NOLA (dh was already there).  Our actual date we drove home from a weekend in TX.  Friends gave us a gc to Ruth Chris for helping with their wedding.  So a few days later we used the GC to celebrate.

4th - 5th - I can't remember.   Maybe dinner?   I do not even know.

6th - we attended DH's sister's wedding (same date). We drank, had a great dinner, ate cake (okay, so did all the other guests).  We even got to dance to our wedding song thanks to my awesome SIL.  

You let someone else steal your wedding date?!? HORROR! Your wedding is ruined. You should probably re-do it. 

I know right?  How dare I share a wedding date?  The Horror.

On a serious note.  I give HUGE side-eye to people who complain about sharing an anniversary date.  Like WTF?      I haven't seen it recently, but there have been posters who cry because they can't go on a trip for the anniversary because someone they know is getting married.     Seriously?     What a strange thing to cry over.   I get being a little disappointed, but it's not the end of the world if you have to spend your anniversary at a party with other people. 

We are getting married on BIL's anniversary AND he's in the wedding party.  Yup, we're definitely evil.

chibiyui

While we agreed no gifts, I'm going to paint a cutesy watercolor of us to give to H. Cause the whole paper thing.

We're going out to eat. I'm excited, it's a fancy sushi place. SUSHI.

I also have less then a month to finish this painting. Totally doable. BUT H KEEPS WORKING FROM HOME AND COMING HOME EARLY.

lyndausvi

lurkergirl said:

lyndausvi said:

littlepep said:

lyndausvi said:

We do not do dating anniversary.  I couldn't tell you the date anyway.

1st anniversary.   Dh was sick. I partied with friends.

2nd anniversary - nothing.  Maybe dinner with some friends.  Yeah, I think that is what we did.  It was more like  "oh we have an excuse to celebrate? Let's go out with friends" type of thing.

3rd anniversary I just moved to NOLA (dh was already there).  Our actual date we drove home from a weekend in TX.  Friends gave us a gc to Ruth Chris for helping with their wedding.  So a few days later we used the GC to celebrate.

4th - 5th - I can't remember.   Maybe dinner?   I do not even know.

6th - we attended DH's sister's wedding (same date). We drank, had a great dinner, ate cake (okay, so did all the other guests).  We even got to dance to our wedding song thanks to my awesome SIL.  

You let someone else steal your wedding date?!? HORROR! Your wedding is ruined. You should probably re-do it. 

I know right?  How dare I share a wedding date?  The Horror.

On a serious note.  I give HUGE side-eye to people who complain about sharing an anniversary date.  Like WTF?      I haven't seen it recently, but there have been posters who cry because they can't go on a trip for the anniversary because someone they know is getting married.     Seriously?     What a strange thing to cry over.   I get being a little disappointed, but it's not the end of the world if you have to spend your anniversary at a party with other people. 

We are getting married on BIL's anniversary AND he's in the wedding party.  Yup, we're definitely evil.

DH was in his sister's wedding too.    I didn't see him until after the ceremony.   It was not a big deal.

Totally not necessary, but it was super sweet SIL had our first dance played the wedding.  

The first time I saw my SIL that day was after the ceremony in the back of the church.  The first thing she said to me was "happy anniversary".    Just goes to show people are capable of celebrating more then one event on the same day.

lurkergirl

lyndausvi said:

lurkergirl said:

lyndausvi said:

littlepep said:

lyndausvi said:

We do not do dating anniversary.  I couldn't tell you the date anyway.

1st anniversary.   Dh was sick. I partied with friends.

2nd anniversary - nothing.  Maybe dinner with some friends.  Yeah, I think that is what we did.  It was more like  "oh we have an excuse to celebrate? Let's go out with friends" type of thing.

3rd anniversary I just moved to NOLA (dh was already there).  Our actual date we drove home from a weekend in TX.  Friends gave us a gc to Ruth Chris for helping with their wedding.  So a few days later we used the GC to celebrate.

4th - 5th - I can't remember.   Maybe dinner?   I do not even know.

6th - we attended DH's sister's wedding (same date). We drank, had a great dinner, ate cake (okay, so did all the other guests).  We even got to dance to our wedding song thanks to my awesome SIL.  

You let someone else steal your wedding date?!? HORROR! Your wedding is ruined. You should probably re-do it. 

I know right?  How dare I share a wedding date?  The Horror.

On a serious note.  I give HUGE side-eye to people who complain about sharing an anniversary date.  Like WTF?      I haven't seen it recently, but there have been posters who cry because they can't go on a trip for the anniversary because someone they know is getting married.     Seriously?     What a strange thing to cry over.   I get being a little disappointed, but it's not the end of the world if you have to spend your anniversary at a party with other people. 

We are getting married on BIL's anniversary AND he's in the wedding party.  Yup, we're definitely evil.

DH was in his sister's wedding too.    I didn't see him until after the ceremony.   It was not a big deal.

Totally not necessary, but it was super sweet SIL had our first dance played the wedding.  

The first time I saw my SIL that day was after the ceremony in the back of the church.  The first thing she said to me was "happy anniversary".    Just goes to show people are capable of celebrating more then one event on the same day.

This is my plan!  They've been really supportive, and dare I say even excited about the "anniversary wedding."  Luckily not everyone is a special snowflake!

lovemesomemonster

FI is too practical, he's close to impossible to buy gifts for so we don't really do the gift thing. Our last 6 "dating anniversaries" we were lucky to get a "oh, happy anniversary" out by the end of the day. We spend more money on travel, for his graduation I bought him a 7 night trip to the DR, for Christmas last year we went to Hawaii and for his birthday I bought him slippers because he needed new ones and for mine he got me cirque tickets. I'm pretty sure this is how the new anniversary will go but we'll see!

emmaaa

We don't usually do gifts for our anniversary. We'll probably cook supper, eat our cake, and drink some champagne from the wedding. We may try to get concert tickets or football tickets as a "present" for the two of us.

redheadbride15

We celebrate our dating anniversary by going back to the same restaurant we went to on our first date. It's a really good BBQ joint so it's loads of fun and inexpensive. We just went back for the 4th time! (We celebrated 6 months, then 1,2, and 3 years). We don't exchange gifts, just cards, as a mutual agreement to save our $$ for better things (we also don't do birthday or Christmas gifts).

princessleia22

We have never celebrated dating anniversaries, other than just to verbally acknowledge that "hey, we've actually survived being together X years".  We don't do birthday gifts.  We don't do Christmas gifts. So, I highly doubt we will do much for our wedding anniversaries. 

For our first anniversary this June, we have a family vacation planned the week prior and return home the day before our anniversary (which falls on a Monday this year). This trip will be with 15 other people, include all parents, siblings, nieces/nephews from both his family and mine. So, we have decided to at least take our anniversary off work, allowing us a day to recover from what is bound to be a hectic vacation.  And spending our 1st anniversary laying in bed all day together seems like perfectly acceptable celebration to me.

charlieyankee03

In the almost 3 years we've been together we've done the planned gift-giving thing once. 

We choose to spend our money taking trips, so that's how we spend birthdays and holidays. We make a nice dinner on our anniversary, but we tend to buy things when we want them throughout the year rather than wait for special dates.

I'll probably do the anniversary gift thing though (paper, cotton, etc.) because I like the tradition of it.

larrygaga

We've never been big anniversary people. I hope to change that and at least do nice gifts or a weekend away. We just never happen to be in a position to celebrate! 

That's not to say we aren't romantic! He sends me gifts and jewelry when he's gone on long business trips and when I lived across the state for school. I bake him things and like to surprise him with something sexy or spontaneous. He's hard to buy gifts for. We love going out into nature just the two of us to hike or watch the stars or whatever. I would love to take an extended backpacking trip with him. 

huskypuppy14

lyndausvi said:

We do not do dating anniversary.  I couldn't tell you the date anyway.

1st anniversary.   Dh was sick. I partied with friends.

2nd anniversary - nothing.  Maybe dinner with some friends.  Yeah, I think that is what we did.  It was more like  "oh we have an excuse to celebrate? Let's go out with friends" type of thing.

3rd anniversary I just moved to NOLA (dh was already there).  Our actual date we drove home from a weekend in TX.  Friends gave us a gc to Ruth Chris for helping with their wedding.  So a few days later we used the GC to celebrate.

4th - 5th - I can't remember.   Maybe dinner?   I do not even know.

6th - we attended DH's sister's wedding (same date). We drank, had a great dinner, ate cake (okay, so did all the other guests).  We even got to dance to our wedding song thanks to my awesome SIL.  

Wait, you've been married 6 years? I thought you got married during Hurricane Irene? Was it a different storm. Am I crazy?

lyndausvi

huskypuppy14 said:

lyndausvi said:

We do not do dating anniversary.  I couldn't tell you the date anyway.

1st anniversary.   Dh was sick. I partied with friends.

2nd anniversary - nothing.  Maybe dinner with some friends.  Yeah, I think that is what we did.  It was more like  "oh we have an excuse to celebrate? Let's go out with friends" type of thing.

3rd anniversary I just moved to NOLA (dh was already there).  Our actual date we drove home from a weekend in TX.  Friends gave us a gc to Ruth Chris for helping with their wedding.  So a few days later we used the GC to celebrate.

4th - 5th - I can't remember.   Maybe dinner?   I do not even know.

6th - we attended DH's sister's wedding (same date). We drank, had a great dinner, ate cake (okay, so did all the other guests).  We even got to dance to our wedding song thanks to my awesome SIL.  

Wait, you've been married 6 years? I thought you got married during Hurricane Irene? Was it a different storm. Am I crazy?

Tropical Storm Hannah.  Didn't cause much damage, so it didn't get much press.    It hit the US in the Carolinas on Sept 5 and moved up the coast. 

Up  until 8-9pm Friday night it was BEAUTIFUL.  Sunday after?  BEAUTIFUL and SUNNY.

I can't make this shit up.

Nymeru

For our first wedding anniversary we've been talking about going to see "The Book of Mormon".  I've been dying to see it for years.