Our first wedding anniversary is this Sunday. I feel like I blinked and the year passed by. It was an incredible year. I'll be posting more about that next week in a super mushy, lovey-dovey post. Today I want to post about fun first anniversary gift ideas if you're sticking to the traditional gift recommendations.
Josh and I are big on celebrations. We love holidays and milestones and going a little overboard with gifts. When we were broke in college it involved a billion handmade things. (Our wedding was like 99% DIY.) Now that we have jobs it's fun to browse Etsy, spot something cool, and think, "Hey I can actually buy that!" We're not the kind of couple that buys a new TV and calls it our anniversary gift. There is nothing wrong with that, but it's just not us. We use holidays and special occasions to get each other personal things.
When Josh and I were engaged I told him that I'd love to follow the traditional wedding anniversary gift list. I have plenty of other holidays to get bags and Minion merchandise. I thought this would be a fun challenge for us to express our love and appreciation to each other with a specific theme in mind.
The first wedding anniversary present is paper.
I don't know about you but the last thing I want to give Josh for our one year anniversary is some monogrammed stationary. (And this is coming from a person that LOVES stationary.) After scouring the internet I found some great gift ideas that stay true to the theme of paper while being creative, fun, and sentimental. I hope you find this useful if you're looking for first anniversary gifts.5 creative paper gift ideas for your first wedding anniversary:
1. Tickets
Tickets are printed on paper and are a great gift because you can customize them for your budget. Whether it's a movie ticket, a concert ticket, an event ticket, or tickets to a bed and breakfast a few hours away you're giving the gift of a shared experience.
2. Framed photos (From a surprise photo shoot!)
This is probably because I grew up never really getting professional photos taken, but since Josh and I have started our life together I've wanted to document it all with professional photos. We've had engagement photos, wedding photos, newlyweds in Nebraska photos (up above), Christmas photos, and soon we'll be having one year photos. (He just doesn't know it yet!) While things like wedding photography services can cost a fortune, a lot of local photographers offer very affordable prices for an hour photo shoot around town. $50-$100 can get you 10 professional images that you'll cherish for a lifetime and can decorate your home with. Add on another $50 for taking the photos to a store to print and picking up some frames and you'll have a shared memory and wonderful keepsakes.
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3. Married, Honeymoon, Live Map
I love all the variations I've seen of this online, If your time together has involved long distance, lots of moving or travel I feel like this is a great way to highlight your journey. This DIY gift is incredibly sentimental but won't take you hours with a glue gun or break the bank if you're on a budget. Win!
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4. Our Adventure Book
Up is one of my all time favorite movies. I saw it with my dad and was bawling in the theater when they did the flashback scene with the adventure book. I love love. I also love that there is an Etsy store that actually makes these for you to customize with your own adventures. This is a great gift that you can start filling in with wedding, honeymoon, and day-to-day life pictures throughout your first year as a married couple and then add to it as each year passes. In your golden years you'll be able to flip through and see pictures of babies, newspaper clippings, and some hilariously out of date fashion trends. If I didn't feel like my blog was already our adventure book I would be all over this idea.
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