Since my first anniversary is rapidly approaching, I thought I would share our super cute (and inexpensive) gift idea that we have been working on all year! I thought of the idea while planning the details of our wedding, I occasionally have random bursts of brilliance 😀
The traditional first anniversary gift has been paper since the Victorian era, and even though I have never considered myself to be particularly traditional, I thought the idea of a paper gift could be fun especially since my husband is so difficult to shop for. He tends to just buy whatever he wants whenever he wants it, even when he knows other people are trying to birthday shop for him. Sigh.
I bought both of us a little pocket notebook from Barnes and Noble, and on our wedding night, I gave one to my husband and kept one for myself. I have spent the past year writing love notes, gratitudes and silly messages to my husband in my little notebook (he has been doing the same for me). On our anniversary, we will exchange notebooks. Voila! A gift of paper!
My husband was fully on board for this gift idea mainly because it meant he didn’t have to shop for an anniversary gift, but also because he is a big softie 😉
We have been writing in our books to each other all year, trying to do an entry at least once every 2-3 days. There are special notes for each of the holidays and his birthday, but there is also a lot of simple, “I appreciate the way you did ___ today” type notes. I am so excited to read what he has written to me, I can barely wait!
Do you tend to give traditional gifts to your significant other? What was your favorite anniversary gift (so far)?
6 Comments
What a lovely idea Dara! So much better than shopping for a gift. Something like this is special and the best kind of keepsake. Although my husband and I have been married for nearly 12 years now, you’ve just given me some inspiration here! Thanks 🙂
You are very welcome! It would really be a good gift for any year. I imagine it will be a treasured keepsake throughout our marriage 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!
We did something similar (totally copied off something we saw). We wrote things all year long that we appreciated about the other. Small things. Big things. We didn’t peek and looked at them New Years Eve. It was a really eye-opening experience. Full of things you didn’t even think they noticed…
I am very curious to see what my husband has written. He can be rather sentimental, more so than me actually 🙂
This is just THE MOST DARLING!!! My husband’s gift to me was a love letter (a sound off to our wedding song <3) but I ADORE the idea of writing all year!
Maybe I'll get Chris and I some cotton notebooks and call it a day for our next anniversary 😉
Hey, it makes for less stress at anniversary time! You know exactly what you are giving, and it is really fun to read all those little notes.