Feb 4, 2021
Celebrating Your First Wedding Anniversary
Your wedding anniversary comes—and this should hopefully be obvious—once a year, and your first anniversary happens only once! As anyone who’s been married will tell you, and as we’re sure you’ve already learned, marriage is anything but easy. That’s why you should take the anniversary of your first year as a married couple to celebrate all of the difficulties and challenges you’ve faced and look forward to a year of new opportunities to come.
This can all feel like a great deal of pressure, causing one to wonder, “How will I manage to pull off the perfect first anniversary?” Ideally, you’ll want whatever you do or buy for the occasion to reflect your first year of marriage while also setting an impression that you’ll think about for years to come.
Wedding anniversaries are one of our specialties at Venus ET Fleur®, and we are here to help you. We offer hundreds of different wedding anniversary flowers featuring our gorgeous Eternity® Roses. This article will detail a few different romantic and fun ideas that will help you and your beloved wrap up a year of firsts in style.
Celebrating Your First Wedding Anniversary
Your first wedding anniversary is a time to celebrate, and there are endless ways you can make the day special. In the past, we’ve covered the many different forms of anniversary gifts and celebrations that derive from long and storied traditions. There is plenty of wisdom to be found in tradition, but in case you decide otherwise, we’ve prepared a range of options for you and your loved one to indulge yourselves in.
We’ll begin with some activities for you and your partner to enjoy, and then move on to some possible gifts to wow your partner with. The combination, we hope, will make for an unforgettable evening that’s sure to set a high bar for the many anniversaries to come.
Treat Yourselves to a Night Out
For many couples, it isn’t enough just to go to a fancy restaurant, look through wedding photos, and share a slice of cake. The case may likely be that you’ve had a tough year, and you really want to celebrate a full twelve months of survival and persistence.
If this is so, or you simply feel the desire to do something special and unique, then we encourage you both to get out of the house and treat yourself to a night elsewhere. Take the initiative to book a room in a nice hotel, order room service, and perhaps make an appointment for a couple’s massage that you can enjoy together. Obviously, this may not have the same allure as an entire weekend away, but with the right arrangements and a can-do spirit, this can be a special way to spend some time together far from the distractions of everyday life.
Take a Second (Or First!) Honeymoon
These days, not every couple can afford to go on a honeymoon the minute they get married. While it would certainly be nice to go somewhere where you can relax following the stresses of a wedding, life often has a way of tripping up even the best-laid plans. One or both spouses may have work or school, or maybe the couple just wants to save money for an even bigger trip later down the road. In fact, delayed honeymoons are becoming a more and more common occurrence.
If you and your spouse didn’t find yourselves able to go on a honeymoon after your wedding, then your first anniversary is certainly the ideal time to do so. You will have had a year to save up for your trip, and with luck, you can plan your time off accordingly.
If the practicalities permit it, a honeymoon can be a wonderful way to hit the start button on your second year of marriage and bring in a newer, even more joyous year.
A Romantic, Home-Cooked Meal
Cooking is a labor of love and can be one of the most truly romantic ways to show your appreciation for your spouse. It also gives you the chance to display just how much you know about their tastes. This is the perfect occasion to try making something out of the mold, a dish to surprise your spouse with. Nothing shows your love and appreciation like learning and preparing a complicated recipe!
Getting the Perfect Gift
Now that you have a few ideas on how to spend this momentous day together, we feel it’s important to prepare you for what is arguably the be-all and end-all of your first wedding anniversary: the gift.
The Traditional Approach
As you may or may not know, giving gifts on one’s wedding anniversary carries with it centuries of tradition, as to what one should get their partner each year. You may know that on the 25th anniversary, a silver present is traditional, as is gold on the 50th. But you may be surprised to learn that, traditionally speaking, a first anniversary present should be made of paper.
Now, this doesn’t mean that a piece of origami art is going to do the trick. Interpretations of the paper tradition are diverse, the most popular being tickets to a concert, play, art show, or another special event, and we would say that any of these can be a fine option. Those who favor the grandest gesture possible may opt to present their spouse with the deed to a new home, though there are some who may consider this to be cheating.
Another wonderful option is a printed piece of art or a framed photograph of the two of you, often a wedding photo.
Something a Bit More Modern
As the years have rolled by, modern innovations have been made on these traditional offerings. For the first anniversary gift, the clock has come into popularity, representing time spent and time to come. If your partner could benefit from the addition of a clock to their space, whether of the grandfather or alarm variety, this can be a cute and functional tribute to your partnership.
The Perfect Flower Arrangement
All these traditions considered, we all know that the most expected, and perhaps the most ubiquitous way to commemorate the first, or any anniversary is a bouquet of gorgeous, fragrant flowers. These blooms in question could be the centerpiece of your anniversary plans or simply a supplement to your celebration. But in either case, one wants to be absolutely certain that they will make an impression, striking the perfect tone of lasting affection for your first wedding anniversary.
The flower most traditionally associated with romantic love are red roses, and we find that roses make a wonderful appearance for an anniversary celebration of any size or style. We’ve covered in the past how different rose colors bring with them different meanings and associations. It can be of value to study these subtle differences in meaning and intention, though, for the occasion in question, we particularly recommend the gift of red roses, which symbolize romantic love above all other flowers.
It’s safe to say that red roses are a traditional wedding anniversary gift, but their lifespan is short-lived. At Venus ET Fleur, we offer a number of unique and handcrafted floral arrangements featuring our special Eternity Roses, which are created with a special process that allows them to keep their beauty and integrity for up to a year.
This charming piece is a perfect exemplar of our Classic Collection. It features a solitary Eternity Rose and is sure to make a singular impression on this, your first ever wedding anniversary. Set in a stunning yet tasteful suede box—modeled after Parisian style hat boxes—the Le Mini™ Round is ideal for elevating the elegance factor in any environment, professional and domestic. Simple in its charm, profound in its beauty, and gently infused with the natural perfume we expect of a rose.
In the event that you have a singular vision for your very first wedding anniversary, Venus ET Fleur has options to customize your own arrangement. With 24 different rose colors and over 35 different custom designs, you will have the perfect floral canvas with which to work.
Final Thoughts
Whatever you end up doing, buying, getting, or saying for your anniversary this year, we at Venus ET Fleur want to congratulate you both on being a strong couple and working together. We feel you deserve to celebrate every single year, and we hope this first commemoration of your nuptials strikes the perfect tone for all the great things to come.
Best wishes, and happy anniversary from Venus ET Fleur!
Sources:
Wedding anniversary gifts for each year of marriage | Holiday Insights.
Why millennial newlyweds prefer delayed getaways to traditional honeymoons | The Independent
