Wedding Week III: Ten Years Of Gifts
Sherry and I aren’t usually sticklers for the traditional anniversary gift calendar. For example, the second anniversary is supposed to be cotton and we went in on an organic mattress together (I guess the sheets were cotton?). Nevertheless, we thought it’d be fun to look at the first decade of traditional wedding anniversary gifts (according to the all-knowing Wikipedia) and pick out his and hers items, all while keeping things in the realm of home decor, design, and entertaining (sorry ladies, there’s no jewelry in this list). So if you’ve got an anniversary coming up, perhaps this might spark an idea or two. Here’s what we dug up:
Paper is a great warm-up gift because it’s so flexible even in the home category (books, wrapping paper, art, photography, and even office supplies). For us fellas, I think it’s a great excuse to snag some vintage art, like this one of the Grand Prix de Monaco (just search “vintage” on AllPosters.com for tons more). For the wife, you could try some pretty stationery like this set from Pink Loves Brown, which comes in a paper suitcase!
Cotton is a good starter theme too, because you can get away with just about anything fabric, like bedding or pillows. This ampersand pillow is a nice subtle nod to marriage for the lady of the house (even if it is technically made of burlap) and a cotton hammock for the man of the house could be a big hit – especially if it’s wide enough for the both of ya.
Leather is where it starts to get a bit tricky. It’s a natural fit for a manly gift like leather-bound books, a stately leather frame or a grand faux leather ottoman (which has storage beneath it and flip-over-able tray tops). But leather can still be feminine and fun, especially if you snag it in a playful color like this bright leather catch-all tray (found on Amazon) that would work as a jewelry drop spot in a bedroom or a paperclip holder in a home office (bonus: it also snaps flat into a pouch for storing change or jewelry on the go).
Linen and Silk have the opposite problem in my opinion. While there are plenty of great options for your bride (from sheets and window sheers to these linen-shaded lamps from Pottery Barn), you might have to think outside of the silk-boxer box for your guy. How about fueling his DIY spirit and love of t-shirts with a silk screen printing starter kit like this one (or just send him this video from Make Magazine and Etsy so he can figure out what supplies he needs).
Wood brings us back to one of the easier materials to draw inspiration from (maybe they figure since you made it half of a decade you deserve a little reward). Go for a wood-hungry tool for your guy, like this manly miter saw (which also might just be the perfect gift for the wife if you’re lucky enough to have a handy one). But don’t fret if tools aren’t her style- a beautiful piece of wood furniture could do it for the ladies, but why not mix it up with this elegant wooden bird mobile to add whimsy and charm to any room. Better yet, buy your husband a jigsaw and have him make you a mobile in return!
Iron begins what we’ve dubbed “The Metal Years,” so prepare to load up on heavy, shiny gifts. If your guy is a golfer, than this one is pretty obvious (get him a nice 9-iron). But if, like me, you prefer your courses on the dinner table – gift him some long-lasting cast iron cookware and maybe even a man-safe cookbook to go with it (I’ve been loving Jamie’s Food Revolution lately, I’m actually cooking my way through it from front to back). Or, if you prefer to be lighter on the cooking, get this cast iron fire pit for your lady so you can roasting some delectable marshmallows together.
Copper brings us to a bit of an outdoor theme. For the men, why not illuminate his grill zone for some summer evening cookouts with these copper tiki torches (which also chase off those pesky mosquitoes). For the ladies, a simple copper wire basket for carrying around gardening tools like a trowel and gloves can be paired with a charming copper rain chain for a nice little exterior-related gift.
Bronze is another great metal for the home, because oil-rubbed bronze is such a popular finish on a range of items these days. So you might find yourself gifting things like an over-sized bronze pocket watch for your husband’s home office or picking up these rustic bronze-capped glass sconces for your wife’s dream porch makeover.
China briefly interrupts “The Metal Years” (don’t worry, it’s back for the big 1-0). And of course it’s an excuse to stock up on more of the beautiful china you may have received nearly a decade ago at your wedding. Ladies might actually yearn for a newer look, so the option to update their collection with something sleek and simple (like these from Z Gallerie) is also a pretty possibility. And because guys like me often care a bit less about elegant gold rimmed dishes, a quirky collection of chinese takeout inspired dishware (from here and here, including fool-proof chopsticks from CB2) along with some delicious takeout would make for a memorable anniversary meal right at home.
Aluminum rounds out the first decade of wedding anniversaries (but doesn’t end the metal theme – the 11th year is steel). Thankfully there’s lots of fun stuff to be found in this material, from modern spinning barstools for the mister to charming linked vases for the missus.
So there you have it. A decade of wifey & hubby gifts from Etsy vendors to big box stores in a wide range of prices (from three dollars to three hundred). We’d love to hear if you guys tend to follow this traditional anniversary gift schedule or if you prefer to just do your own thing. And either way, have you given or received anything especially surprising, clever, or just plain romantic that might inspire the rest of us? Share and share alike.
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We will be celebrating our 2nd in October, but we totally do our own thing!
My husband and I exchange the traditional gifts every year, so I love this post. It’s such a great way to force us to be creative, but still stick to some boundaries when picking out gifts.
We’ve stuck with the traditional gifts so far, but we’re only 2 years in. For our first anniversary I design custom stationary for us to use as a couple (being a graphic design helps when it comes to paper gifts). This past June we celebrated our second anniversary buy picking out some organic cotton sheets (we had been fighting with a too-small fitted sheet for two years too long) and we also went to J. Crew and picked out t-shirts for each other.
Next year’s leather may be a challenge… or perhaps not… Cole Haan for everyone!
Such great info! I didn’t know what came after the first year! On our first year anniversary my husband had our wedding invitation framed it was really sweet! We are going to have our 5th anniversary this coming October, wood is an interesting one!
I didn’t know there were themes!!! THAT’S FANTASTIC! Although, I’m not married. It’s very good information for the future! Thanks GUYS!
We just celebrated out 6th anniversary. We don’t really do anniversary gifts. We actually went on an all day 4-wheeling trip this year:~)
My husband and I will be married 17 years in December, which apparently means FURNITURE! Does it still count if it comes from the thrift store?
Haha, totally! We LOVE us some thrift store furnishings!
xo,
s
We tend to do our own thing but every once in a while we will get a gift from someone who follows the traditional gift timeline. We just celebrated our 5th so my parents gave us money to purchase a wood table from a local flea market we had been eyeing. It also could have done for a 3rd anniversary as I found out that the top was leather when I began to refinish it and stripped off the paint!
Congrats on your anniversary!
My hasband, married 1 year, decided to do traditional gifts. It makes us both think out of the box. For paper I wrote 70 reasons why I love him and he wrote me a poem. I love that these gifts really come from the heart.
Not married yet, but the BF and I don’t even celebrate our dating “anniversary” — we don’t really have one! We just like to show how much we care about each other every day, any day, with big and small gestures year-round :) The BF’s ridiculously hard to buy for, too…
I got my husband a Vol. 25 print for our first anniversary in May! I’m still not sure what he got me..neither is he. :) We *ahem* suck at gift giving…typically I buy something and say, “Merry Christmas/Happy Birthday/Happy Anniversary”…oh well, at least if works for us!
Mind readers… I’ve been begging my husband to agree to get that ottoman for months now. I’ve also been on the hunt for a white or cream colored pillow to stencil an ampersand on. The ampersand was a big part of our wedding theme, especially in the invites I made (scroll to the bottom)…
http://bontempsbeignet.blogspot.com/2010/03/pre-post-wedding-blues.html
No luck on either one though : /
On our first anniversary (Nov 1st), my husband and I made a few Christmas ornaments out of paper leftover from our wedding. My favorite is our thumbprints forming a heart using gold and silver ink pads also from our wedding (one thumb for each side of the heart – we practiced on scrap paper first). For the other two we wove together pieces of our wedding invitations. Now that we are coming up on year 2, I’m trying to think of how to incorporate cotton into another free project!
My husband is so great and I love how he’s gotten creative with the traditional gifts. #1- I got a certificate for a share of stock in a company I love. #2- I got a couple of sets of monogrammed napkins from PB, because I love hosting. #3- Photographs cross-country in the city where we fell in love and a leather frame to display my favorite. #4- A collection of DVDs that went along with the theme. Just about a month left until #5 and we’re buying a house! Sounds good to me!
Okay, you’ve just floored me. You should set up a service thinking up gifts for people. That was great!
We’ve only been married for about 5 weeks, so I don’t think we know what we’re doing for our anniversary gifts yet. But I doubt we’ll be following the anniversary calendar; we like to do big gifts that we share (for Christmas, for instance, we got a dSLR camera to share)!
We just celebrated our “wood” anniversary, so I gave my husband Cedar Grilling Planks for his grill, along with a grilling set that had wood handles and some skewers.
This is great! I actually bought that vintage poster for my son’s toddler/big boy room. We love it! And I’m hoping he will still like it when he is a teenager. Thanks for the ideas!
Love this post! My husband and I follow the traditional gifts, and just celebrated our 2nd anniversary last week. For the first year, we exchanged concert tickets and stationary. This year, we exchanged a cotton dress shirt and cotton pajamas. Very fun.
Alot of lists I’ve seen say that the 4th is “fruit or flowers.” But, it really changes depending on where you look. I’m sticking with fruit/flowers, b/c I’ve already requested some hydrangea bushes in two years. Haha.
These are REALLY great suggestions. Really, really great. Thank you!!!
We haven’t done the traditional gifts, but I might look them up if I run out of ideas. Number 10 was a trip to Italy – so much better than aluminum! :)
What a great post! We have those Monaco prints up in our living room and we love them!
I’ve never commented twice in one day but I love this post so much!! I love the part about his and hers very smart!
~Ashli
My husband and I haven’t really followed the traditional gifts. We will have our 25th next year and I know that’s a big one. Thanks for these ideas, though. I do love a gift guide.
Now, John, in the vein of DIY, how about some posts on your experiences with Jamie’s cookbook? I looked through it recently and it looks great. Would love to see what you and Sherry have liked, what you’d recommend!
Glad you asked about the Jamie Oliver cookbook, Lori! We bought in a few weeks before Clara’s birth after Jamie’s philosophy of fresh ingredients won us over on his TV special. Plus, the book was on sale at Target and the photos inside are beautiful (they are nearly step-by-step, which I appreciate so I know whether I’m on the right track along the way). To be systematic about it, I decided I was just going to cook through it from start to finish (Sherry joked that it was my version of Julie & Julia, though mine was called Johnny & Jamie). I only got about a dozen recipes in before Clara has sort of sidetracked me. But so far our favorite has been the leek stroganoff. I’ve made it twice!
-John
My husband and I will be celebrating our 4th this October. I can’t wait.
We do follow the traditional gift route … as much as possible. For our 1st anniversary, he got me a painting of New Orleans, and I got him a “Tiger Eyes” LSU print. For our 2nd, I got him a trip to Vegas to see a UFC fight in person, along with Affliction shirts for both of us, and he got me a diamond and white gold fleur de lis necklace. For our 3rd, I got him a Coach leather wallet, and he got me my first set of cowboy boots. My list says this year is linen/flowers. I’m kinda hoping for flowers.
Thanks for the ideas! I’m happy that there are other people trying to stick to the traditional gift ideas as well.
He gets power tools and we get a bird mobile? We get… a pillow, and he gets a hammock! I think I’d be “borrowing” that hammock from my man if these were our gifts ;) We might follow tradition somewhat, but I never can resist buying him the gifts that fall out of line with it!
For our first year we exchanged cards. I have a weak spot for them I have kept every one my husband has given me since our dating stage. I love the ideas for year two cotton. I have already thought of a few things I’d like to have for myself heh!
We have family friends who follow this tradition to the letter and I remember for their eighth anni the wife had something of the husband’s bronzed (like people used to do with baby shoes). I thought that was rather creative, although I can’t remember which object she chose to bronze.
I gave Richie a bag of cotton balls with an iPod nanno hidden inside for anniversary #2. He loved it :)
Love the post. I’m not married yet, but my fiance is definitely a stickler for traditions. Anything that gives him a guide into gift giving is a-ok with him.
What do you think has been your funnest anniversary thus far? Just curious.
Hey Amanda,
That would probably have to be our first anniversary of dating (which actually fell on 7/07/06, since we started dating on 7/7/05 and got married on 7/7/07). John planned this big surprise beach trip and I had no idea. So. Much. Fun. We still talk about it all the time!
xo,
s
As one of your older followers, we will be married 26 years this month. Did some research and the “modern” gift for 26 years is “picture”. After 26 years of marriage, we really do not need any more “stuff” so I like the idea of a picture to remember a special time together. Loved the post, great info. Wish there were blogs when I was your age!! But I am making up for lost time.
LOVE these. We try to get creative every year for our anniversary, while staying in the bounds of the traditional gift media. Our most memorable few: the cotton year I made matching “Team Chappy” (our last name is Chapman) tshirts with a huge “1″ on the back. They’re great for wearing to slightly competitive events with pals or around the house.
I was pretty nervous about the leather year (we were in different parts of Iraq with the Army and I feared he’d veer off the PG-13 with handcuffs or chaps, ha) but my husband found a gorgeous leather-bound book to document our continuing story together…with every page labeled as a different day, so we can simply list the year and what happened on that date.
Thanks for the fun ideas for the next few years!
LOVE this post! My husband and I love traditions but at the same time, we like to think out of the box. For our first anniversary {paper}, he gave me the whole Twilight Series {yes, I’m one of THOSE people…don’t judge!}.
This year, for our second anniversary {cloth} he surprised me with the Twinkle Living ZigZag pillow from csn stores!
Thanks for the list! We’ll definitely be referring to it in the future. :)
I did the first year of Paper by accident. There was a piece of art I wanted to buy my husband that I thought he’d like and it just so happened to be paper. For the most part we just buy gifts each other will like. For us, most years have been Broadway. We buy each other a subscription to the touring Broadway show schedule.
cards, usually (and often homemade) and we try to get an evening out. but other than that, we don’t exchange gifts at all. but then, we’re not a particularly ‘gifty’ family (as I am reminded, whenever I see the ‘avg’ amount the typical Canadian spends on Christmas gifts, and find myself at 1/8 of that total….)
this’ll be our 15th. we’ll find something to do, though it’s not formalised yet.
I thought 4th was fruit or flowers? We just celebrated our 4th(and while I didn’t check Wikipedia) I kept seeing fruit or flowers. We do go the traditional route: 1st year were concert tickets (Tift Merrit for me, BB King for him), 2nd was a nice hotel in Spain (we were already there for travel), 3rd was (Kate Spade diaper bag for me since I was preggers and monogrammed cigar case for him) and this year was dinner at our local MoA restaurant, Iris for him and Biltmore Estates flower show for me). It’s been fun coming up with ideas for each other following the tradition.
Hey Amy B,
Fourth could be fruit or flowers. We saw different lists as we checked around various spots, but for the purposes of this decided to go with a “trusted” source like Wikipedia. Sounds like a Edible Arrangement would be right up the alley for that version of the 4th anniversary! :)
-John
This post gives some creative ideas for the ever-difficult task of choosing a thoughtful gift, but I have to say (in the most respectful way possible) that the labeling of the gifts “his” and “hers” caught me off guard. The lovely home that the two of you have made together is not divided into “masculine” items that John chose and “feminine” items that Sherry chose, it’s decorated in a style that you’ve developed together. I personally look to the two of you not just for style inspiration but for a refreshingly modern model of the kind of marriage that I would like to have some day, so it kind of breaks my heart to see you fall back on outdated gender stereotypes – power tools and take-out for guys! flowers and letter-writing for girls! I know that deeming some looks masculine (leather!) and other looks feminine (silk!) is a practice that extends to the wider world of design, but I’ve followed you for a year now and I think, no I know, that you are above that outdated stuff.
Sorry that the labeling caught you off guard Mary. Your point is well taken. In fact, Sherry and I picked out most of these together and agreed that we’d love to receive almost every item in each category, not just the ones labeled for our gender. We just figured this was the best way to showcase the gifts in an organized manner. And we did note that a saw could be the perfect gift for a handy wife as well! Hope it helps.
-John
I love the Monaco print! After eight years, I should be able to convince my boyfriend to start celebrating our dating anniversary with a gift exchange, right? By the way, even though I’m not married, I think your wedding posts are my favorite…guess I’m a romantic at heart.
What a great post idea!!! Love the creative ideas you guys came up with… the traditional gifts have always seemed so boring to me, but this makes me wish we would have done this from the beginning!
We just celebrated our fifth by planting a tree in our front yard, something we’ve wanted to do for a few years now. And then we looked up the gift guide and realized that we were, in fact, giving “wood” to one another. At least this tree will last a few decades longer than a piece of furniture!
I especially LOVE those take out dishes! I am a dish nut so actually, I like both selections!
But that said, I have never thought twice about the rules for anniversaries. What we consider when buying our anniversary gift each year is if it would be worth handing down to our kids someday. We tend to buy the fun stuff, not the necessary stuff. makes it more fun, right?
Clever ideas guys! Is it bad I want all the stuff on the “his” column? :-D
My husband and I are celebrating our 5 year anniversary at the end of this month by taking a much needed vacation to Mexico. We’ll probably eat at tables made out of wood, sit on chairs made out of wood, and have wood tables & stuff in the hotel room. That counts, right? ;-)
ok we are on the backside of 17 years and haven’t done any of that. would you believe me if I told you that 3 years ago we gave each other the exact same anniversary card? the same one!
I did make up my mind several years ago that I wanted a swarovski crystal collection of figurines, so I get one every anniversary now. I’ve nearly got a small zoo of shiny crystal critters.
We try to somewhat stick with traditional gifts, so thanks for all the great ideas in this list!
My hubby and I (married 4 years) don’t get gifts for each other on our anniversary. We prefer to just go out for dinner together.
For 2011 we have just found out we have our first baby due on our wedding anniversary (so if it arrives that day it will be the ultimate anniversary gift!). What a shame the 5-year gift isn’t “a human”. :-)
I loooove the idea you found for your office wall!
It will be fun even searching for the right postcards..
Pehaps it would be nice if all postcards/pictures had blue/green predominance so to match the room colours and get, seen from far, a big piece of art..
^_^
This was a fantastic article……It was very helpful in the different years. Usually i find it very hard comin up with new gifts! thanks
Rather than do presents each year, we are planning on going away for each anniversary, even if its a small weekend getaway. This year, for our first, we are hoping to go on a Bahamas cruise with his family! Of course, our tickets will be paper, and we usually bring back some cool postcards…
It’s me again :-)
Forgot to share my “anniversary tradition”:
drinking a bottle of Dom Perignon!
The day we married, the girlfriend of my brother gave us a gift a bottle of Dom Perignon that we elegantly drunk in bed (no glasses!) at night after all that long and wonderful day. That was such moment, finally just the two of us, married!
So now, every year on 26th September, we repeat that rite, but I must admit that the bottle of champagne along the years has become a bottle of spumante.. a bit of nationalism here ;-) and we live near Franciacorta you know..
Love the idea of giving gifts with a theme. I like how you incorporated different gift ideas for him/her :)