Celebrating Wedding Anniversaries

As I write this today, it is our 22nd wedding anniversary. Technically we’ve been together for 26 as we dated for four years before we got married. So what do you do to celebrate all these anniversaries?

As the years go by celebrating anniversaries is still exciting, but as expenses grow with kids, there are ways that we have celebrated anniversaries both big and small. For my husband and myself, we have three anniversaries. Now I know that sounds weird, but let me explain with a quick rundown on our three anniversary dates.

Vegas baby January 25, 2002

When my husband and I were engaged, the venue that we chose was booked a year out. There was a hiccup and waiting for this year date to come was a problem as were planning on buying a home and moving in together. So in order to expedite the marriage process and not be living in sin, we chose to get in the car and drive to Vegas just the two of us. My husband’s grandparents gave us a tip on where they were married in Las Vegas 65 years before we were. So on the journey we went. We were just 21 and 22 years old, and I personally had never been to Vegas. We found the glowing white chapel called Wee Kirk o' the Heather and we were married in jeans, white shirts and my husband made my bouquet just from flowers that we found at Vons. Oh, the chapel was like you have pictured from out of the movie. Totally tacky and totally hilarious. This was certainly a memorable trip and we had a great time getting married and staying at Caesars Palace as my husband thought it was appropriate as after all, I am Greek.

Del Mar California August 24, 2002

So, after waiting for an entire year from our engagement, finally came the date to have our show of a wedding. This included the dress, the flowers, the bridesmaids and groomsmen, the friends and family and plenty of dancing. It was a beautiful celebration at the beach, where we grew up. We served a catered pasta bar, had an open bar, had matching bridesmaids outfits as that is what you did back then and danced the night away. From there, we boarded our limo and off to the airport to take our honeymoon trip to the Caribbean.

La Jolla California February 10, 2005

Now, since we had been married, I started looking into the religion of my husband, which was the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, a.k.a. Mormonism. My husband was very adamant when we got married that I didn’t need to convert into a religion just because of him, but on my own. I did want to look into this faith as everyone that I knew that was a member of the church (as they called it) seemed so happy and we’re from loving families. I knew that’s what I wanted in our life. So after a year of every Wednesday night having missionaries into our home, I decided to be baptized. I joined the church and we continued building our life together. We had our first daughter and then I decided it was time for us to be sealed in the temple. Bring on another wedding. We were sealed in the San Diego Temple and had family there to support us. After the ceremony we went out and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant to end a great day.

So there you have it why we have three anniversaries to celebrate. Typically our January anniversary is just spent going to dinner. Post Christmas and lots of January birthdays our budget gets a bit taxed this time of year. We try to celebrate the anniversary in August as that is not as an expensive time of year and the kids start heading back to school.

So what are things we have done to celebrate our anniversary? To give you ideas for yours... here’s a quick list of ways we celebrate our anniversary as it’s just about celebrating our life together and we try not to focus on buying gifts but rather enjoy our time together.

• Breakfast date

• Lunch date

• Dinner date

• A staycation at a hotel in town

• A quick getaway

• A walk on the beach

• A picnic

These are just a few of the ways we have celebrated our anniversary. To us it’s just about time to be together and talk about the life we have built together. It is true that you do fall more in love as the years go by. Not that there isn’t ups and downs along the way, but when you start a life together and grow into being parents and adulting and you ride the roller coaster of life’s ups and downs together, your love grows more than you can imagine.

Anniversaries are a celebration of two people that have chosen each other to build a life and they should be celebrated. It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant. It just has to be time for you two look back and be able to smile at what you have accomplished together I might’ve been there and I might know that.

Xo,

Mama