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Archive for the ‘Anniversary’ Category

Paul Sweeney said, “A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance, and tenacity.  The order varies for any given year.”  There is no doubt that couples celebrating their 50^th wedding anniversaries have been through every trial and triumph that marriage has to offer.  Hopefully at this point, love is always the first item of celebration.  In any case, though, a special gift is in order.  If you are celebrating your 50^th anniversary or are looking for a 50th anniversary gift basket for your parents or another special couple, you will find these suggestions useful. Maybe you're just looking for 50th anniversary party supplies and ideas, well even then, keep reading and hopefully you'll be inspired!

The 50^th wedding anniversary is known as the gold anniversary.  Traditionally, each year of a marriage is represented by a different type of anniversary gift.  The first anniversary, for instance, is the paper anniversary.  By the time you’ve worked yourself up to the gold anniversary, you deserve a great gift!  Gold is the traditional gift, as well as the contemporary gift and color of the 50^th anniversary.  The gemstone associated with the anniversary is golden topaz, and the flower is violet.  People do, though, often prefer the rose, especially varieties like the Golden Kiss.

Your gift does not have to conform to tradition.  If your spouse would love a cruise around the Caribbean, for example, that is perfectly acceptable.  You could say you’re giving your spouse the gift of the golden sun, if you wish.  Celebrating your golden anniversary calls for the perfect gift – whether or not that gift is actually gold!  If you would like to keep up the tradition, here are some gift ideas:

• Jewelry
• Watches or engraved cufflinks
• Photo frame
• Anniversary plate
• Candlesticks
• Personalized glassware or vases

These are all classic ideas, but if your spouse, parents, or grandparents already have their share of photo frames and glassware, you can stray outside the gold motif, while still adhering to the tradition in some ways.  For instance, you could assemble a gift basket of the spouse’s or couple’s favorite items that relate in some way to gold: a gold pen, gold-wrapped candies and Kisses, golden honey (great for tea and very healthy if local), and other goodies.

You could also purchase tickets for a sporting event, concert, play, ballet, vacation, or other event that your spouse or parents would enjoy.  Tuck these into a golden envelope or address the envelope with a gold metallic pen.  For a couple celebrating their 50^th anniversary, the gift needn’t be extravagant, though it certainly can be.  Why not get a gift card to a favorite restaurant or treat the happy couple to a night out at a hotel, bed and breakfast, or inn?

A bold idea is to simply ask what gift would be most liked and appreciated.  Everyone wants a surprise to sweep them off their feet once in a while, but if you are giving a gift to parents or grandparents, it may be just as nice to ask what they’d like.  Is it something practical like a once-a-week maid service for a year?  Something fun like golf or tennis lessons?  Something simple like a special dinner with the family?  Maybe these would be a great deal more appreciated than another set of gold candlesticks!

The 50^th wedding anniversary is more than an anniversary; it is a momentous accomplishment.  Celebrate it with a gift as precious as gold: it doesn’t have to be gold, but something the recipient will treasure.

Related Articles

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• Wedding Anniversary Party Games
• Wedding Anniversary Traditional Gift Chart

So much goes into the planning of your wedding and then the day goes by in a flash. To preserve your memories forever, why not create a wedding time capsule? It will be fun to take a walk down Memory Lane after several years have passed.

First off, don’t plan on hiding your wedding capsule in the ground. Chances are if you do, you’ll not only forget where you put it, but the contents will fade or corrode due to the conditions underground. Instead, plan to place your time capsule in a closet or dresser drawer to be opened in years to come.

How do you make a wedding time capsule? You can now purchase kits online with complete instructions and everything you will need. But it’s also just as much fun to make one yourself. First, find a tube or box that is watertight and sturdy. Metal is a good choice. A tube, such as expensive gourmet cookies often come in, is a nice idea. Decorate the outside with wrapping paper or contact paper. Write a date on the lid when you and your spouse decide you will open it together.

Next, fill the tube or box with several mementos of your wedding day. You’ll of course want photos of your dress and you and your husband at the altar. Include photos of the cake, the guests, the wedding gifts, the band, and the flowers. Toss in printed cocktail napkins or a table favor. Anything you include should be mildew resistant to avoid decomposure.

Write a note to your new husband and he can write a note to you. Add wishes from others like mom and dad if you like. Ask people to predict how many children you will have, what kind of home or car you will have, what new inventions will be around, what kind of jobs you’ll have, etc. The more you include, the better. You might include a newspaper from the day you were married or other snippets of the day. Print a page from Facebook or Twitter with the well-wishes you receive.

Add in any other items you think will be significant. A DVD of your entire wedding, a copy of your marriage vows or license, and pictures or souvenirs from your honeymoon are also nice additions.

Seal your tube or box with stickers so that no one can take a peek before the intended date. Store your capsule where it won’t be disturbed but where you can easily find it. The last thing you want is to leave it behind if you move. That’s why dresser drawers or closets make good storage places. Agree that no one is allowed to move or open the capsule before the date on the lid.

Now, forget about your capsule. After a while, it will be a surprise when you come upon it. Every so often you will see it. Check the date to see how far off you are from opening time. When the big day arrives, whether it be ten years, twenty years or more, have a little ceremony before you open it. You could create an anniversary basket and include the time capsule in it. Invite the kids (or grandkids) to be involved. You will marvel at how much you have changed and how different things were when you placed all your items inside.

Aromatherapy has been around for a long time. It’s simply the use of scents to target benefits like relaxation, sleep, well-being, headache relief, etc. If you want to give an aromatherapy gift basket, it’s really easy to make one yourself.

The first thing you should do is choose a scent. If you’re not sure what scent your friend would like, do some thinking. Have you smelled candles burning in her home? What scent and color were they? Does she wear a certain perfume? What does it smell like? These are some clues into some of the scents she may like. If you still don’t have a clue, go with something like vanilla or buttercream which just about everyone likes.

Once you have chosen your scent, choose a vessel to put it all in. Often times inexpensive baskets work well, but you can also place everything in a decorative hat box or other display box that she can use again. If you want to make her a travel basket, put it all in a large cosmetics pouch that zips so she can take it with her on the road.

Aromatherapy baskets can include just about anything. Most include relaxing elements designed to help the recipient de-stress and unwind. Candles with strong but pleasant scents are nice as is incense. You do have to be careful to choose a scent that is meant to relax, like lavender, if you intend it for stress relief. If you give a basket full of peppermint or spearmint scents, the opposite effect will occur. Your friend will be much more alert instead of relaxed. Peppermint makes a great gift to give as an aromatherapy pick-me-up basket for someone at work who always hits that 3:00pm slump.

Arrange all your items on some sort of packing material. This can be shredded paper, recycled Easter basket grass, or even just tissue paper. The idea is to make each product stand alone in its own little spot so the basket doesn’t look thrown together. Include a simmering pot for spices or a candle warmer, which allows wax to be heated without a flame. Great for the office or around kids.

You might want to include soap and a soap dish, shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, a neck pillow, or an herbal pillow filled with buckwheat that can be used hot or cold for neck pain relief. There are hundreds of scents and thousands of products to choose from. So your options are limitless when putting together an aromatherapy gift basket. Include natural bamboo towels and face cloths, slippers, or a robe.

Tie it all up with a big ribbon and present it. Your friend will absolutely love getting a basket filled with products she can use right away to change her mood and her day. Whether it’s relaxation or alertness you are going for, research the different scents and what each one is thought to enhance. There are so many out there that you will definitely find one for the lady in your life. Don’t settle for the first one you find. Do some sensory research. You’ll have fun doing it and just may relax yourself, too.

Anniversary gift baskets are among the best ways to congratulate a couple on their wedding anniversary. Anniversaries are the time of the year when couples renew their vows and remember the day they walked down the aisle and exchanged I do’s. If your loved ones, friends or even you and your spouse are celebrating this lovely occasion, make it more memorable by giving a gift that will surely be enjoyed.

When sending a wedding anniversary basket as a gift, its contents need not be expensive. There is a wide array of products available, ranging from food items and wine, to flowers and other memorable gifts.

At All About Gifts and Baskets, you can find the right anniversary gift baskets for couples celebrating another year of their marriage. You can choose from their wide selection of gifts that include Longstem Cookies Blooming Bouquet, Deluxe Romantic Oreos Gift Box, Crazy Hearts Cookie Gift Bouquet and more.

Visit AAGiftsAndBaskets.com to learn more about heartfelt gift ideas that are sure to be appreciated.

Memories can invoke very strong emotions. At a young age our memories take hold and later in life these can be sparked by sights, sounds, touch, tastes, and smells. Special occasions tend to hold the deepest memories, ones birthdays’, Christmas, first date, graduation, and matrimony, to a couple’s first born and then the cycle begins again in another’s memories.

The memory of ones wedding celebration marks a special passage of time. Ones own memories that were once exclusive to only you are now shared with another and the two become one in thought, emotion and in this way all future memories change and are never remembered again as exclusively your own. No longer is it "my" memories but "our" memories.

The yearly anniversary which now marks that sharing of time has such special meaning, over the years much thought has gone into the giving of gifts for a couple’s wedding anniversary.

Historically, Emily Post is considered to be the first person to publish an etiquette guide which contained tips on wedding anniversary special meanings towards the passage of time and gift giving to honor that passage.

Emily Post (nee Price) met her husband-to-be, Edwin Post, at a formal ball in New York City. Engagement, wedding, and honeymoon were followed by the birth and raising of her two sons but when old enough to attend boarding school, she turned her attention to writing. Emily Post’s romantic stories were quite successful, and she became a "traveling correspondent" crossing the continents.

In 1922, her book, "Etiquette", topped the nonfiction bestseller list, and the phrase "according to Emily Post" soon entered our language as the final and only word on social subjects of conduct. Mrs. Emily Post penned in this publication traditional gift guide for wedding anniversaries that were fact based on heritage, but also included more modern gifts to suite the times, and creative ideas for thoughtful and memorable gift giving.

Mrs. Emily Post’s initial anniversary gift giving guide included the first, fifth, tenth, fifteenth, twentieth, twenty-fifth and fiftieth years of marriage.

Gifts in the early years of marriage were small remembrances, or tokens, such as 1st (paper), 5th (wood), and 10th (tin). In later years of matrimony, gifts gained value (which tends to correspond with society status and professional security), including 15th (crystal), 20th (china), 25th (silver), and 50th (gold).

By the time her publication was reprinted in 1957, the growing importance of wedding anniversary celebrations in America required more guidance and the traditional gift list had been expanded to include all of the first 15 years, and multiples of five thereafter. Additionally, as 35 years had passed since the original publication modern alternatives were again added and revised to include more socially acceptable gift options.

The traditional and modern anniversary gift guides have changed very little during the past half-century where traditional gifts are deeply rooted in heritage yet modern gifts greatly assist to offset cultural differences. The giving of a gift to your partner on the memorable occasion of shared thought is so symbolic that this guide has been developed to assist making the occasion truly one worth marking the passage of time from here. This guide offers suggestions for gift giving for both men and women and insight into traditional and modern gifts and offers purchasing opportunities from trusted merchants that assisted in producing this guide.