Anniversaries come once a year, and your soul mate once in a lifetime. Use these 15 ideas to create your most romantic anniversary celebration yet.
Celebrating anniversaries is a great way to renew and refresh your love for one another, whether you’ve just celebrated your first one or have been together for years. It’s important to remember to treat your honey to an extra special date to remind them of just how much in love the two of you are.
To make your anniversary truly memorable, you have to think up unique ways to celebrate. To help you make your anniversaries something you and your partner will look forward to year after year, we have prepared 15 romantic ideas for celebrating your anniversary and making your bond stronger.
15 romantic anniversary dates
If you’re looking to add a romantic twist to your anniversary celebrations, here are 15 ideas that are creative, fun and full of romance.
#1 Take it outdoors. Plan a hike together, camp in the woods, or go mountain climbing. Your anniversary is a great opportunity for both of you to spend time together with nothing but nature around you. This will allow you to connect to each other in a different setting while on an adventure in the wilderness—and maybe the two of you can even get a little wild, too.
#2 Love notes. Remember when you were high school sweethearts and you used to stick Post-its on each other’s lockers and notebooks? Bring back that young, playful, and unexpected gesture by posting love notes all over your house, and even in your partner’s things as a sweet surprise. Cap off your day with love notes on the floor, leading to your bedroom. [Read: How to write a heartfelt love letter like a true romantic]
#3 Take off the tension with a touch. Even if you’ve touched your spouse everywhere you can think of, you can take those fingers and hands and turn your touch into something healing and relaxing. Take off the stress from work, and even the tension of your relationship, with a few touches here and there.
Your partner will surely appreciate it and may even return the favor. If you don’t know how to massage, read up on erotic massages to turn the heat up for a happy ending. If you’re willing to shell out a few more bucks, go ahead and set up a relaxing spa retreat and a romantic couple’s massage. [Read: The perfect romantic massage to turn your lover on]
#4 Food is love. You may have cooked for each other a hundred times, so this tip is nothing new. To spice it up, however, you can set up the table with a little extra oomph, adding some flowers, candles, and music. You can even phone in a quartet and sing your favorite love songs as you eat a home-cooked meal. Whether it’s scrambled eggs or beef wellington, your dinner will be special as long as it is made from the heart. [Read: 13 very romantic dinner date ideas for two]
#5 Urban jungle adventure. You don’t have to go anywhere fancy or exotic to celebrate your anniversary, because you have your very own urban jungle wherever you are. Go somewhere in your city you’ve never been before. Maybe it’s a neat hole-in-the-wall pizza place, or that newly-opened gastropub. You can discover your city while you discover more about each other. [Read: 20 fun and unconventional date ideas you can try]
#6 Tune out technology. Get away from it all and focus on only each other, if only on this occasion. Spend the whole day together on a technological tune out: no cellphones, no calls, no emails, no television, nothing. This will allow you to connect with each other on a more personal, intimate level.
#7 Budget date. You may have done a lot of budget dates in your first few years together, but it would be much more exciting if you made dating on a budget a challenge. Go out on your anniversary date with just a few dollars and see how far you can go. You may even relive those moments when you were young and struggling, enjoying your time together even without fancy dinners and corresponding bills.
#8 At home. Sit back, relax, and get back into your pajamas as you spend your anniversary at home. Now is the time to just be yourself and tune out the outside world, as you enjoy the company of each other and the home that you’ve built together. Order a pizza, turn the music up, and even dust off that old Scrabble board game for some healthy competition. You can even give a mundane board game a kinky twist: the loser *or the winner* has to be on top later that night. [Read: 10 fun sex games to play with your partner in bed]
#9 Wing it. Don’t plan it. Let the universe take the lead, the same way it led you to each other several years ago. Remember, the best moments are often the ones that come as a beautiful, spontaneous surprise.
#10 Weekend splurge. Scrape a few hundred dollars off your savings and go on a weekend splurge to an exotic island hideaway or a snowy mountain cabin. You both deserve it, and staying together through all the challenges and joys of married life is worth celebrating. Take a break from all the budgeting and say goodbye to working long hours. Feel like royalty on the anniversary date of a lifetime and once again thank the stars for bringing you your very own fairytale love story. [Read: 12 alternative destinations for romantic getaways]
#11 Carnival. Bring back the childish sparkle in your eyes and your childlike squeals as you hold hands with each other on the Ferris wheel. Spend your anniversary at the amusement park and relish in the thrills of the different rides while you comfort each other through the horror house or gut-wrenching rollercoasters. After all, nothing better represents marriage than a rollercoaster ride. Bonus: if you haven’t seen your partner scream like a scared kid before, this might be your chance. [Read: 33 awesome date ideas every couple should try]
#12 Recreate your wedding night. Revisit that special time in your lives when you said “I do” to each other. Pay homage to that grand moment of commitment and love, which brought you two together in the first place. Invite your friends, colleagues, and family to celebrate your anniversary with you, like you are going back in time. If you’re celebrating your 10th or 20th anniversary, why not dress for the decade you got married in? Shoulder pads, anyone?
#13 Throw some kink into the mix. You may celebrate your anniversary the same way as usual: fancy five-course dinner and some flowers. However, you can change it up in one way to make it the most memorable, if not the best, anniversary ever. Once you get home, get some sexy time on, but this time to a different tune.
Try out some kinky clothes and take out those furry handcuffs that you’ve always wanted to try with your honey. Get some spanking going, add some BDSM moves you learned from watching Fifty Shades of Grey, and who knows? You and your partner may end up liking the new spice in your bedroom. [Read: 10 sexy tips to help you open up about your kinky side in bed]
#14 Do something you’ve never done before. Anniversaries are great times to remember your wedding, but are also a way to look forward to more days together. So why not create new memories by trying out things you’ve never done before? Enroll in a dance class and make your love fall head-over-heels with you as you tango. Or sign up for other lessons such as baking, pottery, arts and crafts, martial arts, or even voice training to sweep each other off your feet with your newfound skills.
#15 Watch your wedding video. Or go over your wedding photos. In the hustle of your daily grind and the predictability of your anniversary celebrations, it helps to simply go back to how things were on a level that only the two of you understand. Whether you are celebrating at home, in a restaurant, or out of town, bring your wedding photos or videos and look over them together.
This will help renew your love for each other as you remember that special day and the highlights of your wedding. You may even share a few laughs when you remember how Uncle Bob got tipsy and slipped on the dance floor. [Read: Different ways to say I love you without saying a word]
Anniversaries are special occasions meant to celebrate your love and your relationship. It is a time when two people can look back and forward in their marriage at the same time, and you can commemorate this moment in so many ways. You can splurge or you can save, stay at home or go somewhere you’ve never been before.
[Read: 25 really romantic ideas to make your lover melt!]
However you choose to spend your anniversary, the most important thing is that you celebrate together and that you not only show your love for each other that day, but every day of every year.
