When it’s an occasion that rolls around every year, it’s easy to fall into a situation where you’re more concerned with one-upping the gift you gave last year rather than ensuring that the gift is something that’s going to hit the mark. Anniversaries can feel especially susceptible to this due to the perception of it being a moment to express what the relationship means to you. However, a lot of the time, this doesn’t directly translate to an extremely expensive gift, and there are other ways to go about celebrating.
The important factor here is the thought that you put into it, and it’s always paramount that the identity of your relationship comes through in the gifts themselves, making it difficult to generalize.
Take a Trip
The most popular alternative that might come to your mind here is a vacation. A romantic getaway is something that many couples like to participate in, and taking a trip over your anniversary might feel like the right choice. Perhaps this is something that you’ve resorted to in the past, however. What do you do to differentiate this trip from other anniversary trips like it in the past? If it’s a more momentous occasion, do you simply go bigger on the trip — stay for longer or in more luxurious accommodation?
That might be one option that you could take, but it’s once again valuable to think back to what’s meaningful to you both — there might be a location or type of trip that you’ve always talked about that could finally come into play.
The Meaningful Gift
That’s not to say that gifts aren’t important, however, just that when it comes to deciding what to get, you might want to make it meaningful. When you feel as though you’ve already exhausted every type of gift that’s personally meaningful to the recipient, it can be useful to get some broader suggestions. Looking into gift ideas for her can provide a good foundation, at which point you can apply what’s personal and specific to their tastes in order to come to something that’s both surprising and heartfelt.
Alternatively, there’s always the idea of your own personal input playing a role in making a gift more meaningful and could be what elevates the sense of occasion through the effort that you put forward.
The Next Step
Alternatively, you and your partner might find that you’re at a point where you’re looking to take things further. This could take any number of forms, and it’ll be specific to your relationship and your own ambitions. It might be, for example, that you want to move and look for a house to buy together. Maybe you want to get a pet, or maybe you want to start a family. These are big decisions, so it’s not something that you want to just decide on for the both of you and announce on your anniversary, but coming up with some actionable plans forward and something to celebrate, like a romantic meal, could be something to consider for discussion on the day itself.