Let’s talk about anniversaries. And anniversary gifts by year. Help us celebrate a big milestone!
Anniversary Gifts By Year
Today marks a special day in our family – our 20th anniversary!! Josh and I were practically babies when we got married. I was just shy of turning 21 and Josh had just turned 23. Babies! We thought we knew it all but really, we had NO CLUE.
Over the years we’ve been through a lot together. We’ve experienced losing both of our dads to cancer, raising a child with special needs, job situations, Josh going through law school in his 40s, and a whole lot more. We are far from the perfect couple (really, really far), we argue way too much, are selfish at times, push each others buttons and do tons wrong. But we are teammates and when push comes to shove, we make a great team. Nobody can make me laugh or cheer me up like Josh. He’s the smartest guy I know. He works hard and plays hard. He’s incredibly loyal and has a really big heart.
20th Anniversary
We have done all kinds of grand gestures for our anniversary in 20 years. Josh is an excellent gift giver. He really plays into my love language of receiving gifts perfectly (second only to words of affirmation). My friends have said that he needs to teach a class on how to give gifts because he really is that good.
Here are some of the anniversary gifts we’ve done in the past:
But this year we are opting for a trip to Kauai together. It is our favorite place on earth and we are looking forward to spending the time together, just the two of us. There are so many things to do in Kauai! Since this will be Josh’s 4th visit to the island and my 5th, we feel like we have seen a lot and can’t wait to go to our favorite spots and relax.
Wedding Anniversary Gifts By Year
While we are breaking tradition of our anniversary gift this year, it’s fun to look at the list of gifts and why they represent the year. This year is supposed to be China for us but since we still rarely use the China we received from our wedding, I think it’s a good idea that we don’t get another set.
I made a cute printable that you can download for free with all of the traditions on it:
Download this anniversary gifts by year printable.
In honor of our anniversary I want to share a little bit more about Josh and me together. Years ago when I started a blog, I was tagged by someone to answer questions about our marriage. Remember when that was a thing? These are the questions that I was asked and answered all those years ago:
Where did you meet your husband?
Josh had moved from LA the day I met him. His roommate was dating my roommate. Dave brought Josh over to get his approval of my roommate. His roommate made Josh ring the doorbell and I was the one who answered the door. I had no idea who he was and thought it was weird that my roommate’s boyfriend was pushing this random guy to stay at the door. But then I saw her boyfriend and let them both in
Where was the first date?
First date- we kind of got set up by our roommates. I was irritated because Josh waited until the day before to actually ask me out. But I reluctantly said I’d go. I didn’t think that I would like the date at all but it ended up being super fun. My roommate and I made them dinner. Spaghetti by the way…I’ve never been good at eating spaghetti and quickly questioned why we made that for our first date! Then we went and saw Titanic. We then went back to our place to hang out until the wee hours of the morning.
Did you have a long or short courtship/engagement?
We had a very short courtship. I have often wondered where life would’ve led us had we dated longer. I don’t doubt that we would’ve gotten married, just if we could have gotten to know more about each other before taking the plunge.
We met in January, got engaged in May and married in August. It’s not uncommon in our faith to get married quickly but looking back, that was a really short time to get to know someone.
Where did you get engaged?
Anyone who knows Josh knows he doesn’t do anything half way. He spoils me on big occasions and is the epitome of a romantic. Lucky me!! His proposal was no exception. I was supposed to meet him at one of my favorite restaurants. I got there and someone greeted me and said, “You must be Mique.” I was like “huh? who are you?” She started to direct me to Josh’s table and as soon as I started walking towards him, every person in my path handed me a rose. When I got to the table there was some small talk (every person in the restaurant was starting at us) and he handed me a gift. I opened it and it was a new set of scriptures with my married name engraved on them. That sounds really cheesy but the background to it is: I had talked to him a bunch about how I wanted new scriptures but thought it was silly to get them before I got married because I’d just have to change them again to my married name. It was really sentimental to give them to me that way. After I opened them, he said “I want to show you a scripture “(which was about marriage) and at the end of the bookmark my ring was dangling. He got down and proposed in front of everyone. Then after I said yes, he said we needed to switch our table.
He walked me over to where both of our entire families were sitting. This was another sentimental move because I had told him that I didn’t care how he proposed but that I would love for my family to be involved. They had been hiding (and videotaping) the whole thing. It was quite the thing to orchestrate considering his family came from Oregon and mine came from California and I didn’t know any of them were there! After we ate dinner, if it couldn’t get any better, he had arranged for carriage rides for all of us to ride around the city. In hindsight, I’m surprised at how he decided to propose because neither of us love being the center of attention- we’re outgoing and extroverts but kind of get weird when everyone is staring at us….which is how the entire proposal was. But still, it was the perfect night. I was on cloud 9.
Where did you get married?
We were married in the San Diego Temple. It was sentimental to me, not only because that’s where I grew up, but because I was a part of all of it (going to the open houses, the dedication, etc, etc). And add to that it’s the prettiest temple I’ve ever seen.
How did the reception go?
Hands down, it was the best thing ever. It was beautiful, fun and all around magical. Normally I am kind of a control freak but for some reason when we got engaged, nothing mattered to me. I kind of let my mom take the reins and she took care of most everything. And she did a great job. It was in our backyard. With all of our very favorite people. All my friends from college and high school were there because I was the first of any of my friends to get married. It was one big party.
How was the honeymoon?
We had fun once we got over having to get up at 4:30am the day after our wedding night. We went on a Caribbean cruise for a week. Josh thought it was funny that I was young enough (couple months shy of my 21st bday) to be able to get a “kids pass” for drinks- all the refills of sodas I wanted! We got to go on some cool excursions. But it was just nice to finally be US. I felt really grown up.