B’s 2nd Anniversary Celebration


Wow… how have I been married for TWO years already?! I feel like our wedding was decades ago but at the same time, I feel like we’ve blinked and it’s been two years. Weird, right?

Bridget Matt 2nd AnniversaryI guess time really does fly when you’re having fun! To celebrate our second year of ‘wedded bliss’, we stuck with the “traditional anniversary gifts by year” theme which states…

first anniversaryYear One: Paper <– A big success!
Year Two: Cotton <– WHAT?!
Year Three: Leather <– Oh boy.
Year Four:ย Linen/silk or Fruit/Flowers <– conflicting reports?
Year Five: Wood <– DIY, yes please!ย 

They don’t make it easy on us newlyweds, do they?! Haha…as much as I joke, Matt and I both agreed that this is a fun way to think outside of the box and appreciate each other with a tiny something for this special occasion. But cotton… really?! This was a tough one because I immediately think pillow or something for the house and let’s be honest, if I’m buying something like a pillow… it’s probably not a gift for him but more so for myself. So when my mind defaulted to cute cotton items for the house I had to force myself to keep brainstorming. Brainstorming a cotton gift turned out to be a lot tougher than I imagined but (unfortunately) not as tough as next year. Leather… Yikes! <– let’s not tell Matt about this just yet. He already thinks I’m hard to buy for so leather may really send him over the edge. #eek

Anyways… back to cotton and our 2nd year anniversary celebration. After lots of brainstorming, I went with one of Matt’s all-time favorite “cotton” things and added just a little extra personalization.Anniversary Cotton Gift Shirt Tie MonogramIt may sound lame, but Matt is OB-SESSED with these dress shirts. He wears a shirt and tie to work everyday and literally ONLY wears this specific style (no exceptions). When I really could NOT think of anything cotton-y that he would actuallyย useย and appreciate, I finally decided to stick with an item he loved. I ordered one (of the very few) prints that he does not own (waited for it to be on sale of course) and added in a stylish tie. Then, I had the sleeve embroidered with his initials… monogrammed if you will.

Cotton – check!
Super romantic – ughh… not exactly.

Anniversary Cotton Gift Shirt Tie Monogram

I knew he would absolutely love this simple gift, but I wasn’t impressed with just giving him a shirt and tie so I took it just one tiny step further. In the gift box, I added a little note explaining that we were going to dress up and have a fancy date night together, something we rarely (if ever) do. I mean yes, we are always doing things together but we are not ones to dress up and splurge on a fancy night out. I listed instructions for him to be ready by 6:00pm in his handsome new outfit… but we had one small problem. #lifehappens

Anniversary Cotton Gift Shirt Tie MonogramThat day we had a crazy ICE STORM in Chicago, which left us literally stuck INSIDE all day + night because the roads were so bad. We took a “rain (snow) check” for that fancy dinner and instead bundled up in our winter coats and trekked our way across the ice to the grocery store to get some junk food for a cozy night in.

We stocked up on buffalo chicken dip ingredients, lots of chips, cookies, candy and anything else unhealthy we could carry and slip-slided our way back home for a very unexpected, but much welcomed date-night in. ย But before we were officially in for the night, we checked another anniversary tradition off of our to-do list: taking photos with our wedding photo booth frame (more details here). We have added year #2 to our collection and are already loving looking back at last year’s photos!

Crazy how quickly the year went!! As I look back on 2015 I feel blessed to be celebrating two happy years of marriage and I am EXTRA grateful that this ice storm came on our second year anniversary and NOT on our wedding day!! And as much as I was excited for our fancy night out together, I would be lying if I didn’t say that I was just as excited to be stuck home eating buffalo chicken dip with this handsome fella.

 

Bridget


The Year of Casey

Hey there!

Iโ€™m Casey Finn, the voice behind The DIY Playbook. I’m a Chicago gal teaching you how to design, DIY, and maintain your home…by yourself! Learn more about me right here.