I’ll admit it…Scott and I saved the top tier of our wedding cake and had some around the time of our one-year anniversary. But we did something else on the actual day that was way better. (As for the cake, it wasn’t awful, but it definitely wasn’t as tasty as it was on our wedding night—when I took an extra spoonful of the sweet stuff after Scott fed me one!).

Unique Ways To Celebrate

To properly celebrate our big milestone, Scott and I made reservations at the restaurant that’s connected to our wedding hall. It was surreal driving on the winding road that led to the place where we exchanged vows (and proceeded to dance our butts off). In an ideal world, I would have ordered the Southern Comfort station foods that I didn’t get to eat because I just wasn’t hungry during my cocktail hour, but alas, they weren’t on the menu. I also hoped we’d get to roam the grounds and take photos in the outdoor ceremony area and the ballroom. We should have guessed that there’d be another couple getting married on that popular last Saturday night in June!

Still, I was so glad we went. Just being there brought back a lot of the wonderful-ness of our wedding day, and shouldn’t your anniversary do that? If your wedding hall doesn’t have a restaurant you can visit on your anniversary (or you can’t return to it because you live hours and hours away or it burned down or something), try one of these other ideas:

Best Anniversary Gifts – Order a Small Cake from your Wedding Bakery.

If you choose the same flavors as your wedding cake, you’ll get the same nostalgic feeling (minus the queasy feeling!) that eating a cake that fills your freezer for 12 months would give you. Live far away? See if they’ll ship it or if there’s a local bakery that offers the same flavors.

Return To The Site Of Your First Date.

On our five-year dating anniversary, Scott and I went back to the South Philly Island ice-skating rink where we ventured out in public as boyfriend and girlfriend for the first time (at the ripe old age of 15). It was Scott’s idea to take me there, and it was the best surprise (maybe not as big as Laura’s engagement surprise, but still great).

Throw A Party

With any luck, your bank account will rebound by the time your one-year anniversary rolls around and you can host a big, fancy bash. Or you can do what Scott and I have done for our last two dating anniversaries (that’s right, 15 years later and we still celebrate it!): We invite all of our best freinds to our apartment and set up a Rock Band station and a Wii station. It’s my favorite night of the year!

Watch Your Wedding Video.

You may know about this tradition already (heck, it may be the only reason you splurged on a wedding video in the first place), but it really is a great time to relive that day. If you’ve seen the video way too many times by that point, give this a try: Turn off the sound during the speeches and put words into the mouths of your best man, maid of honor, and whoever else toasted you. Invite the speakers over for a real laugh!

How would you want to celebrate your first wedding anniversary? Would you try any of my ideas? Will you eat your wedding cake despite the warnings?

For more ideas on the best anniversary gifts, click here.