Your anniversary is coming up and you don’t know what to do to make it special.  You want it to be different, not just the same old dinner and a movie, something creative, but just can’t come up with any ideas.

For some reason, it is traditional that the man plan the anniversary events, although it’s certainly in the man’s interest to consult his significant other, too.  This can be a lot of pressure, especially since you’re expected to be creative at the same time.

If you’re a man with an anniversary coming up, and you have trouble being creative, today is your lucky day… in celebration of my own anniversary (today is my fourth), I’m going to provide a list of unusual and fun ideas for you to use on yours.

So here it is, 10 fun and different ways to celebrate your anniversary:

1. Return To The Location Of Your First Date

   This doesn’t require much other explanation.  Returning to the spot where you first had a romantic moment together celebrates everything that has happened since.

2. Start A Memory Album

   You can go purchase an album, and add a few pictures… some from this anniversary, some from previous anniversaries, if you have them.  The anniversary pictures are just to get you started… add to it every week, and it will bring you closer all year.

3. Create A Time Capsule

   This can be a lot of fun… make a time capsule for the two of you to open 5 or 10 years down the road.  Also, you can each write (or write one together) letters to your future selves… you can put them in the letters in the time capsule, or you can just do the letters, if you’d rather.

4. Renew Your Vows

   You may have heard of this one, and think it doesn’t qualify as unusual… but as you’re unlikely to be doing it very often, it will be unusual for you.  You can do it as publicly or privately as you like… just the two of you repeating them as you look into each other’s eyes, or in front of a preacher, friends, and family.  Either way, it will bring you back to the time of your original vows, likely helping you forget or let go of anything that has gotten between you since.

5. Have A Weekend Away

   Have an entire weekend away, just to yourselves.  Find someone to watch the kids, if you have them, and refuse to take any calls except from that person.  Don’t go near any computers, either… this is a little less time for the rest of the world, a little more for the two of you.

6. Make Something Together

   Making something together is fun, and if it’s something that will last, it will serve as a reminder of that joy for years to come.  It can be as big, or little, as you like.  One place that is fun, which I mentioned before, is Color Me Mine, which is a place where you can paint pottery which then gets fired.  It’s an easy way to have something that is yours without having to spend the whole day making it.

7. Make Reservations (And Have Something Waiting)

   Making reservations for dinner isn’t unusual… it’s a pretty standard part of celebrating an anniversary.  If you arrange beforehand to have something else waiting there, though… that’s something to remember.  It can be small… it’s the surprise that will make the memory, not so much the gift itself.

8. Ten Envelopes

   Take ten envelopes, and write on each one something like “For When You’re Lonely”, “For When You’re Sad”, etc.  Then put something in each one appropriate to that… a lot of the contents can be pictures, as it’s usually fairly easy to find pictures that are suitable, and it will bring up memories of the two of you together.

9. A Personalized Charm Bracelet

   I made one of these for my wife a couple of years ago.  It’s a set of charms that link to one another, and each one has something of significance on it… my wife’s, for instance, has pictures of us and our kids, our birthstones, a couple of words that have special significance to us, etc.

10. Photo Montage

    Creating a photo montage is essentially a chance to highlight any past occasions and memories that you choose, allowing you to set whatever mood you want… fun, closeness, or whatever else.  It can be small pictures printed on a piece of paper folded in half like a card, or full-sized pictures on a piece of posterboard, it’s up to you.  The bigger one probably has more impact, but the smaller one is easier to keep and look back at later.

There you go, ten different ideas for things to make your next anniversary special.  You can choose one or more of them… some of them can even be fun to do as a tradition.

Enjoy your anniversary… I’m going to enjoy mine.

PS – This post is pre-written… I’m not taking time away from my wife on our anniversary.