Looking for some inspiration for an upcoming Wedding Anniversary party? We’ve put together a collection of what we think are some of the best Wedding Anniversary party ideas we can find anywhere, combined with a good dose of our own creativity.
You could split the idea of organizing things into these categories, consider:
- The time and date
- The venue
- The theme
- Entertainment / how you will celebrate
- Recording the event
First and foremost are you organizing the party for your own wedding anniversary or for somebody else? This obviously will impact on the amount of control you have over what you can and can’t do.
Are You Organizing Your Own Wedding Anniversary Party?
You have more say over things are ran including the theme and the entertainment but even though it is your anniversary you should still consider your guests and what they will get out of it, even if they do want to help you celebrate your event it will be great if you could aim to include each guest in a way that makes the whole occasion memorable and special for everyone.
Are You Organizing Someone Else’s Wedding Anniversary Party?
What you choose to have in terms of a theme etc depends upon how much control you are allowed to have. Is it a surprise party you are planning? If you are planning a surprise wedding anniversary party then some of the tips on this website should put you in good stead.
Setting The Event Time & Date
You should pick a day close to the wedding anniversary and on a day that you are confident people will be able to attend such as a Saturday or a Friday evening. If you plan to have a party which will include alcohol then having it on a Sunday may not go down too well if people have to be at work on Monday morning.
You should also consider children who may attend and how the day and time will affect them, if you start the party in the evening for example it may not be suitable for younger kids who will get tired early, elderly people too sometimes prefer to retire to bed earlier so this must be a consideration.
Arguably the best time and day is a Saturday around midday.
You should plan things at least a few months in advance too giving people plenty of notice too. If you are planning a small get together with close family then making a formal invitation might not be necessary but if you planning a fairly big get together then make sure you formally invite people with a proper invitation. You can get these fairly cheaply from places such as Vista Print (UK), Zazzle (Worldwide) or even from Amazon. Or if you have a good enough printer you can save some cash by designing your own invitations on Canva.
There is no guarantee that the anniversary date will fall on a Saturday so make sure people do actually know the correct date when you send out the invites.
The Wedding Anniversary Venue Itself
The venue you pick will probably be decided by how many people and how wide a circle of family & friends you intend to extend your invite to. Depending on these factors you could:
- Celebrate at your home
- Celebrate at a family or friends house
- Hire a venue or function room
- Celebrate at a restaurant
So which venue destination you decide upon will then determine how you choose to decorate or arrange the layout. Obviously at a restaurant you will have more restrictions than the other locations but you should still be able to arrange to have some balloons and other party items put into place for the guests, the downside being that you will be celebrating alongside the other restaurant goers and perhaps restricted to the amount of time and additional events you may want to include.
So if you have the option to be able to decorate the venue more freely, the next question is to decide whether you will be inside or outside.
Some Wedding Anniversary Venue Decoration Ideas
For some truly great ideas on decorating your venue there are some truly inspiring Pinterest pins that you should check out but here are some of the ones that we found, liked and wanted to show here.
A Tree Garland
A simple and yet beautiful effect is to wrap the trees at your chosen location in a garland. This really sets the tone for a wedding anniversary party.
A Chalk Board
Invite your guests into the venue with a great sign, a chalk board like this one above is a great idea.
Family or Couple Pictures
Set up pictures of the happy couple throughout the years or of the family and friends present at the party to make an interesting talking point.
Wedding Pictures / Wedding Video
Decorate the venue with some wedding pictures from the big day. If you have a wedding video you could play this on a screen somewhere. These make great talking points especially because some of the party members will likely be on the video or on the pictures!
Photo-booth Idea
Involve the party people by setting up some photo booth opportunities to mark the event. These would make great pictures to hang on the pegs as in the idea above for future celebrations.
Other ideas for decoration include center pieces for the tables, decorated water bottles, throws over chairs or bales of hay, flowers, candles and decorative items that can be placed where it suits them best within the venue.
The Wedding Theme
This whole website is dedicated to explaining the various wedding anniversary themes by year as well as advising on how to celebrate each year and more. You can check out our various categories to find out more about your particular year but once you find out the theme for your anniversary year you should bare this in mind when decorating your venue.
What you should be mindful of is that the symbol which represents the year is just symbolic. For example if the year is the 50th (Gold) then this does not literally mean you have to decorate the tables in real gold but rather decorate around the theme of gold. So you may decide to have gold napkins and place mats etc. You could drape gold fabric on chairs or use gold tree garlands.
Here is an overview of the yearly symbolic wedding anniversary themes:
1st ― Paper
2nd ― Cotton
3rd ― Leather
4th ― Fruit/Flowers
5th ― Wood
6th ― Candy/Iron
7th ― Wool, Copper
8th ― Bronze, Pottery
9th ― Pottery, Willow
10th ―Tin, Aluminum
11th ― Steel
12th ― Silk, Linen
13th ― Lace
14th ― Ivory
15th ― Crystal
20th ― China
25th ― Silver
30th ― Pearl
35th ― Coral
40th ― Ruby
45th ― Sapphire
50th ― Gold
55th ― Emerald
60th ― Diamond
75th ― Diamond
Wedding Anniversary Entertainment Ideas / Party Ideas For Parents
Idea #1 – video messages
Have family and friends record a video message to the couple expressing how they feel with best wishes. Collate these messages before the event and present it on a screen during the party for the couple.
Idea #2 – balloon messages
Write messages of congratulations in pieces of paper and insert them into balloons. Pop the balloons and read the out during the party.
Idea #3 – first dance
Dance to the same song that the couple danced to at their first dance.
Idea #4 – group photo
Arrange for a group photograph of the event. If budget allows then distribute a copy to the people who attended afterwards with a message of thanks printed on the image.
Idea #5 – re-read speeches
If you still have them then consider re-reading the wedding speeches. You could modify these with updates on how things panned out – all in good humour of course!
Idea #6 – write or play a song
Our family is full of musicians. There might be someone in your family too. A good idea is for this person or people to either learn a song or write a unique song just for the couple and play it on the day (make sure you capture it on film for posterity!)
Idea #7 – fireworks
Fireworks always go down well at a a celebration. If you are able to relate the fireworks somehow to the anniversary theme year then all the better.
Idea #8 – dance contest
Have a dance contest judged by the anniversary couple. You could different dance styles and have a prize for the winner.
Idea #9 – karaoke
Organize some karaoke and challenge the anniversary couple to kick it off.
Idea #10 – quiz
Have a quiz for everyone. You could make it more specific by designing all of the questions to be related to the year the couple got married.
Wedding Anniversary Entertainment Ideas / Party Ideas For Couples
Idea #1 – quiz time
Play a one minute Q&A game where the husband and then the wife has to answer as many questions about their partner as possible. This could be expanded upon to include family members to find out how well they know the happy couple.
Idea #2 – race time
A fun game for couples where they have to together win a race. Some ideas are:
a) using only your partners arms (who can stand behind you and thread their arms under your own) you have make a cake. Try a blindfold and take instructions from someone else for extra fun. Remember to capture it on film!
b) duck apple – a race to see who is the first to transfer apples from one container to other filled with water – using only your mouth.
c) using only your chin against your chest you must transfer a bowl of fruit or similar to another container. It works best if you start back to back and the containers and behind you.
d) fill balloons with tokens or something similar, the first person to collect all of the tokens wins a prize.
e) girls v boys charades – pit the boys and against the girls with a game of charades led by the husband and wife. Introduce a forfeit for extra fun.
Idea #3 – who said it, who did it
Write a list of items on a piece of paper with questions or statements on such as
“I initiated our first kiss”
“I said ‘I love you first'”
“I paid for our first date”
It’s interesting how people’s memories change over time and hearing different versions of events can make for some interesting discussion!
Idea #4 – pick a side
You will need an adjudicator for this one. This person asks the party goers questions such as “who is the best at cooking?” “who is the best driver?” and people pick a side. The winner is the person who accumulated the most people on their side.
Idea #5 beat the parents
Here in the UK there is a game called Beat The Parents (in fact we’ve just found it here in the US so you guys will know the one we’re talking about). Use the mouth piece and instead of using the in game cards, the couple must recite poetry or read to each other. To add extra fun you could try writing a short speech and seeing how close the other person gets the answer correct. Great fun!
Recording The Event
It’s easy enough to say you should video the event but there’s lots of way you could record the event. Here’s a few ideas:
Idea #1 – phone cameras
Ask everybody to record their own video for the wedding anniversary event from their own phone. Ask for each of the video’s afterward and edit it together. It’s easy enough to do this on YouTube and it can then be shared with everyone who attended. – Here’s a link on how to edit your video’s in YouTube.
Idea #2 – photo booth by years
Each year take a picture of the couple holding up last years picture of themselves holding the previous years picture. Over time collate these together to make a really interesting piece.
Here’s an example (we can’t find any actual couples doing this!)
Idea #3 – record testimonials
Another great idea is to video record a testimonial from each person or couple at the party passing a message on to the celebrating couple.
Idea #4 – take pictures and collage the together
Take as many images of the party as possible and collage them together. If you are able then do this digitally so you can present it on a DVD or on YouTube. iMovies from Apple or similar is great for this. You can pass a copy to each party member or upload it to YouTube which can then be shared on Facebook or WhatsApp etc.
Idea #5 – written messages
Ask people at the party to write messages to the couple. These can then be included in a framed picture of the couple on the day and given as a gift. It makes a wonderful memory for years to come.
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