Happy Monday!  I hope you had a great weekend. We finally spent a weekend at home and it was so nice.  I feel like I got quite a bit accomplished which is always a good feeling.  Plus, this week marks my ninth wedding anniversary, so it’s a happy week!

My husband and I decided before our first anniversary that we would try to stick with giving each other gifts that follow the list of the traditional wedding gifts.  The traditional first anniversary gift is paper.

I know paper doesn’t sound too exciting, but the list starts out with smaller, less expensive gifts and gradually gets larger and more expensive.

There are a ton of fun gift ideas for paper that follow the traditional list, but are more exciting than just a pad of paper.  Check out 10 gift ideas I’ve rounded up below.

And as far as our first anniversary, we spent it in Maui (we lived on Oahu at the time), and I got my husband a leather bound journal, and my husband got me a few books to help start my business.  It’s so easy to remember the gifts when you know what the theme was.  I can probably remember every year so far.

10 First Anniversary Gift Ideas

1 // Paper Airplane Cufflinks
These cufflinks are so cute because they fit into the paper them without actually being paper!

2 // Paper Lyrics
Displaying your wedding song lyrics in a pretty way is a great way to remember your first dance.

3 // Paper Lanterns
I just love that you can buy these paper lanterns to have your own sky lantern celebration.  Try writing a wish or hope for your marriage on the lantern before sending them off in the night sky.  They look so pretty floating through the sky.

4 // Cocktail Recipe Cards:
If your spouse loves to mix up fun drinks, grab these cocktail recipe cards.  Made from paper, but cute and ready to help you remember how to make that Manhattan or Old Fashioned.

5 // Paper Map
Getting a map of a particular place is such a great way to remember how special that place was.  Maybe it’s where you met, or honeymooned, or where your first kiss was?

6 // Coffee Table Book
A book is a pretty classic way to give a paper gift.  But I love the idea of giving a coffee table book about a subject that your spouse loves.  It’s something that can be set out and displayed.  Every time you see it on display it will remind both of you of your first anniversary.

7 // Journal
Another classic gift, a journal.  But this one is different!  This is a journal of bucket list items.  It has space to write in everything you ever want to accomplish on your bucket list and space to document when and how it was accomplished.  So fun!

8 // Personalized Stationary
Although stationary is more of a classic paper gift, it is so fun as a woman to see your new married name.  Personalizing the stationary to reflect that is a great gift!

9 // Lunchbox Notes
Does your spouse take their lunch to work?  Try slipping a few of these notes in their lunchbox for a fun mid-day surprise!

10 // Fancy Playing Cards

Oh man, when I look back at our first year of marriage I think about how much we were still getting to know each other and the time we had to do it before kids came along.  Gifting some playing cards and learning how to play a game together is such a great bonding experience.

I hope some of these paper anniversary gifts gave you some inspiration for your own first anniversary.  Or if you’re already well past that point, maybe it made you reflect on your first year of marriage or your favorite anniversary gift.

We’ll be celebrating nine years this week and going to paint our own pottery since pottery is the traditional ninth wedding anniversary gift.  I love that it’s going to be an experience too!

How many years have you been married?  Do you celebrate with the traditional wedding anniversary gifts, or another fun way?