A Table For Two: Anniversary Celebrations At Home

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Earlier this week, Charlie and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary! And while past anniversary celebrations might have looked like date nights out or weekends away (like last year’s stay in a castle you can check out HERE!), this year’s celebration looked a little different on a Monday night with an almost five month old. Still wanting to celebrate though, we opted instead for a candlelight dinner in after putting our girl to bed. No rush. No bustle. No travel. Just a leisurely dinner together, which, in and of itself, was even a gift. A table for two, just for us. It was perfectly sweet and got me thinking how so often it seems that society, and especially social media, primarily highlights the large extravagant celebrations, but yet, while those can be wonderful and certainly have a place, there are some seasons of life and personality preferences that call for lowkey experiences that still are thoughtful, intentional and can produce joy filled memories. So, as a change from the typical large gathering tablescapes I do, I wanted to share with you all an intentional at home celebration highlighting a table for two.

Set Your Menu

I think one of the biggest benefits of going out for celebrations is the ease at which they can come together. The environment is set, the menu is determined and the dishes are not your responsibility. When creating an intentional at home celebration, certainly feel free to bring out all your favorite recipes with a stellar menu line up, but if this is going to involved more time, margin or energy than you have to expend, perhaps go for take out from yall’s favorite restaurant instead. To take this up a notch however, skip eating it out of the to-go box and instead opt for serving it family style with a few nice dishes so you can linger and enjoy the delicious meal together. Sure, you might still have to load the dishwasher afterwards, but the prep and cleanup is minimal while elevating a convenient solution.

Set The Mood

Another key element of creating an intentional at home anniversary meal is to set the mood of your space. Think of your five senses and a way you may appeal to each in your tablescape.

Use Candles

For example, despite it not getting dark here until almost 10 pm (and us having to blow them out early as they were adding such heat to our non AC apartment!), we ate by only candlelight, which inherently establishes a more romantic environment as the light and shadows dance throughout the room and across each other’s faces. Fire, whether from candles, bonfires, a fireplace etc. has often been seen to encourage vulnerability, honesty and communication so incorporating this element into your tablescape can not only spice up the norm but also encourage thoughtful connection.

Set The Table

Another element which impacts both your eyes and touch is to already have the table prepared. Set out your plates, glassware, silverware, flowers etc. to have the table ready and prepared for you all to enjoy. If possible, set this up earlier in the day, in the morning before work or even the night before so that it welcomes you to the table right away. Since we were enjoying dinner after our little one was in bed, I opted to prepare the table earlier in the day so that it was ready and we could start dinner soon after she was asleep.

Be Sentimental

Finally, when establishing the mood of your environment, be sentimental! Particularly for an anniversary. Perhaps you have a flower type from your wedding you wish to integrate into your table arrangement, or a favorite candle scent to fill the room or can play your wedding song / playlist in the background, but adding sentimental elements that connect specifically to your love story helps to make the experience all the more special and personalized beyond what you could have at a restaurant.

A Table For Two: Anniversary Celebrations At Home

Inspire Connection

Lastly, but certainly not least, inspire connection with thoughtful questions! Take a quick moment to gather a piece of paper, fold it in half hamburger style (or use a folded card as I did with scalloped ones similar to THESE) and write out conversation questions on both sides to ask throughout your meal. Create questions reflecting on the life you are building together, perhaps starting with your wedding or early dating and moving to the year you just finished before looking forward to the year ahead. Write 5 different questions on each side to ask one another to add a bit of intentionality and reflection to processing the joys and blessings of your relationship over the years. Certainly, discussing schedules and parenting and work business is all important, but on a special occasion like an anniversary it can be wonderful to recognize out loud what you mean to each other and the memories you have made together over the years.

A few ideas of anniversary questions to ask could be:

What was your favorite memory from our wedding?
If you could relive one day from our past, which would it be?
Describe your favorite moment of us from this year.
Describe three blessings from this year.
What did you learn in our marriage this year?
In what ways do you feel supported by me and in what ways would you wish for more support?
When is the closest you’ve ever felt to me?
What are you looking forward to in this upcoming year?
What is a dream you want us to achieve together?
What does a thriving and joyful relationship look like for us at this stage of our life?

Final Thoughts

Creating a table for two in an intentional at home anniversary celebration can be such a sweet and special time of connection without sacrificing celebration and togetherness. For Charlie and I, life with a baby looks different than what it used to, but what an opportunity it is to find new ways to make our marriage special.

I recently heard someone describe a thought on marriage which I felt was quite a beautiful sentiment both for marriage and for life. It stated that throughout the years and decades together, you have a “new marriage” or at minimum a new element within your marriage with each changing season of life…. Add a child; new marriage. Move or change jobs; new marriage. Have health struggles; new marriage. Become empty nesters, new marriage…. Certainly, there can be the desire to have back your “old” marriage before the change, but what if we dwelt on the opportunity to experience a new rhythm together in this new stage. Built on the old rhythms you have established over your years together of course, but built in ways that are conducive to growing towards one another in the now. As if, in each season, we got to start from scratch with a future full of possibilities, rhythms to create and adventures to be had. Having experienced so many of the aspects above in our short 6 years of marriage, I can say that when I heard this idea, it really challenged me in a beautiful way to again find the joy in purposeful (or “re-purposeful”) living. Joy in the purposeful then but also joy for a purposeful now. So, I don’t know what this year might look like for you, but I hope you too might find a moment to purposefully celebrate your spouse and those most dear to you in life. For us, this “new marriage” looks like a table for two on a Monday night in our warm, upstairs apartment, candles burning, peonies blooming, eating Indian and our favorite macarons, discussing year-end memories with our daughter sleeping on the baby monitor. And for this year, it was perfect.

Happy celebrating!