Last month, Omied and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary—I can’t believe it’s already been five years! But of course, it’s 2020, so my first thought was, how do we celebrate our anniversary during quarantine?
Usually, we would plan a long weekend trip somewhere, or at least go out to dinner. But we’re laying low right now, so we needed to think about some alternatives.
I’m a firm believer in celebrating things big and small, and even though we weren’t able to celebrate our anniversary the way we normally would, I wasn’t going to let September 12th pass us by with just a movie and some take out.
That’s like, some typical Friday night stuff. And your anniversary deserves to be celebrated!
So I got to brainstorming and here’s what we ended up doing to celebrate our anniversary during quarantine, plus a few more suggestions and ideas if you’re looking for some inspiration!
Brunch
We started off the day by making brunch at home. I’m talking tater tots, bacon and eggs, waffles, and bloody mary’s. The works!
Relaxing/reading time
This one might sound weird at first, but I’m sure you can relate to having such a busy sched that just relaxing and reading feels like such a luxury.
We curled up and snuggled in bed while reading for a bit after brunch. I’m reading Where the Crawdads Sing (SO good) and Omied is reading Dune and really enjoying it.
Shopping for each others’ gifts
We went out to do some shopping and since we’re in full-on decorating mode at our new house, our “gifts” to each other was picking out home decor, lol.
We went to Target, Cost Plus, and an outdoor/gardening store and picked a bunch of things for the house together and it was honestly so much fun.
Candlelit dinner in
We ordered in from Morimoto in Napa, which is a super special spot for us because that’s where we went to celebrate the night that Omied proposed! They absolutely killed it with their to-go menu, and the food was incredible.
We made it extra special by getting dressed up as if we were actually going out on a date night (which felt great since my daily fashions consist of a lot of stretchy waistbands these days), lighting some candles, and playing our wedding reception playlist for background music.
Love letters
We usually get each other a cute anniversary card, and I’ve saved every single one from over the years.
The day of our anniversary, we both realized we hadn’t gotten cards for each other—we’re doing a lot more grocery delivery these days to avoid unnecessary shopping trips, so the fact that neither of us had been in a grocery store for a while amounted to neither of us perusing the cards section.
Instead of just “skipping” this year, I grabbed us both a sheet of paper and we wrote each other love letters.
At-home spa night
To round out our anniversary, we had an at-home spa night. I convinced Omied to do a sheet mask, which was hilarious.
We gave each other foot massages, and then I drew a bubble bath for us. We had cupcakes and champagne while watching a movie on Netflix, all while in our bubble bath, and it was pretty great.
That was everything we did to celebrate our anniversary during quarantine. And honestly, we had such a great day celebrating, mostly at home.
Looking for more ideas on how to celebrate your anniversary during quarantine? Here are a few more for you!
Some of these would also work for just regular date night ideas at home. I think it’s so important for couples to celebrate each other!
10 ideas: How to Celebrate Your Anniversary During Quarantine
1. Outdoor movie night
Yes, you could do a regular movie night, or make it special by picking a movie that is tied to a memory like your first date (ours would be The Ring 3, but I’m not too keen to revisit that), but why not make it a little more unique?
Get a projector and a screen, and set up a cozy outdoor movie night. If you don’t have outdoor space, make a fort in your living room and watch a movie from there.
2. Cooking a special meal or dessert together
Make a special dinner or dessert for you to enjoy together.
Recreate a special dinner you’ve had together, or cook something new that you’ve been wanting to make but haven’t tried yet (my pick would be ramen!).
3. Romantic bubble bath
10/10 would recommend. 😏
4. Write each other love letters
Seriously, you’ll treasure them forever.
5. Give each other a massage
But not just like a quick massage. Like, get massage oils, light some candles, and play some relaxing music.
6. Wine tasting
Pick out a few wines, maybe some favorites, some new, and some that have a special meaning/memory to them!
Make a cheese and charcuterie spread as well as chocolate pairings to go with your wines.
Pro tip: Use a Coravin to pour your wines so that you aren’t actually opening the bottles! This thing is amazing and your wine will keep for up to a year in the bottle, so that way you can enjoy your wine tasting without feeling like you’re wasting wine that will go bad in a few days from opening up six different bottles. Here’s the link for the Coravin—I love having it at home!
7. Recreate drinks
Play bartender and make some drinks that are special to you, like your bride and groom signature drinks from your wedding day.
Mine was a “blushing bride” aka a white cosmo. Mmmm.
8. Re-read your wedding vows to each other.
Have a box of tissues handy because you’ll probably cry.
9. Breakfast in bed
Omied hates breakfast in bed because he hates getting crumbs in bed, but to me it feels so luxurious. Not everyone is as messy of an eater as he is. 😂
10. Virtual concert
Lots of musicians are hosting live, virtual concerts these days. Enjoy one from the comfort of your own living room.
Hope you enjoyed these ideas for how to celebrate your anniversary during quarantine!
I was feeling a bit down about not being able to celebrate how we normally do, but then we ended up having such a great day celebrating.
Just because you can’t go out like normal doesn’t mean your anniversary has to be lame!
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Elise Armitage is an entrepreneur and founder of What The Fab, a travel + lifestyle blog based in California. At the beginning of 2019, Elise left her corporate job at Google to chase her dreams: being an entrepreneur and helping women find fabulous in the everyday. Since then, she’s launched her SEO course Six-Figure SEO, where she teaches bloggers how to create a passive revenue stream from their website using SEO. Featured in publications like Forbes, Elle, HerMoney, and Real Simple, Elise is a firm believer that you can be of both substance and style.
