When it comes to your anniversary, a little bit of planning can go a long way. Our handy list of gift ideas, below, will ensure you don’t get caught short on the day and end up being ‘that guy’ in the petrol station, queuing to buy flowers on the way home from work. Nobody likes that guy, not even himself, and especially not the woman waiting at home who will definitely know where he got them from.
Save yourself the embarrassment and buy her something she’ll really appreciate instead.
Timeless Gold Jewellery
Big-budget bling is all well and good if you’ve got cash to burn, but sadly we’re not all blessed with the bank balance of an oligarch. Thankfully, for those of us with more modestly spaced financial goalposts, affordable necklaces and bracelets make up the bread and butter of most women’s jewellery boxes. Be a magpie, pick her a few tasteful bits out and you’re golden.
Personalized Photo Album
So long as you don’t fill it full of newspaper clippings about UFO sightings, Champion’s League football stickers, detailed pencil drawings of mythical creatures, or anything else weird like that, a personalized photograph album is one of the most thoughtful gifts you can give. Just imagine sitting down together in 20 years time and showing it to your children.
Again, it should be filled with romantic photos of the two of you. Not, repeat, not football stickers.
A Romantic Bouquet
Giving the love of your life a bunch of beautiful flowers that will slowly die, wilt away and go all brown and horrible may represent a troubling visual metaphor. Nevertheless, a lot of women are all over it. While it may be a bit of an anniversary cliché, opt for this classic romantic gesture and you’re guaranteed to come up smelling of roses.
Elegant Evening Footwear
A slap-up meal and a few too many glasses of red wine are pretty much par for the course when it comes to anniversary evenings, but choosing what to wear for a special occasion can cause a headache to rival the one that you’ll both no doubt be suffering in the morning.
Why not make things easier for the lady in your life by picking her out a brand new pair of elegant evening shoes? It might even get you out the door on time.
A Statement Fragrance
Now, we’re not suggesting your other half’s perfume should be so strong that it singes the nose hairs of anyone within a 10-metre radius and makes small children cry. However, when an impression must be made, a subtle scent just isn’t going to cut it. Smell is the sense most closely linked to memory, so make sure people remember her for all the right reasons.
Food Hamper
Who wouldn’t want to receive a giant box full of cheese, chocolate, booze and cake? Nobody, that’s who. With that in mind, a hamper makes for an excellent anniversary gift. If the weather’s nice you could even turn the cliché-o-meter up to 11 by finding a quiet spot next to a babbling stream and making a full-blown romantic picnic of it. If that doesn’t earn you some serious brownie points then, quite frankly, we’re not sure what will.
Tickets To A Show
If your partner is more into Hamlet than handbags, some tickets to a show will probably go down better than anything material could ever hope to. Luckily, there is a range of theatre vouchers out there for stages all across the country – including those in London’s West End – meaning that you don’t need to know your Miss Saigons from your Wickeds in order to make the right choice.
Take her out for a cultured evening and make it a night to remember.
Rose Gold Wristwear
For the past few years, rose gold jewelry has been inescapable. Once a relic of the 1920s, this colorful, feminine metal has crept its way off your nana’s mantelpiece and back into jewelry shops, becoming a legitimate designer trend in the process.
In our humble opinion, it lends itself quite nicely to wristwear. From watches to rings, bangles to cuffs – rose gold is a warm, romantic option for your special day, plus it won’t bankrupt you to quite the same extent as yellow gold or silver would. That means more money left over for some actual roses.
Jewelry Box
What good is all that fancy jewelry without somewhere equally extravagant to house it? A jewelry box is an essential for every woman and it’s just the sort of thing that will go down a treat as an anniversary gift.
Pick the right one and it will last for as long as she looks after it. It could even be passed down through the generations to your children and your children’s children. Isn’t that the sort of thing that these types of celebrations are all about?
Something to Unwind In
Being in a committed relationship is about 10 percent going out and doing nice things and 90 percent sitting around the house in your tracksuit or PJs. Seeing as you spend so much of your downtime together in clothes you would never dream of venturing outside in, wouldn’t it be fitting to give her loungewear an anniversary update?
An Unforgettable Experience
Really, though, what would she rather have? Some Mulberry handbag she’s been after since the early noughties, or a memorable experience together with the man she loves? Actually, don’t answer that.
Jokes aside, a shared experience is the perfect chance to remember why you fell for each other in the first place – the ideal way to spend your day. That is until you have a moment of clarity at 12,000ft as you’re about to be hurled out of a plane with a man strapped to your back and suddenly that bag doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.
An Instant Camera
Does your better half relentlessly turn everything into a photo opportunity? Well, if she’s going to do it, she might as well have the right kit. Give her iPhone camera some much needed time off and present her with the gear she needs to create lasting memories in a tangible way, rather than just as a file on a computer.
A Charitable Donation
For the woman who has everything, a charitable donation in their name makes a great gift. After all, what’s the point in accumulating more and more unneeded presents every year when the money could go to somebody who really needs it?
From adopting endangered animals to providing third-world families with clean drinking water, donating money as a gift is an admirable way to celebrate your relationship.
Luxurious Luggage
You know how you feel about trainers? Well, that’s how your significant other feels about bags. This means that so long as you pick something that’s high quality, timeless and great looking, you can’t really put a foot wrong. Pick one out from a trusted, stylish brand to ensure you don’t get the… sack… this anniversary.
Statement Earrings
Punching holes in your ears so that you can wear things dangling from them is admittedly quite weird when you actually think about it. But that hasn’t stopped a considerable chunk of the global population from having it done. Handily enough, it creates another avenue for you to explore when selecting an anniversary gift, and if she’s going to wear earrings, she might as well turn a few heads in the process.
A Hair-Styling Gadget
Show her that taking forever to get ready isn’t really as big a deal as you make it out to be by buying her something that will make her take even longer. A new styling tool is sure to go down a storm with any hair-conscious woman, whether you understand what it does or not.
Some New Gym Gear
As we all know, motivating yourself to go to the gym can be a drag, but when you’ve got some nice kit to wear, it doesn’t feel quite so bad. If she’s been blasting out her Wednesday evening spin class in a grubby old 6th form leavers T-shirt and a pair of ill-fitting football shorts, now may be as good a time as any for an upgrade.
Good Coffee On Tap
Anything that can help to make weekday mornings even just a fraction more palatable is a winner as far as we’re concerned, and while we may not know your partner personally, we’re almost certain she’d agree.
Grabbing a take-out coffee every morning would be fantastic, but it won’t seem like such a great idea when she has to retire without a pension and live her last days out in a wheelie bin. A coffee machine may seem like a luxury, but think of it as more of an investment. After all, it’s going to save her (and you) a lot of money in the long run.
Something Sparkly
They say diamonds are a girl’s best friend, which is all great, but they’re not exactly cheap, are they? However, there are a few diamond options out there that won’t require you to sell any organs on the dark web. If you’re still struggling, cubic zirconia is a great alternative for a fraction of the price and it looks every bit as glamorous.
You could probably even get away with telling her it’s the real deal, but you didn’t hear that from us and we in no way condone lying to your partner. But honestly, she’d never know the difference.
Some Classic Canvas Trainers
The futuristic, sock-like trainers everyone is running around in nowadays may be the height of technology, but even the most advanced sneakers out there had humble beginnings. Canvas trainers are where it all began, and the fact that people are still rocking them after 100-odd years says a lot.
A classic set of canvas kicks won’t break the bank, but they will go with everything – and there’s not many items of clothing you can say that about.
