If you’re looking for a simple wedding anniversary planning checklist, we’ve broken down the process into 14 easy-to-follow steps. We’ve put together a step-by-step checklist on how you can plan a wedding anniversary party to celebrate the many years of a successful marriage.
Every wedding anniversary calls for a special celebration, but traditionally, anniversaries below 20 years are marked quietly between the couple or with a few friends and family. However, times have changed – it’s not surprising to see couples throwing big parties for even their fourth or fifth year (wedding) anniversary. With the rising number of divorce, only a few couples ever make it to their fifth year together in marriage, and so we definitely understand that successfully staying married for 5 or 10 years is a very big deal that calls for a celebration.
How to Plan a Wedding Anniversary Party on any Budget in 14 Steps
Before you start planning, you need to know that the entire planning process will require your time and attention and if you are a very busy person, consider hiring an event planner to help you organize it. Organizing a wedding anniversary party, like every kind of party, involves some details and planning, and logistics. You’ll find the party planning less stressful if you have a to-do list or planning checklist itemizing what needs to be done and when. Here’s our 14-step wedding anniversary planning checklist for organizing a memorable vow renewal party that will wow your guests. Read on.
1. Fix a Date and Time for the Wedding Anniversary Party
Weekends are the usual and best time for any kind of party and will be more comfortable for your guests. So, consider fixing your wedding anniversary party on a weekend or around a public holiday. The best time to host a wedding anniversary is a date near your actual anniversary day – either fix it on the same date as your actual wedding date or a few weeks before or after the actual wedding date.
Some factors may cause you to move your anniversary party far away from the actual anniversary date, such as the when your most important guests (VIPs), your children or closest friends would be free to attend – I mean, those people that you can’t think of having the party without their presence, and don’t mind shifting the date in their favor.
2. Fix a Spending Limit (Budget) for the Wedding Anniversary Party
First decide on the type of wedding anniversary party you want to host – big or small, low-key? Obviously, you won’t want to spend your entire life savings to throw a wedding anniversary party, so that is why you should set a spending limit by making a party budget – set aside a specific amount of money for the party.
Your party budget will determine every other detail about your party – such as the number of people you can invite, the type and size of place to use as a venue; and the quantity of food and drinks to buy. Basically how much you set as the budget will determine whether the party will be a low-key or a big owambe.
To avoid overspending, once you fix the overall wedding anniversary party budget, break it down into a rough estimate as follows:
- Catering/ Food + Drinks
- Optional, if you’re looking at having a big or classy-but-small wedding anniversary party:
- Venue: this could be a hotel, restaurant where you rent a space or block one or more tables for you and your guests.
- Venue Decoration
- Entertainment/ DJ (music)
- Souvenirs (gifts for your guests)
HINT: For a low budget wedding anniversary party, you’ll want to use what you have – your house or backyard as the venue; play music from DVDs you have at home; cook the food yourself. If you have grown-up kids, they will be thrilled if you involve them here and there – children love to be part of their parents’ anniversary celebration.
3. Decide How Many Guests to Invite
You don’t want to invite more guests than you can feed, so it’s best to determine how many people your food budget can cater for. Remember that if you invite more than you can feed, the hungry ones will abuse you – I know that you don’t want that.
A very easy way of doing this is to ask event caterers how much a plate of food will cost. That’s if you plan to use a restaurant or hotel as the venue of your wedding anniversary OR if you can use the per-plate-price of your favourite restaurant to do a rough calculation. To figure out the number of guests within your budget to invite, divide your total food budget by the per-plate-price.
4. Decide on a Place for the Party
After completing steps 1 to 3 above, you should know the how much you budgeted to hire a venue (that’s if you’re not using your house); and since you now know how many guests you will host (from step 2 above), you should have a rough idea of the size of venue that will be right for your occasion.
So, it’s time to book the venue – ensure to do so early (at least 6 weeks in advance) as most good venues get booked full fast.
Where you choose to host your wedding anniversary party is your choice – your house or a rented venue. If you plan to book a venue. To give you an idea of great wedding anniversary party venues, popular choices among couples include the couple’s house or backyard, a restaurant (you can book one or more tables, depending on how many guests you expect), a hotel meeting room or event room, a garden or park.
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Angie says
Hi Stella,
This has been quite helpful and inspirational, as my parents are intent on celebrating their anniversary by December. Didn’t mention anything about photography though. Thanks
Stella Anokam says
Hello Angie. Thanks for reading, and feedback, dear.
You’re right – photography is a big part of wedding vow renewal/ anniversary party planning. Now that you pointed it out, we’ll find time to include that in post update.
Congratulations to your parents, from us. And, if you’d like – you could update us with how you planned it for them, plus photos of the day.
Hello Stella,
The anniversary celebration has just been concluded….. Indeed, it was awesome. I will send some of the pics this week and contact the photographer for the rest.
Hey Angel:
I’m so happy to hear from you again. Glad that your wedding anniversary party was a fabulous one – I had no doubt about that. That’s so nice of you to want to send me the pics. I can’t wait to see them. Have a merry Christmas, and may the new year be your best year ever! Hope to see more of you on our blog:)
Thanx so much, ma….. This has really been helpful though we have done most of the preparations but this will help us to correct some of our mistakes.
But please ma, I have a question. Do I need a bouquet as we will renew our marriage vows before the party?
You’re welcome, Angel. Thanks for the feedback.
About flower bouquet: It’s perfectly okay to carry a bouquet on your vow renewal ceremony – I’ve seen a couple of women do this. To add some fun to it, your husband could pin a matching flower-buttonhole (aka boutoniere) on his suit.
What to wear: Wearing white may appear somehow to your guests, even if the outfit looks great. As a Nigerian, you have the option of wearing a traditional wear and a long gown/ dress. If you choose to wear a long dressy-gown, any style or colour would do. Some stylish women choose to wear a long wedding-gown-like, dinner-gown-like dress that is NOT WHITE. The men don’t have problems with a choice of vow renewal outfit, your husband can wear a suit or a Nigerian traditional menswear.
Don’t forget the Rings: Many couples choose to exchange new rings (anniversary bands) every year they renew their vows. While that is optional, most couples also use that time to upgrade their original wedding rings (especially if the original one has become tighter or was just a management-ring).
Hope those tips will help. Feel free to ask me any questions. I planned to do these types of articles next year, but I’m happy that you’ve made me to write it now. My name is Stella – feel free to call me that:) What date is your vow renewal?
Thanx so much, Stella.
I’m very delighted to read from you.
Our date is 21st December. We have already bought new rings and the dresses. Our colours are white, blue and silver. As for the bouquet, what colour combination will it comprise of? Secondly, my little girl of 6 years will be the chief bridesmaid, is it also necessary for her to carry a small bouquet too?
Hi Angel. Awesome – your vow renewal date is awesome (will kick into Christmas:). A simple, white bouquet would do, or you may want to work in your chief bridesmaid’s (daughter) dress colour into the bouquet. It’s not necessary for your bridesmaid to carry a bouquet since it’s not a wedding – but then, who says you can’t? If you’d like that, you can let her carry one.
I’m happy to know that you’re on top of the planning side, and you’re working with your traditional wedding anniversary colour. I’d like to see the pictures after the event – ensure to get a very good photographer and videographer.
Thanx so much, Stella.
Reading from u has been a good source of inspiration. Thanx for being there for me. I have a very good photographer and I will definitely send the pics to you.
About making a speech on that day, how do I go about it?
Hi Angel. You’re so welcome – thanks for the awesome feedback. We can’t wait to see the pictures.
About the speech – here are some ideas:
-To have one or some of your long-time friends (of you and your husband) narrate the love story of the celebrants (you and your husband). This should be someone that has known both of you for almost as long as you’d been married. A fun thing could be to invite your original bestman and/ or chief bridesmaid to give a speech or the ceremonial toast. You could also have a few of your immediate family members give speech too.
-Other typical types of speeches you may want to include in your wedding anniversary program include: inspirational message from a friend and/ or a few selected guests. The last speech should be a ‘thank you message’ by the celebrants (both of you).
-By the way, if they allow you to write your own vows (the renewal), that would be fun. If not, you may want to do so during the after-church reception party.