Anniversaries are important and should be well planned, so planning for your 1st anniversary is no exception. While it’s not a milestone like 5th or 10th anniversaries, it is still important enough to remember with a gift from you. That’s why you should start planning for the 1st marriage anniversary far in advance before the day itself arrives.

If you think you have a lot on your plate at the wedding, just wait until you’re married.

Okay, we’re kidding (sort of). However, it’s true that as you’re planning your wedding, there are some great things you can do during the run-up to the wedding day and immediately after to help make anniversaries more memorable—and maintain a healthy relationship with your partner.

Remembering simple things and jotting them down either on paper, in a blog or in your wedding planner will really help, believe us. After a year of what will be an extremely busy one likely to be full of change and acclimatisation to becoming one-half of a ‘couple’ there will be some details that you wished you had remembered for your 1st anniversary.

You know what we don’t think about enough? The details.

We’ve been married for 24 years, and we still forget to write down the most important things. Like what our first dance song was, or whether we had a DJ or a band. We also have no idea who officiated our wedding. We had three different people in charge of different parts of the ceremony!

So, as an aide memoire for other couples getting married—and because we’re weirdly nostalgic for our own wedding—we’ve put together a list below of some of the things people forget as an aide memoire. Use it as a list to store the details against.

First Song Danced to as a married couple.
Last song Danced to at the Wedding Celebration.
The Menu for the Wedding Breakfast meal.
What Champagne you toasted with.
What wine was served.
The Band or DJs Name.
The Official’s name (or their formal title.)
All your Guests.
The color theme for the wedding.

The Fundamental ones to remember

Someone pointed out that the list above had some glaring omissions on it, to be honest this is true! These are the fundamental ones that anyone should remember when planning for your 1st Wedding anniversary :

Who you married!
The date you Wed.
The time you Wed.
Where you Wed.
If you had a honeymoon, where it was
If you didn’t have a honeymoon, why not.

Is there something you wish you could remember from the actual wedding day? Let us know and we’ll add it to the list as a useful reminder for other couples.

Writing this 24 years on from the original wedding I can say the item I struggle with the most is the actual guest list. We found the photos taken at the time (and a magnifying glass) a great source for some of the info. For example, the wine and champagne.