Message from Maggie: Its hard to believe our wedding was a year ago!  What an incredible and wonderful ONE it has been.  Traditionally, for the first wedding anniversary you give a gift of paper.  Soooooo… what did I come up with?

How to:

Maps

• I added to our map room by getting him two new (old!) maps from a recent trip we took to Colorado and Lake Champlain, where we are headed for our first anniversary.
  • If you live at DC visit the “map guy” at the flea at Eastern Market. He has a HUGE selection of maps to choose from for around $10. Most of them are from map books at the turn of the century.
  • If you don’t live in DC you can email the “map guy” at tom@diversemarkets.net and he will text or email pictures of maps you are trying to track down. Another option is to try eBay. When the map guy doesn’t have what I am looking for I have had luck on eBay.
  • Once you have your map, I like to put them in a frame for a finished look before gifting. I recommend these Ikea Ribba Frames which come with a nice matting making them look professionally framed.
  • Costs:  With a $10 map paired with a $10 frame, you can achieve this thoughtful gift for around $20.

Photo Book

• I also gave him this “one.” iPhoto book with photos from our first year.
  • Rather than feel the pressure to create a book on a dime or have to dig up photos at the last minute, I continuously worked throughout the year to upload photos to the book so when the time came I could just hit print.
  • I created the simple title “one.” and a little note and voila!  A compilation of actual printed photographs.
  • Cost:  Depending on the size of the book, you can create one on iPhoto for between $30-100.

You can read all about the anniversary gifts by year using this cute Woman getting Married Guide below.