It’s here – our big day has finally arrived! Officially 15 years married and 20 years together. We got married pretty young, but seeing numbers like that still shock us sometimes. It’s so hard to believe that we’ve basically spent half of our lives together. We’ve built the family and life that we always dreamed of and we’re so happy to be sharing our story with all of you along the way. It’s been such a special experience the last few months recounting all of our anniversary gifts to each other over the years while finding even more options now that we weren’t aware of before.
Thank you to everyone who has shared in Our Present Journey over the last few months. And if you’re finding us later on, welcome! Please enjoy reading our previous posts as we reminisced on our anniversary gift tradition over the last 15 years. We share our interpretation of the anniversary gift meanings for each year and share hundreds of gifts that are unique, special, romantic, useful, fun, and more!
And now that the countdown has officially struck zero, we are so happy to share what we gave each other for our big 15th anniversary! The traditional gift category for this year is Crystal while the modern gift is Watches.
I knew that a traditional crystal gift would be a challenge to find for Jay. We had already bought a few Waterford items for each other, and he really didn’t need anything else. So I needed to be creative. Randomly one day, I thought of Crystal Springs Resort in New Jersey. If you’re from the tri-state area you’ve no doubt heard about it or traveled there before.
Jay and I have always wanted to go but the timing has just never worked out with kids, work, activities and everything else that keeps us busy. And if you’ve been reading Our Present Journey for awhile, you’ll know that Jay loves to golf and we both enjoy a good spa day! Crystal Springs literally has it all, and crystal is literally in the name. It’s a year-round destination whether you enjoy golfing, swimming and winery tours in the summer, or skiing, cozy dinners, and hiking in the colder months.
I didn’t want to spoil the surprise and plan this together, but I wanted to finally commit to making a trip there together. So I bought Jay a gift card to the resort and told him we must go in 2024, no exceptions! Of course he didn’t object and is so excited to finally go together. Now we just need to arrange childcare and decide what season we want to visit. Stay tuned next year for when we finally go! We can’t wait to share our review of the resort with you.
If you’ve been reading Our Present Journey you’ll remember that I gave Jay a new watch for each of our 1st, 3rd, and 5th anniversaries. So since it’s been 10 years, and that this year’s category is finally Watches rather than Clocks, Leather, and Silverware, I figured it was the perfect anniversary to give Jay another watch. And actually be completely in line with the gift category for a change! When researching new gift ideas to post on Our Present Journey, we found MVMT, a relatively new premium watch brand.
Jay quickly became obsessed with the style of watches they sold. He loves all the watches that he has, but a lot of them are either too casual or too dressy and just don’t fit his everyday life that easily. Somehow MVMT watches are able to perfectly blend the sophisticated look while remaining casual enough to wear every day. Jay showed me the Legacy Slim model a few times and pointed out how much he liked it. I was surprised he didn’t just buy it for himself right away, but maybe he figured I’d get the hint and buy it for our anniversary. I guess he was right!
When I started to think of crystal anniversary gifts, Swarovski immediately came to mind. I knew I’d find some incredible jewelry that Annie would love. Most of her jewelry is silver with a few gold pieces, so I knew crystal would be a unique and new addition to her lineup. I quickly found a beautiful bracelet that I wanted to buy. From the picture online I could tell that it would twinkle and glisten in the light on Annie’s wrist. Since this is a big milestone anniversary for us, I thought why stop at just one piece!? Perfect opportunity to add a pair of crystal earrings to the gift for a complete set! Annie is super excited to wear them for one of our upcoming events next year.
As Annie wrote about earlier, 15 is finally an actual watch gift anniversary rather than having to be creative with leather or silver. So I set my eyes on finding the perfect watch for Annie. She wears a Fitbit everyday and hasn’t really shown much interest in an Apple Watch yet. But I have noticed over the last couple years when we go to formal events like a wedding or baptism, she wishes she had a fancier watch to match her outfits rather than the Fitbit.
After some research, I found an elegant and classy silver watch with sparkly zirconia gems surrounding the face. I thought it was simple enough to match most outfits while looking dressy enough for even the most formal events. Even better, the shiny gems would match the crystal jewelry that I bought Annie for this anniversary, too! She’s looking forward to wearing it to a few events that we have planned early next year!
And that makes 15. So many gifts and incredible memories shared between us over the years, and we’ve had so much fun sharing it with all of you over the last few months. It’s hard to believe the day we’ve been racing towards has finally come and gone. But with our first 15 years officially in the books, we have our eyes set on the next 15. Our kids will continue to grow and explore the world in new ways that we never could. And we will continue developing our bond that started 20 years ago and has blossomed into a beautiful marriage and life spent together.
Even though we’ve concluded our anniversary gift tradition, there’s still so much to share! Now we will start expanding our gift recommendations for each year and category so you all have even more options to choose from. Plus, the countdown to our 16th anniversary has now started and we’ll eventually have to start thinking about those gifts for each other. Any guesses what the anniversary gift categories are? Stay tuned! Make sure you follow us on Instagram for the latest updates from Our Present Journey!