One hundred memories...

November 4, 2010 10:15 AM

Our 10-year wedding anniversary is coming up in 2 weeks. I'm compiling a list of 100 (or maybe more) memories. How can I present the list to my husband?

I'm putting together a list of at least 100 special words, travel memories, restaurants, movies, events, etc. that my husband and I have shared over the last 10 years of our wedded bliss. Most items on the list are between 1-10 words. Such as "Driving, and driving, and driving to Key West" and "whipped carrots." Obviously, some items are fairly personal, but I plan to write them so that only we would know what they mean, in case some family member or future child wants to see the list.

Other than simply reading these things to him or handing him a piece of paper on our anniversary, which seems kind of boring, I would like to present them to him in a more unique and meaningful way. Something that could be kept and/or displayed would be nice.

I am hoping for some creative suggestions to help me show him how much I appreciate him and cherish our marriage and the times we share together. Affordable options preferred, but I'm open to all ideas. Thank you in advance!

posted by georgiabloom to Grab Bag (16 answers total)

I would present it two ways. If he has email on his phone, I would pre-write 100 different messages and using Boomerang, would time them to go out every 15 minutes. All through the day he will be getting these reminders. Two, I would hand write an introduction and then hand write the list on nice paper and maybe have it bound into some sort of folder/book. If you are artistic, you could illustrate a bunch of them too. Or if not as artistic, you could add relevant photos on the page with the memory. (Could also add the photos to the emails as well.)
posted by AugustWest at 10:22 AM on November 4, 2010

I would use a scrap book of some kind, but make it so that even after a work/phrase per page (with associated photos etc. if appropriate and if you have time), you still have tons of room for all the new stuff you're going to do together.
posted by djgh at 10:23 AM on November 4, 2010

What about a digital picture frame? It could flip between all 100 things throughout the day.
posted by ms.v. at 10:23 AM on November 4, 2010 [1 favorite]

A digital frame? I thought of this AskMe when I read your question. Perhaps a each frame can have a phrase or word, or even a picture associated with each memory?
posted by defenestrated at 10:24 AM on November 4, 2010

I did something similar for my now-ex. I got a deck of tiny (1/4 size) unlined flash cards and a pack of colored pencils and drew a little cartoon depiction of a memory on each card. If you don't mind a self-link, here is how they turned out. The fact that we eventually divorced doesn't make me any less happy about how that project turned out.
posted by julthumbscrew at 10:24 AM on November 4, 2010 [3 favorites]

hmm, another failure to use preview...
posted by defenestrated at 10:24 AM on November 4, 2010

Seconding what liketitanic said. I put a similar memento together for my wife a number of years back, and she loved it. Just make sure to choose a jar with an opening wide enough to make getting the pieces of paper out reasonably easy; I used an antique medicine jar with a cork, which looks great but getting the papers out without damaging them is like playing Operation.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:28 AM on November 4, 2010

Go to a craft supply store and buy one of those decorative branches (comes in a group, usually used for floral arrangements.) You can also get some spray paint if you want the branches to be a different color. Get some nice paper - consider color, texture, hand-made vs. cold-pressed, etc - and use a stencil or get a paper cutter in whatever shape and punch/cut out a bunch of the shapes. (Could be a leaf, flower, simple circle, star, scalloped circle, etc.) Write each memory on one of the shapes, and tie to the decorative branches with ribbon, twine, fishing line, or whatever. Arrange in some kind of container - vase, jar, wooden box, whatever. You can totally control the aesthetic of this project and make it look anywhere from minimalist modern to shabby chic, depending on what you two are into. This project/sculpture can be displayed in the house indefinitely, or disassembled and the leaves/flowers/circles put in an envelope or pasted into a scrapbook at a later date.

Memail me if you want suggestions for different color/paper schemes.
posted by ohsnapdragon at 10:32 AM on November 4, 2010 [1 favorite]

What about making a Blurb book?
posted by questionsandanchors at 10:39 AM on November 4, 2010

Step 1: Sneak them into various things he opens for a week, building up the frequency of them appearing. One in his wallet amongst his money or something he'd pull out on a daily basis. One or two in a book he's reading. Hide them around the house, car, in the clothes drawer, in the refrigerator, etc. If you're feeling fancy, order premade fortune cookies (no bias towards these folks, just sites I found) or you could make your own. Plastic Easter eggs or other toy capsules are fun, too. Hide them in areas that vaguely relate to the memories.

Step 2: present the collected memories in something more lasting, gift-wrapped. Alternatively, stash the memory container somewhere he'll find it early on and include a note that this is to "store the memories," hinting that there are more to be found (and made).

NOTE: make a list of where you hide them, so your guests don't accidentally stumble across a really personal one at some future date.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:51 AM on November 4, 2010

You could also string the circles of paper onto fishing line, with 1 - 3 feet in between each one, and set up a "maze" where your husband follows the line throughout the house/yard, perhaps starting at the front door and ending at the bedroom where you are waiting amorously? Alternatively, the line could end up at another gift you had made/purchased in the appropriate spot of the house. (His computer if it's something computer related, the TV for a video game, the garage for tools, the closet for clothes, the kitchen for a cooking gadget, etc. )

The line of notes could just lie on the ground, or you could get a bunch of tacks and tack it to the wall at various points, or just get scotch tape and attach it to various objects/walls etc.
posted by ohsnapdragon at 11:36 AM on November 4, 2010

Buy a beautifully bound book of blank pages and write one memory on each page. There and dozens of these at my local bookstore and I always wish I had a good reason to buy one.
posted by platinum at 11:50 AM on November 4, 2010

The flash card idea is great; I wish I had thought of that. Another possibility: go to the hobby store and get a big foam poster board and make a collage.
posted by bukvich at 1:21 PM on November 4, 2010

Post-Its! Do one of those crazy, cover-a-surface-with-post-its stunt for him, with each post-it containing one special part of your lives. After the surprise, take them down together & laugh & talk as you put them into a scapbook and talk about whatever memories come up as you do.

This person, for example, proposed by post-it :)

Or you could do something a little less insane like cover his car...
posted by Ys at 2:22 PM on November 4, 2010

If you have some photos you'd like to include along with them, I'd suggest an Animoto video. Have a look at their examples to see what you could achieve.

The texts are quite limited in length, but along with the soundtrack of a song you like, you could create something quite special.
posted by Gomez_in_the_South at 4:31 PM on November 4, 2010

I did something similar for my husband one Valentine's Day. I had business cards printed that said "I love you because..." in red, and a pair of holes punched on the left side. I wrote things on about 60 cards, ranging from serious to goofy to romantic and used two binder rings to turn the whole thing into a book of sorts. The nice thing is that 500 cards came in my order, so I still add stuff every now and then. I think the cards and rings were about $50.
posted by booksherpa at 7:05 PM on November 4, 2010