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Congratulations on your First Anniversary and welcome to this web page just for you!
The tradition of celebrating the beauty and sanctity of Catholic marriage was established over fifty years ago in the Diocese of Trenton by honoring couples with milestone wedding anniversaries – 25th, 50th and over 50 years. In 2012 the annual Bishop’s Anniversary Blessing was opened to first anniversary couples as well, reflecting the spirit of Pope Francis who praises young couples for having the courage to “swim against the tide …to rebel against this culture that sees everything as temporary.”
As a first anniversary couple, your marriage is a sign of new life, new love and hope for the future. This year the global pandemic prevents us from gathering together in person for the blessing of our anniversary couples, but the pandemic cannot stop us from recognizing and celebrating our First Anniversary couples who deserve our gratitude and love.
Here you will find everything you need to celebrate your 1st anniversary in truly meaningful ways. You’ll learn the significance of paper for first wedding anniversary gift-giving, discover creative ideas for establishing your own anniversary traditions, be treated to a “walk down memory lane” to help relive your special day, receive inspiration and tools for the months and years ahead, and find a special section devoted to the uniqueness of Catholic marriage. So Happy First Anniversary - and enjoy! -
Happy First Anniversary!
Ideas for Celebrating Your First Anniversary
The Gift of Paper
Dating back to the Victorian Era of the 1800’s, the traditional gift for first anniversary couples is paper. For some, paper represents a blank slate and a place to write your future together. Paper is the ancient means of communication to record the stories of our past and hopes for our future. For others, paper reminds us of our modest and fragile beginnings as we adjust to the newness of married life.
As a first anniversary couple you can give your own meaning to the traditional gift of paper. For Catholic couples, a wonderful idea is to print out and frame the various scripture passages that were read at your wedding. You can hang them or display them in various rooms in your home and take special time to re-read them each anniversary. Scripture is the living Word of God so each time you read it as a couple it will speak to you and inspire you in a different way.
More Paper Gifts...
If you don’t already have a family bible, your first anniversary is a wonderful time to purchase a leatherbound keepsake bible that you’ll have for years to come and that can be passed down to future generations. “Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers” is another must-have book for all Catholic families, with many beautiful prayers that can be made into artistic printouts suitable for framing.One of the most meaningful yet simple paper gifts you can give to each other is a love letter summing up all that has happened in your first year of marriage. If you happened to write love letters to each other at Pre-Cana, what a perfect time to bring them back out and read them to each other. Catholic couples who’ve been married for years find their Pre-Cana love letters to be a powerful reminder of their hopes and dreams as they prepared for their wedding day.
The Perfect Anniversary Gift...
Our smart phones or tablets enable us to capture so many moments from our daily lives in photos and short video clips. You can use your photo and video gallery along with instructions you'll find on the web to create a video tribute to your first year of marriage, one that you'll enjoy for years to come that can be shared one day with your children and grandchildren.
Creating Anniversary Traditions
It’s important for all married couples to create their own anniversary traditions and to take time to celebrate every wedding anniversary in a special way. For many relationship experts, celebrating each anniversary is as important as the wedding day. Anniversaries afford couples the opportunity to remember the past in a positive light and to make each other feel truly loved.
Some age-old traditions include eating a piece of the wedding cake (hopefully frozen and well-preserved), and for the bride to put on her wedding dress once again. If you have a professionally produced video of your wedding day, make it a tradition to watch the video together each anniversary. Pull out the wedding album (or your thumb drive of photos) and take the time to view and talk about each picture
For Catholic couples, your anniversary is the perfect time to thank God for each other in a formal way, perhaps by attending morning mass together or praying together in a sacred space. To make your prayer time especially meaningful, consider your own Holy Hour in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.Using your anniversary as a chance to revisit the places where it all began, the church of your marriage or even the grounds of your reception venue, can help you recall the wonder and magic of your wedding day.
Whether you travel to a special get-away, eat out at an elegant restaurant, stay overnight at and old-fashioned bed and breakfast, or make a special dinner at home, be sure to commemorate your anniversary with a special meal. Your marriage began with a meal – perhaps it was the Eucharist if you had a wedding mass, or perhaps it was the meal you shared at your reception. While all meals are important for married couples and families, the anniversary meal is your meal of remembrance for your wedding day.
A Walk Down Memory Lane – 2019
For first anniversary couples, the memories of your wedding day are fresh and vivid. As with all married couples who have travelled a while on their marriage journey, some details of your wedding day will begin to fade while others will be etched in your memory. Such memories take on great significance when we connect them to important events in our lives and in the world around us.
So join us for your "walk down memory lane" so that one day you will be able to recount for your children and grandchildren what life was like the year you were married as you share the beautiful story of your wedding day.2019 - A Retrospective
The year you were married, 2019, will go down in history as the year that gave us Covid-19, yet most of us were blissfully unaware that our world was about to change forever. The country was gearing up for a presidential election with passionate debates and a plethora of colorful stories of all things political.
President Donald Trump shared his thoughts openly and often via social media.
There were natural disasters with heroic rescue efforts and global stories of the triumph of the human spirit in all areas of human life, and all these moments were reported to us at lightning speed through the miracle
of technology. This gift of technology afforded us the ability to connect instantaneously with our fellow Catholics (over 1.2 billion of us) all over the world, and with our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the most influential religious leader on earth.
In popular culture, the top movies were Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody, leading musical genres were Electronic Music, Rock Music and Hip-hop (includes Rap), and among top TV shows were Game of Thrones and Stranger Things.
The average cost of a wedding was $33,900; the most popular songs for the first dance included some old and some new – Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers, All of Me by John Legend, At Last by Etta James, My Best Friend by Tim McGraw, and The Way You Look Tonight by Frank Sinatra. Honeymoons were taken in exotic places such as Bora Bora, New Zealand, St. Lucia, the Grecian Islands, Iceland and Thailand. Nearly all couples would have had a gift registry they compiled together that would include all the items they would need to begin married life together.Remembering Your Marriage Prep
To prepare for your Catholic wedding you probably attended Pre-Cana, completed a pre-marital inventory, met with your priest or deacon to complete your paperwork, and perhaps even worked with a mentor couple.
In researching reception venues, caterers, photographers and bands (or DJ’s), you may have consulted family and friends, but as with all things in 2019 you relied on the internet for most information. Unlike your parents’ wedding which was likely planned primarily by the bride with assistance from her mother, you probably planned your wedding as a couple and you both may have contributed significantly to the cost of your wedding.Your Wedding Finally Arrives
Your wedding may have had a special theme depending on your interests or the time of year; you may have supplied your own customized décor, centerpieces, name tags and gifts for your guests. Perhaps you reserved a block of rooms for your respective families, the wedding party and traveling guests, or perhaps your guests were hosted at home by family members and friends, and the rehearsal dinner was like a family reunion. Your 2019 wedding celebration may have extended into the next day with a special brunch for family and close friends. This kind of extended celebration is reminiscent of Jesus’ time when wedding feasts often lasted an entire week!
To remember the events of your wedding you relied on a photographer or two to capture the special moments, but some of the best candid shots and videos may have been taken by wedding guests, family or your closest friends. These photos will be a precious link to the past as you journey through the years of marriage.The details of your wedding mass (or ceremony) will become more and more important to you as the years go by, so keeping a copy of your music, readings, psalms and the prayers for your wedding will be helpful in this endeavor. Taking the time each year to commemorate your special day by purposefully recalling not only the details of the day, but also your hopes, dreams and deepest feelings, is a priceless gift that is yours alone to share.
Inspiration and Tools for the Journey
The following resources have been selected specifically for you as a newly married Catholic couple. In celebration of your first anniversary we want to provide you with the inspiration and practical tools you’ll need for happy, healthy and holy marriage. Let's start with a free resource that will help you with every aspect of married life...
The Better Together Marriage Prep and Marriage Enrichment Program from Dynamic CatholicThis free program covers the gamut of marriage topics with practical teaching, tips and tools from experienced Catholic couples. This is a video-based program includes free downloadable workbooks that can be used for both marriage preparation and marriage enrichment and is perfect for the first years of marriage.
The Topics:Great Videos for Newly Married Catholic Couples
The following videos from Ascension Press are short and to the point but very practical. They offer guidance from a Catholic perspective that will assist you in various aspects of daily family life.
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Jackie and Bobby Angel share the joys and struggles of marriage. They discuss the everyday experiences that have taught them how to live for each other, and demonstrate how communication and self-sacrifice are the keys to a healthy relationship between a husband and wife.
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Jackie and Bobby Angel offer their thoughts on marriage, the everyday sacrifice it requires and the ultimate joy it brings.
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Beatboxer and speaker Paul J. Kim and his wife Maggie share their insights about the opportunities and the beauty of both single life and married life, with the help of Nerf guns, honesty, and a baby with a really great head of hair.
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The Advice that Improved Our Marriage
Welcome to Jackie and Bobby’s new Ascension Presents channel! In this inaugural video, they offer some of the most practical advice on married life one could hope to receive. These four tips can help those who are already married, and anyone looking forward to taking their vows build a strong foundation for a marriage that gives glory to God: 1) Don’t make your loved one into an idol, 2) Communicate with your spouse (especially when it’s most difficult), 3) Work on becoming more holy before entering a relationship, 4) Make sure there’s a friendship underneath the romance.
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Live Richly: Faith and Marriage
Authors Mark and Niki Kalpakgian dive into the mystery of marriage and parenthood, unveiling the blessings that are often overlooked when we’re caught up in the everyday of family life. They speak of all the joys they experienced after saying yes to starting a family, and share how their Catholic faith brought them this sense of fulfillment.
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Mastering Love and Relationships
Who doesn’t want to have more constructive conversations in their close relationships? In this video, Fr. Mike Schmitz explains how achieving this may be simpler than you think. So many times, we just don’t give the people we love the attention they deserve. Fr. Mike shows us how to fix that and master our love relationships.
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Signs Your Relationship is Falling Apart
Fr. Mike discusses four signs that your relationship is in danger of falling apart, especially when it comes to stonewalling. Stonewalling, as used in the context of this video, is when we refuse to communicate or cooperate with someone.
Psychologist Dr. John Gottman calls it one of the “four horsemen of the apocalypse”, or one of four types of expression that indicate that your relationship is falling apart. The other three are defensiveness, criticism, and contempt.
As Christians, we should always pay attention to the one who is communicating with us. After all, we would expect at least that much from them when communicating with them. Loving someone means seeing them. By seeing, here we mean literally looking them in the eyes when they talk to you, but also understanding them and seeing them as a person made in God’s image.
Great Books for Newly Married Catholic Couples:
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The Forgiveness Book: A Catholic Approach by Alice Camille and Paul Boudreau
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Catholic and Newly Married – 5 Challenges and 5 Opportunities, by Steve and Kathy Beirne
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7 Steps to Becoming Financially Free: A Catholic Guide to Managing Your Money, by Phil Lenahan
Great Websites and Articles for Newly Married Catholic Couples:
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https://www.foryourmarriage.org/married-life/newly-weds-building-the-foundation/
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https://www.catholicmarriageprep.com/blog/entry/2017-08-01-21-29-39
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6 Ways to Have a Great Relationship with Your In-laws by Matthew Kelly
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The Relationship With Your In-Laws (The first mother-in-law was Eve) by Fr. Joshan Rodrigues
A Note on Catholic Marriage
Catholic Marriage is unique among other marital relationships because it is a sacrament that makes Christ present in our world. The relationship between husband and wife mirrors the relationship of Jesus Christ for his people. In the Catholic tradition, husband and wife accept a role in God’s plan for humanity. They are ambassadors of God’s love, and they collaborate with God to keep humanity alive.
The vows exchanged by the couple are a sacred pact through which the spouses embrace each other, and, together, embrace Jesus as their partner. Through their union with Christ they participate in the unbreakable pact between God and humanity: the covenant that was sealed in the death and resurrection of Christ.
Catholic Marriage has four main dimensions. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (the complete teachings of Jesus and our Catholic faith) describes marriage as a “partnership of the whole of life.” Married couples are called to the deepest level of intimacy and friendship – a one-flesh union. They seek the good of each other, share interests, and genuinely enjoy spending time together.
Secondly, Catholic marriage is a covenant – married couples enter a sacred covenant, a promise to be faithful to each other unto death. This is not a private matter between the couple but is deeply connected to the Church that sustains and nourishes the couple. The Holy Spirit gives couples the grace (divine strength) to sustain their marital covenant.
The third characteristic of Catholic marriage is sacrament – it is a visible sign of the invisible reality of Christ’s love. It is the couple themselves who are ministers of the sacrament – they marry each other. Sacramental marriage implies that the couple will practice their faith and be active members of a parish community.
The fourth main dimension of Catholic marriage is that it is a vocation of service. Married couples, by their baptism, are called to serve each other, their children, their family members, their parish and neighborhood communities, and ultimately, the world (Read more about living your Catholic marriage).
