Young House Love

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Our Anniversary Photo Tradition

Deck progress drags on, so we’ll be back with more details for you on Monday (wish we had more full days to devote to it, but it’ll probably be a weekly update situation like our first house’s bathroom reno and our kitchen redo since it’s such a big undertaking). But I just couldn’t resist sharing this in-progress picture of John and his dad telling the auger who’s boss:

Deck Preview Auger

Oh but the time it’s taking us to build this deck isn’t what I meant by the title of “half a decade” (at least we hope it won’t take us five years to get ‘er done). That has to do with our five year wedding anniversary, which is coming up on July 7th. How crazy is that? We can’t even grasp that it has been half of a decade since our little backyard wedding. And it means that seven years ago we shared our first kiss (we picked 7/7/07 as our wedding day because 7/7/05 was when we started dating – yes we kissed on the first date, haha).

Wedding Laughing 1

There are some parts of our wedding that we remember so vividly it easily could have been a month ago. So funny how time flies. And as some of you know, it has been a little tradition to take a picture of our family on July 7th in honor of our wedding day, like this:

NotWedding Four Years

This was last year’s picture, with just one wiggly kid…

4thanniversary1

… and with both of them…

4thanniversary2

We like to frame each year’s picture in small differently shaped capiz frames that we’ve found over time (from Target, thrift stores, Hobby Lobby, etc). But our sink was getting cluttered with four full frames and the latest empty one that we snagged from Target a few weeks back in anticipation of our fifth photo. So we decided to tackle a little photo-hanging project to get them off the sink and enjoy them in a nice little grouping on the wall next to it.

For some reason hanging frames seems to be something we get asked about the most, so we thought we’d break down the process for getting these guys on the wall without any oops holes. Either folks are just plain intimidated to hammer a nail into a pristine hole-less wall or they’re not sure how to settle on “the right” arrangement. The good news is there are probably always at least ten arrangements that would look good, so we just like to put the frames on the floor and play around until we have a little grouping that we like. Like this:

Frame Layout On Floor

The next step is to make little paper templates for each frame, so you can map out where you want to place them (and only make one hole in the correct spot for each frame instead of ten bad ones). We just laid the frame on top of white printer paper, traced the outline, cut them out, and taped them to the wall, shifting things around until we liked what we saw:

Templates2

We had also taken a second to mark where the nail hole needed to be on each one by holding it up against the back of the frame before taping it up and pushing a nail through to rest on the hook on the back of the frame. So when we taped them up they already had these nail guide holes to completely take the guesswork out of things.

Templates4

Some of our frames didn’t come with hooks for hanging them on the wall (since they’re meant to be tabletop frames) so we just picked up a pack of picture hanging hardware at JoAnn for 99 cents (for four of them). Then I crazy glued them to the back of the frame and pulled off the little flap that you use to stand them on the counter (since the flap would make them sit away from the wall more than we wanted them to).

Templates05

Next we just hammered through the pre-made hole in the paper template where we knew the nail should go for each one.

Templates3

Which looked a little something like this:

Nails In Templates2

Then we left the nails in the wall and pulled the paper templates off. Less then a minute later we had everything hanging. And then I ran outside to grab some flowers, because I’m girly like that.

Templates 6

It’s sweet to see four anniversary photos all together on the wall, with that blank fifth one just waiting for our latest family pic in a few weeks.

Teplates7

Think Clara and Burger are going to cooperate this year? Nah, me either. But that’s half the fun.

Oh and we thought this could also double as a budget blooms post since we’re woefully overdue for one of those. See all these flowers I mentioned running outside for? Yup, they’re all free from the yard! They’re clippings from the hydrangea bushes out by the patio, and a giant man-eating (not really, but it’s huge) butterfly bush in the back yard.

Templates8

I just stuck a little glass vase full of water in the middle of this giant ceramic planter (from HomeGoods a while back) on top of a cardboard box to lift it up so the stems of everything didn’t have to be impossibly long.

Templates11

I love the little pointy butterfly bush clippings mixed in with the lace-like balls o’ hydrangea. I wonder if they’ll live long enough to see us put our next picture in the empty five-year-anniversary frame?

Templates9

Probably not, but they sure are pretty for now.

Templates10

I especially love how you can appreciate all the different types of capiz frames since they’re not all jumbled in front of each other on the counter anymore.

Templates12

And come to think of it, hydrangeas are pretty fitting for that vase beneath them since they were in my little homemade wedding bouquet.

Wedding Portrait 25

Oh my gosh, was that really five years ago? I’m in denial. Haha. Anyone else have any anniversary traditions or frame groupings you’ve been hanging up? Do you use paper templates to simplify things? Or do you have another easy hanging method? Share and share alike!

Psst- We announced this week’s giveaway winner, so click here to see if it’s you.

Comments

  2. Rebecca says

    When I read this and before I scrolled down…
    This was last year’s picture, with just one wiggly kid…
    My heart jumped! I thought you were announcing another pregnancy!

    Reply

  3. Julie says

    The picture hanging trick blew my mind! Oh my gosh, why didn’t I ever think of that!? That could have saved my walls about 386 nail hole mistakes. You two are really inspiring. I love your cheerful and idea packed blog! Thanks!

    Reply

    • Tonya says

      Me too! How smart are they?! I usually like to slap my stuff up, realize it needs to be moved, reslap it up and pray it actually works that time. Yeah, lots of patched holes where I have things grouped on the wall….

  4. Megan says

    I love the idea of using all capiz shell frames. It ties them in nicely without being matchy matchy. Very cute!

    I’ve been married 6 years and have been with my hubby for 10 this fall… that’s crazy to me, so I understand the whole shock of how quickly time flies! Good luck getting the kid/dog combo to cooperate! :)

    Reply

  5. Ashleigh says

    Congratulations on FIVE YEARS! We are celebrating our fifth anniversary tomorrow. Praying little girl waits until at least the 17th to come since we had a “five-year agreement.” ha ha! Five years goes way too fast and makes me wonder if I’ll feel the same way at 25, 50, etc.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw, congrats on the little girl in waiting! Haha. The doc told me Clara was going to be 2 weeks early since I was walking around dilated to a 4, but she waited until just a week before her due date. It was sweet of her. Haha. Or mean, depending on how you look at it (I was ready for her, and ready to not be prego anymore, haha).

      xo,
      s

  6. Evin says

    Happy almost anniversary! We always celebrate with a nice meal. This year it was an amazing Porterhouse steak with baby napping in the stroller. The photos are a great idea though. Perhaps a new tradition now that we’ve gone from two to three. And the paper trick is going to be my new favorite party trick.

    Reply

  7. Sarah says

    Awwww, you guys! Super cute :) i especially love this post as I first discovered your blog googling around for diy garden weddings! Yours has given me so much inspiration… although we still have yet to get married, oops! I feel for you with that ‘was it really 5 years ago’ denial!

    Reply

  8. Rachel says

    My hubby and I take an anniversary picture every year too, usually at whichever restaurant we decide to celebrate at! This year is our 5-year anni too!! Ours is in October, though. I agree, how the time flies!!

    Reply

  10. Casey @ wafflingdesign says

    If you want to attach one of those hanging brackets with the tiny screws, i have a trick

    I take a hammer and nail and give it a tap to make a pilot hole, then it is easy to screw the little screw in

    Reply

  11. Taya says

    Happy almost wedding anniversary! My fiance and I are getting married on July 7th of this year! I think 7/7 is kind of a magic date (in reality it was just a Saturday that fit my rule of being far enough away from the end of the school year and far enough away from the beginning of the next school year)!

    Can’t wait to see the 5th anniversary photo!

    Reply

  12. Caroline says

    Congrats on 5 years! Another easy, but perhaps less precise, trick for picture hanging is to trace all the frames (as you’d like them arranged) on a large sheet of paper and use that as a guide. Might be easier than cutting out 5 separate shapes, however you lose the ability to move the individual frame shapes around when they’re up on the wall.

    Reply

  13. Brenda says

    I really like the little photo arrangement. And those flowers are to die for! Blues and purples together are my favorites, so this post is a double-win!

    Reply

  14. Heather says

    We’re doing a photo of just us each year, holding up a little sign with the magic number on it. This year we decided to do it kind of at the last minute, so our “sign” is just some white cardstock and a sharpie scribbled “1”. But I’ve bought a super cute frame from Hobby Lobby, spray painted the frame itself hot pink and painted the glass with chalkboard paint.

    I can’t wait to see how we age together and how we change over the years.

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K2wwF1Pko_I/T5dD8j8wjFI/AAAAAAAAB4s/Vhy_2g3Nc-U/s1600/IMG_2327.JPG

    Reply

  15. Rachel says

    My husband and I are going on 4 years this year! We make a point to do something fun and out side. We’ve been camping, canoeing, hiking and this year we are renting a cottage on a little lake so we can relax and go swimming with our daughter. :)

    Reply

  16. Kim W Rily says

    You know, I tried the taping paper thing up last time, but I forgot the part about holding it up to do the nail spots first. VERY important step.

    Now I know. We just hit 8 years. With two kids, it’s all we can do to get a date. First few years, we went on a beach weekend, hot air ballooning in Temecula, Mexico. Now it’s dinner and a movie, which is just fine with us, because we can still wake up with our kids and hang out all day too.

    Reply

  20. Maggie says

    omg when you said here we are with one wiggly baby I thought it was going to be a clever way of saying you’re pregnant! I don’t know why, I don’t know if I’ve ever thought that about anyone. So weird!

    Reply

  22. Kala M. says

    My parents’ anniversary is also July 7th. It will be their 28th anniversary this year. My husband and I just celebrated 7 years together and 2 years married on June 12th. We decided to get married on our dating anniversary.

    We don’t really have any traditions but this year we went to this little shop near our apartment where you can paint ceramics and then fire them for you. I can’t wait to see how they came out. I painted a trivet with the design from our wedding invitations using our wedding colors and wrote our wedding date in the middle. I think I’ll get a plate hanger and put it on the wall.

    Reply

  23. Angela says

    I really love your idea of taking an anniversary picture each year. I think we will start doing that on our third anniversary – July11. Happy anniversary in a few weeks – may you have many, many more pictures to add to that collection!

    Reply

  24. Christa @ a*typicaljourney says

    Congrats on your milestone, guys! Your little frame walls are always amazing. I love that this one lives next to the bathroom sink, so you guys can look at it every morning during your primping routine :)
    My wedding is planned for July 6 of next year and my dad’s birthday is July 7, so I’m a big fan of your anniversary date, too :D
    Hope you guys have a wonderful anniversary!
    -Christa

    ps- I never would have thought to take an annual anniversary photo, but now I definitely will. Thanks for the idea!

    Reply

  25. Amy says

    We do the same thing, but we take our picture at Christmas time in front of our tree. The first year it was just the 2 of us with 2 dogs and then last year it was the 2 of us with 3 dogs and a baby. :-) We were married a week after you guys. July 14, 2007. I need to do something like this in our house to show off our yearly picture.

    Reply

  26. how2home says

    It’s great to see how much you’ve accomplished in half decade of time and I think it’s great that you and John did a small intimate wedding instead of spending spending so much money on 1 night of celebration. It’s more realistic to use the money for a house down payment or whatever it may be.

    The photo arrangements are really nice! I like the fact that you use paper as a guideline first, why didn’t i ever think of that! Do you usually follow the rule of using odd numbers than even numbers for any designs?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We definitely don’t even think about that rule with frames! We love a grid of even or odd numbered frames, so we just mess around and see what looks good (we have eight frames over our sofa, so even can be nice and symmetrical too).

      xo,
      s

  27. Lindsay says

    We’ve started (and kept!) a few traditions since we got married almost five years ago.

    -We bought a beautiful journal before we got married and we write what we did for holidays, birthdays, vacations in there. We don’t write much – just a reminder of what we did, presents we gave, who we saw, etc. so we will always remember those occasions.
    -We collect sand from all the beaches we visit. We live in landlocked Minnesota so it’s not like we go to beaches all the time. We then put in the sand in these little square apothecary jars from Micheal’s and make a little label for them with the name of the beach and the date we visited. We display them on a shelf above our bed.
    -We create a Snapfish album for each year of married life to capture those times we had a camera – holidays, birthdays, weekend trips, just our dog napping, etc. that don’t warrant their own album. We make separate books for vacations. We have quite a few books so far!
    -We collect Christmas ornaments on every vacation. We then write where we were and the date on the bottom. When we put the tree up, we alternate hanging the ornaments and each tell the story of our favorite memory from the trip the ornament represents.
    -Similar to the journal, we bought a “Christmas Journal” from Papryus when we first got married and write in it every year. We write what we did for Christmas eve and day – who we saw, what we ate, what presents we gave and received, funny memories, etc. We then slip in our holiday card from that year. It’s a nice place to keep those things so they don’t get lost!

    I’m reading the Happiness Project right now and gave myself and A+ on the memory-keeping chapter!

    Happy (almost) anniversary!

    Reply

  28. Missy in NoVa says

    My favorite picture hanging trick (which I probably learned from the comments here, I’m sorry I don’t remember exactly where I saw it, so somebody please claim it if it’s yours!) is this:
    Hammer a nail into a thin scrap of wood so it just pokes through the wood (I used a thin wooden book mark, but a scrap, or a paint stirrer would work great). “Hang” the picture on the nail with the wood flat against the wall (the nail just peeks out the back of the wood). Once you determine the exact placement of the picture (it helps to start the picture placement planning with the Petersik paper templates), take the picture off the nail, give the nail one or two gentle taps with a hammer, and remove the whole shebang (wood/nail). Then you have a perfect guide hole that is the right distance away from the top of the frame (since every frame’s hanger is a different distance from the top). This tip has been a life-changer for me in frame placement!

    Reply

  29. Meagan {Green Motherhood} says

    We just celebrated our 5 year anniversary on May 26th. It really does fly! I love the picture tradition.
    My anniversary tradition is to put on my wedding dress every year. It s gonna be a sad day when it no longer fits.

    Reply

  30. Lucy says

    It’s a lovely arrangement, do you think you will need bigger wall space as the years go by? Hubs and I are hitting 14 years this year – that’s a lot of wall space!

    Here in the UK we call the butterfly flower – lilac, although it can come in other colours, but purple/lilac is always my favourite and smells the best.

    Have a great anniversary!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We figure we might use the wall on the other side of the sink for the next five or ten (that wall’s bigger) and then figure it out from there! Haha.

      xo
      s

    • Emily says

      FYI – Lilac and butterfly bush are two different plans. We have both in the states.

  31. Karen F says

    what a sweet tradition! and the frames look awesome on the wall. Not to mention that the pictures seem to totally coordinate with the flowers! I love that it seems like you have all these meaningful little nooks in your home – so nice!

    Reply

  33. Shinay says

    Hi Sherry and John, congratulations on your upcoming 5th year wedding anniversary. My how time fly on 7/7/7 I was in my friend’s wedding oh what a special day. Furthermore My husband and I will be married for 20 yrs this coming August I can hardly believe it’s been that long, since I don’t look a day older from when we were first married :) No really! I love you guys and its nothing like working together as a couple it keeps you strong and close. My husband and I had a janitorial business together for years and we were inseparable and 20 yrs later were still a happy married couple. By the way thanks for the tip on hanging photos I’m always trying to master it.
    Thanks again for sharing

    Reply

  34. Krystle @ ColorTransformedFamily says

    We buy an ornament every year to represent our anniversary. Once it was a trip to La Vegas, another a might out to a play, and this year finishing our dining room table. We chose the dining room table for this year because like you we celebrated our fifth and we follow the traditional gift giving recommendations which for year five is wood. It’s always fun having to get creative for our Anniversary gifts.

    Reply

  36. Jane says

    That’s a great technique guys. I am going to use that one to a hang a bunch of frames in my house..I have a few questions..

    1) How do you hang them using this technique if they have the wire in the back..like the Riba frame do ?
    2) Sometimes when I use a nail like you did and hammer into the wall and then when I hang the picture especially the one with wires..the nail starts to become loose..How do you guys deal with that ? Or Can you help me with I maybe doing wrong ?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      1) Same way except we mark where the nail should go by holding it up to the template and piercing through right under the wire, so we know where it’ll hang.
      2) You can use a screw and an anchor if things are loose, that’s usually what we do!

      xo,
      s

  37. Amanda says

    I love this – what a sweet tradition! My husband and I just celebrated our first anniversary back in January, and I love the idea of coming up with some sort of special something like this to do each year!

    Reply

  38. Kristen @ LoveK says

    Love the new photo arrangement! All the different capiz frames look great together! Our 6th anniversary is coming up (next weekend actually!) and our tradition is we always make our gifts for each other. We also try to get out of town for a few days, for our fifth we also went to Maui! :) But the handmade gift is fun and it’s always entertaining to see what the other person comes up with.

    Reply

  39. Amanda C says

    I am working on an “art gallery” in our family room, above our sectional, which right now is really just a small cluster of 3 pictures, and a plate. I keep reading all these tips on the “right ways” to group wall hangings, but me? I just hang ’em where I think they’ll work. No laying things out ahead of time, I just put a nail in the wall and hope for the best! Yes, I live on the edge…..

    Reply

  40. Alanna says

    i use the paper template system too. it makes it so much easier when you’re trying to hang a large grouping. i recently did a mirror wall in my daughter/soon-to-arrive son’s room using this method (http://alanna-wendt-to-tennessee.blogspot.com/2012/05/kids-mirror-gallery-wall.html)

    and happy early anniversary by the way! 7/7/07 is my anniversary date too! wish we had thought to take family pictures on our anniversary each year. maybe we’ll have to start that tradition this year.

    Reply

  41. Maureen says

    Every year, my husband and I stick to the “traditional” gift giving guides for each anniversary (i.e. 1st year is paper, 2nd is cotton, etc.). We started it a couple of years ago, and it really is a lot of fun. This year will be our 9th anniversary and that means pottery. LOL It really is fun to try to find gifts in the sometimes strange mediums. We love it though.

    Reply

  42. Carley says

    Congratulations on almost 5 years! My husband and I celebrate 6 years on June 24. Our family has doubled since then! We try to do something/see something we haven’t done or seen before each year. Last year, technically was more new to the hubby, but we saw Jekyll and Hyde at the theater (however, it was during the Anthrocon convention, which was kind of crazy, and Pittsburgh was crazy busy so we had to park a zillion miles from the theater and run through people dressed up as animals, in the rain, to make it to the show on time! It was hilarious and we will never forget it!

    This year, we are going to the NHL draft for our anniversary weekend. We are season ticket holders for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and we were lucky enough to score two tickets to the event on our anniversary weekend. We are so excited! So that’s our little tradition! Try something new to celebrate another year of marriage!

    Reply

  43. Cara says

    We actually celebrate every year by going to a baseball game! We actually had our reception where we had our 2nd date– the baseball field (got married where we had our first date)– people looked at me like I was crazy with a bridal gown on at a baseball game but hey it’s us!

    Reply

  44. Elaine says

    Gorgeous! So fun to look back at the last five years of photos. Congrats on the upcoming anniversary. We aren’t too far ahead of you – just had our 6 year anniversary at the end of May.

    Reply

  45. Stephanie says

    We were married overlooking the Susquehanna River. Unintentionally, the first couple of years we celebrated by doing something together along the river. After I realized that we were being drawn to the river every year (either to hike or go to an overlook or have a meal) we decided to make it an annual tradition. This year we celebrated our fourth with a dinner at a fancypants restaurant along the river at sunset :)

    Oh and we always go to the beach, which was completely intentional. That’s why we got married over Memorial Weekend :)

    Reply

  47. maribel says

    Sorry but your whole post just went right over my head and all I could focus on is the blue top you had on in the the 3rd anniversary shot….I just purchased a top same color with ruffles along the collar that dip along the chest. I’m on the hunt for accessories, thinking a necklace would be too much, what color earings or bracelet to you suggest..I know this is o not a fashion blog, but just asking.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, that’s so funny! I got that from the Banana Republic Outlet a few years back. I usually just wear earrings with it since the neckline is already decorative. Maybe some chandelier earrings in white or black or even coral or emerald green? Or pretty diamond (or fake diamond, haha) studs?

      xo,
      s

  49. Kylie says

    Congrats you guys! Our five year is tomorrow! We always do a Kill Bill marathon (one of the first movies we bonded over back when we were “just friends”) and go to dinner. Last year we went mini-golfing and we’ve decided to make a cheesy date part of the tradition too. Tomorrow, we bowl. :)

    Reply

  50. Tiffany says

    Nice! I really need to do something like that. We’ve taken a picture every year with one of us holding how many years on our fingers. This July 22nd, will be 6 years!

    Reply

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