People love to celebrate anniversaries, being together another year shows that they truly love each other and they continue to strengthen the bonds and celebrate their union year after year. A lot of couples celebrate this special occasion by giving gifts to each other that symbolizes their anniversary, like "paper" for the 1st year and "leather" for the 5th year. Although following the "Traditional Anniversary Gift List" can sound easy at first, but it can be very difficult and frustrating trying to follow the list for some years.

Sure the Silver, Golden and Diamond anniversaries are easy, its pretty well spelled out. But what about anniversaries like the "Paper" (1st) anniversary or "Steel" (11th) anniversary? These can be difficult for a woman and almost impossible for a man shopping for the perfect gift that will show their love and appreciation of their partner. So with the summer months which are the busy season for weddings and anniversaries approaching fast I thought this would be a good time to start covering each of the years and their symbolic gift.

"Paper" is the traditional symbol of the first year wedding anniversary.

Since the traditional symbol for the 1st wedding anniversary gift is paper, you'll need to start "thinking outside the box" if you're going to follow this list successfully.

Some cheaper but very thoughtful gifts of paper would be homemade coupons good for a massage or breakfast in bed, poetry or love letters hand written on nice stationary, homemade greeting cards.

In the moderate price range could be books that would be of interest to the recipient, photographs, you can order a copy of the newspaper from the wedding date that shows what was going on the day of your wedding, tickets to a show or sporting event, posters, board games, puzzles, gift certificates to their favorite stores, stationary, tickets to concerts, or my favorite - paper roses.

While gift cards and gift certificates are acceptable gifts for a couple, I would NOT recommend this as a gift to a spouse, this is your first anniversary together and you need to put a little more thought into it than giving something as impersonal as money.

I personally think that "paper roses" are one of the best first year anniversary gifts available, for two reasons, one - you have the romance and intimacy of roses, two - your able to stay with the "traditional" list of anniversary gifts. A bonus to this idea is that unlike real roses this gift can last forever. I am not talking about artificial flowers here, these are paper roses that are hand made especially for first year anniversaries, you can even have them personalized.

On the more expensive end would be airline tickets to a dream vacation, an oil painting from your wedding photograph, fine art prints.

Just remember, you can express your love and feelings without giving expensive gifts, just put a little thought into it. Love is still the best gift, it is costless yet so pure and irrevocable.

Next week I'll cover the 2nd/Cotton anniversary.