1st Wedding Anniversary Gifts

Traditionally, the first wedding anniversary is represented by paper.

Paper is very versatile and can be crafted into many practical and beautiful things. Here you will find both ideas for gifts to buy and ideas to make your own gifts.

Paper is eco-friendly as long as it is from a sustainable source such as from trees in managed forests, FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) certified or recycled. It is also ultimately biodegradable.

Paper Tree creates beautiful gifts from paper flowers www.papertree.co.uk

Paper flowers are a lovely first anniversary gift. They are long lasting and beautiful and will be appreciated by all recipients. Roses signify love and Lilies signify innocence and purity. They will be a welcome gift whether a single stem or a bouquet.

The roses shown here are handcrafted from saa paper. It is a sutainable resource as the tree naturally sheds its' bark which can then be made into paper without destroying the tree.

Stationery is always appreciated and useful too! Pretty stationery and beautifully designed stationery is a top paper anniversary gift idea.

Whilst books might be on the decline, I love a real book. A really special book makes a lovely first anniversary gift. Choose a particular interest, a beautifully illustrated book or a classic novel.

A first anniversary card will naturally be made from paper which is a very good start! Whilst any card will be welcome, a card will be particularly special if it is personalised in some way.

If you are creative you could make your own, here are some ideas;

1. Choose your favourite photo from your wedding day and mount on a card.

2. Choose favourite papers and images and create a collage of the number '1' to stick on a card.

3. Cut several hearts out of paper, write one word on each heart to create a personal message and string together.

For paper anniversary ideas, Pinterest is a great source of inspiration. It enables you to search for any topic and receive lots of inspirational images.

For anyone with the patience or inclination to make their own paper gifts, crepe paper flowers look stunning! It took about 2 hours for me to make this large crepe paper rose and I will post some instructions and photos on how I did it another time. For now you can check out this tutorial from Martha Stewart http://www.marthastewart.com/269341/crepe-paper-ro...

These paper pom poms are not too tricky to make and look fantastic for special celebrations. Martha Stewart gives instructions on the link. For a first anniversary dinner they would be the perfect decorations.

Paper can be made into so many things and if you have the time a hand made paper gift is really special. There are some great video tutorials on You Tube.

I love the paper vase - made by rolling lots of bits of paper - time consuming but effective.

Or how about some origami paper birds, you can make lots of them then string them together to make a garland.

Or there are lots of tutorials on how to make paper flowers & roses.