"How Did Things Change Before and After Marriage? Survey Results on Celebrating Anniversaries and Birthdays!"

2018.08.23 published

I'm curious about how everyone spends their "special days"

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Today's inquiry is as follows.

It's certainly interesting to see how everyone celebrates their "special days,"

and I'm curious about how they spend their money.

We received many responses saying, "This is how we celebrate!" so we will introduce them all ♡

Response 1

After getting married, we only dine out at hotels for birthdays,

and we request the places we want to go to.

As a stay-at-home wife, I only get branded bags as gifts on birthdays and Christmas.

Response 2

For our monthly wedding anniversary, we decided to eat cake every month 🍰💕

We sometimes even travel far just to buy a cake 😂

I'm happy that my husband, who usually forgets anniversaries, eagerly accepted this promise 😊

He often reminds me of what I've forgotten (laughs).

We plan to go to our favorite expensive yakiniku restaurant every year for our wedding anniversary 🤤🍖

Response 3

For our relationship anniversary, we would go on local dates or relax at my boyfriend's house, and every year I would cook for him!

After getting married, we celebrate quietly at home with dessert ❤

For our birthdays, we used to celebrate with a trip before marriage!

After marriage, I secretly order a decorated cake from my favorite cake shop!

Since my family home is close, we celebrate with my entire family there!

We also take anniversary photos ❤

I used to think about what my boyfriend would like when buying birthday gifts while we were dating,

but after getting married, I ask him directly about what he wants!

I do the same for myself.

It has become a rule to think of practical items or things we truly desire for gifts!

Also, if there's nothing I want for my birthday, I put off the gift (laughs).

When I want something, I decided to declare it at that time!

Response 4

We don't miss celebrating each other's birthdays and anniversaries once a year because they are special days ♡

Sometimes we pretend to be at a restaurant at home,

but it has become a custom to eat at a somewhat nice restaurant.

We just got married last year, so this will be our first wedding anniversary, but,

we plan to celebrate it as usual ✨

By the way, we promised to eat at the same three-star restaurant every year for our wedding anniversary (＾_＾)

As for birthdays,

① We dress up and go out for dinner

② We set a budget together and choose gifts together

We have created these rules, and we have been looking forward to each other's birthdays since before we got married ♩

Compared to before marriage, we have set a lower budget for gifts, but the fun of choosing together is highly recommended❣️

Response 5

I am on my second marriage.

It might be more so because my previous marriage was full of hardships including domestic violence,

but with my current husband, we appreciate the fact that on special days,

we can be together and healthy.

We don’t spend much money on gifts or celebrate grandly.

My husband prefers my home-cooked meals over eating out, so we just fulfill his requests without spending much more.

Being able to spend special days with someone important is the greatest happiness, and his health is the most irreplaceable gift for me.

Since we love traveling, we spend money on travel if we do spend it.

Response 6

I want to view anniversaries and birthdays as very special days in life, so whether at home or at a restaurant, our family rule is to spend time differently from our daily lives.

When we eat delicious food and feel special, I really cherish the moment of being able to celebrate my loved one’s birthday again this year.

I have never paid much attention to the budget, but we usually go for a course that costs about 20,000 to 30,000 yen per person.

For gifts, we request what we want, so sometimes it’s 50,000 yen and sometimes 400,000 yen,

but as we receive the gifts one by one, it fills me with happiness to enjoy looking at them.

Since it's a special day, I think it's worth spending a little money!

Response 7

Until we got married, we both lived at home and always celebrated birthdays with dinner outside.

So now that we live together, we celebrate at home together 🥂💓🎂

We still prepare gifts as usual,

but instead of surprises, we decided to buy things we both want‼︎

However, we've decided no Christmas gifts after we got married,

and that money goes towards travel or savings instead 😊

For our first wedding anniversary, my husband made a reservation at a local restaurant that holds special memories for us, and we've celebrated there 🍽

Response 8

Since we have decided on specific gifts according to the number of years married for our wedding anniversary,

we give gifts related to that theme ♡

My husband always chooses wonderful places!

Response 9

I registered in July ♥

Next week will be my husband's birthday as a couple for the first time!

For gifts… I used to surprise him, but starting this year we decided to adopt a request system considering practicality.

(His request was a suit! We went together to choose it!)

For dining, I reserved a French restaurant a few days before and requested a birthday plate!

I communicated that we were going out to celebrate before the birthday, but the plate was a surprise!

And since the birthday falls on a weekday, we plan to make both dinner and dessert ourselves!

By the way, I am also preparing a surprise gift, although it is not expensive, I plan to give a tie to match the suit that I already gave as a birthday gift.

My hubby is probably aware that I’m a fan of surprises, so he might be sensing something? *laughs*

Response 10

On the day we had our wedding, we go to the venue (a hotel because we had a hotel wedding) to have a meal 🍽

For birthdays, we go out to places we wanted to try and eat what we want, followed by a tea time with cake 🍰 😊

Since our registration date is New Year’s Day,

we enjoy the New Year while eating traditional New Year foods like osechi and mochi 🎍

Response 11

Registration day = my birthday

Ceremony day = my husband’s birthday, so

to make it special, we go out for dinner on both days♪

Usually, we like noodles, which is budget-friendly, but on these occasions we go for a slightly nicer dinner 😌

The budget is around 10,000 yen for both.

As for gifts, they used to be a surprise before marriage, but since we can’t hide it after marriage, we now go shopping together!

Response 12

First of all, for anniversaries,

we consider the first day of each month to be our relationship anniversary, a day to express our gratitude to each other.

Since we both work, on weekdays, the one who gets off earlier buys a cake on the way home.

As for our wedding (registration) anniversary, since it’s New Year’s Day, we don’t really do anything special.

This year will be our first wedding anniversary, but we are planning to stay at TRUNK (HOTEL) where we had our wedding, as a little treat.

Since our birthdays are the same, we go out and buy matching items together and have dinner 🍽

Response 13

After getting married, we keep our birthday gift budget strictly under 10,000 yen, and we have a special home-cooked steak dinner as a tradition. ☺️ Dining out has significantly decreased 👏

Response 14

Since this year is the first time we celebrate our birthdays after getting married, we dined at a nice restaurant to create a different atmosphere than usual.

For gifts, I gave him a card that allows him to create a custom-made suit based on something he casually mentioned wanting!

As we can't buy expensive items once we have kids, we decided to splurge a little now while it’s just the two of us!

But I can't say if we will be spending a lot in the future.

However, whether we spend money or not, I think it’s just happy to be celebrated by someone special!

Response 15

For our wedding anniversary, we go to a slightly upscale place once a year ♡

The spot is often the hotel where we had our wedding or a restaurant that was special to us...

For birthdays, we usually either eat at home or go out for a bit!

We go shopping together for gifts we want ♡

Response 16

Since my husband and I had a long-distance relationship, we rarely got to celebrate anniversaries on the day itself.

Now that we live together, we finally get to do that, so we indulge a little more on birthdays and wedding anniversaries.

There’s a feeling we share that we should splurge a bit during such occasions since we save throughout our daily lives (*´ω｀*)

Response 17

We don’t have strict rules, but we go out for tasty food on either anniversaries or a nearby holiday ☺️

We keep a list of restaurants we want to try and choose from it ☺️

Additionally, my husband is more sensitive to anniversaries than I am,

and he brings home flowers for the relationship anniversary and registration day 💐

Response 18

We do all our celebrations at home since our kids are still young 💝

It’s challenging to celebrate on weekdays because of my husband’s work, so on a nearby Sunday after the kids go to sleep, we prepare a slightly fancy meal to celebrate 🥂

Initially, we were long-distance when we started dating, so I think our celebration style has remained the same‼︎

For gifts, we give matching items for the wedding anniversary and whatever the other wants for birthdays 🎁

We both think about what we can give within our means, so I don’t think we pay much attention to budgets!

Response 19

Every year on our anniversary, we drop the kids off and go out as a couple 😳

Response 20

We buy each other gifts for our birthdays using our salary for that month.

As for anniversaries, we haven't really done anything special since we started dating 😁

Response 21

We often go to Disney for our birthdays (in many cases) 💓

We prepare gifts!

For birthdays, we often eat out.

Our budget is around 30,000 yen!

For Christmas, we enjoy KFC at home ✨

The gift budget is around 10,000 yen.

On anniversaries, we eat cake and exchange handmade albums or letters!

While this hasn't changed since we got married, it may shift a bit when we have kids...

Though I prefer it to stay the same 🤔

Response 22

On special days, I don’t want to do any housework, and staying home feels less special, so we definitely prioritize traveling, dining out, or staying at a hotel.

We request things we each want as gifts.

We don't set a budget, but most restaurants are up to around 30,000 yen.

Gift budgets vary depending on the timing, but I have aimed for around 100,000 yen since my single days.

Since it’s a special day, I believe spending money is perfectly fine.

My husband and I are both working for that purpose!

There are various ways to spend special days ♡

There were many ways couples spend their special days, but it seems like a trend where

before marriage, they prepared gifts as surprises, but after getting married,

it’s more common to share what each person wants! ♩

By the way, I have a nearly one-year-old child, but

how we celebrate hasn’t particularly changed since before and after marriage.

Since I love dining out, I’ve always reserved restaurants I wanted to try and eaten out.

I don't want things to change too much after having children, so I’m looking for restaurants that are welcoming to babies!

Many places have events like "Welcome Kids Day," or have private rooms available, so even though there are limitations, we’re still happy ♡

For gifts, I don’t make requests as I don’t particularly have anything I want,

but he gives me flowers or brings home cake, which makes me happy ♡

From my side, I gift him things like clothing items on birthdays and anniversaries!

(I want him to look good as much as possible....!)

I hope we can continue to be a loving couple always wanting to celebrate our anniversaries ♩

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