One bittersweet truth about our backyard wedding is that it passed so quickly we hardly had a chance to enjoy the food. We chose to skip a caterer and prepare the entire menu ourselves—a decision that felt either daring or downright crazy, depending on how you look at it—but it meant we barely sat down to taste the DIY spread while guests were circulating and celebrating.
When our first anniversary arrived last July, we initially planned a dress-up dinner out—maybe even putting on my dyed wedding dress for the occasion. Then my husband suggested we recreate our backyard wedding at home so we could actually savor the food we’d made. It felt fitting: since we were married in our backyard, why not grill some of the same dishes, add a few sides, and relive that special evening? We’re fortunate to still own the space, so it was easy to set the scene and enjoy a relaxed, personal celebration.
To kick things off, we posed for a slightly corny photo beneath the arch where we exchanged vows. After the wedding we’d moved the arch from the center of the yard to the entrance of the back woods, and seeing it again made the evening feel genuine and nostalgic.
For dinner we recreated three of the mains from our wedding menu. We chose the blue cheese Angus burgers topped with a parmesan Caesar dressing and complemented them with classic wedding sides like lemon-pepper potato chips and rotini salad. The combination felt familiar and comforting—a real return to that night a year earlier.
Drinks were part of the aesthetic we wanted to replicate. Leading up to the original wedding we collected glass bottles from a local wine retailer’s tastings to avoid plastic pitchers and keep a clean, vintage look. We sorted the bottles—green for water, brown for sweet tea, and clear for homemade mint lemonade—and labeled them by hand with a sharpie. The labels lasted through the event, and the assortment of wines and a few vintage-style glass soda bottles completed the presentation. For our anniversary reenactment we indulged in a small shortcut and cracked open a can of Fresca, which felt refreshingly right for the moment.
The food truly stole the show. The burger and sides were delicious, and enjoying them at our own table in the same spot where we’d celebrated a year prior made every bite feel meaningful. I even reused the lemon-and-lime printed napkins that had been left over from the original event—little details like that helped recreate the atmosphere without trying too hard.
Dessert was an easy way to capture the original experience: on our wedding night we’d wrapped two cupcakes in wax paper and tucked them into a Tupperware container, then froze them for the anniversary. A year later, thawed and still surprisingly moist, those cupcakes tasted like a tiny time capsule, offering the same sweetness and nostalgia as a slice of anniversary cake.
No recreation of our wedding night would have been complete without a photobooth moment. For the original evening we’d paid three dollars to squeeze into a diner booth for a classic photostrip, and we still collect those strips in a cup on our dining-room shelves to commemorate special days. On our anniversary we paid another trip to the same diner and grabbed a fresh black-and-white strip to add to the collection—another small ritual that felt right.
For our second anniversary this week we debated whether to make the at-home barbecue a yearly tradition, but ended up going out to dinner instead. We chose the Italian restaurant where we’d had our rehearsal dinner before the wedding. It was a delicious meal and a lovely way to mark another year together. Before leaving the house we took a few photos in the backyard again, this time in front of the hedges where our family portraits had been taken.
After dinner we capped the night with another photobooth picture at the downtown diner, adding a new strip to our little archive of memories.
That’s how we’ve spent our first two anniversaries: one year recreated at home to savor every bite of our DIY wedding food, the next year enjoying a favorite restaurant from our wedding weekend. What about you—do you have any traditions you look forward to each year on your anniversary?
To learn more about how we DIYed our wedding food for an upscale backyard experience, check out the details in our wedding album.
P.S. We have a huge announcement coming in just a few days—stay tuned!