30th Anniversary Gift

Last weekend, my husband and I celebrated his parents 30th wedding anniversary.  It happened to be the same day as our nephew’s {and their grandson’s} baptism so we didn’t have anything huge planned; just an afternoon together as a family.

Dave and I wanted to come up with a creative and fun gift {since they really don’t need anything} and after a bunch of great ideas from my Facebook and Twitter followers, we came up with…

30 Pearls of Wisdom:

Since pearls are the traditional gift for a 30-year anniversary we decided to improvised a bit.

Instead of an real pearl necklace, we created a necklace with 30 pearls of wisdom and 30 fake pearls. The pearls of wisdom were a compilation of things we’ve learned from them over the years. Some were serious but most were funny, inside-jokes.

Want to make one of your own?

• Come up with a bunch of quotes, saying, memories, inside jokes, etc.
• Find fake pears from your favorite craft store
• Cut out 30 black tags (2.25″ x 4″) and 30 white tags (2″ x 3.5″)
• Glue or tape one white tag on top of each black tag
• Punch a  hole {this is a good job for the hubby!}
• Write one message per tag
• Thread the messages and pearls onto a “necklace” — a.k.a. kitchen twine!

The trickiest part of the whole project was threading the fake pearls onto the kitchen twine.

Some of the holes weren’t completely open so Dave decided to pound a nail through the holes {to apparently stretch the pearls!} After a few broken pearls we decided to simply use a thinner twine instead!! Men!

We assembled the “necklace” by alternating pearls and tags…pretty self-explanatory.

His parents loved it — as much as you can love a hideous fake-pearl necklace that looks more a really ugly Hawaiian lei!

And we had SO much fun remembering the different funny moments and childhood events.

Yup, they are GREAT parents… which is why we also gave them a certificate for a professional family picture!