How To Celebrate Your 20th Wedding Anniversary While Social Distancing
After seven months, at time of writing we are still in the grip of one of the most widespread pandemics that the world has ever seen, with 6 million cases worldwide, and the infection rate in many countries is increasing. The misery, anxiety and mental stress that this has caused and caused many relationships and marriages to fall apart amid lay-offs and job losses, financial catastrophes, lockdowns and lengthy quarantines.
As we know, the COVID epidemic hit China first, and there the divorce rate has hit a record high “Marriage registration offices in some districts of Xi’an […] have seen an unprecedented number of divorce appointments since reopen on March 1,” reported the English-language Chinese newspaper the Global Times in early March.
As the epidemic has spread, most experts agree that this is an indicator that the trend will be repeated and there will be a substantial uptick in marriage breakdowns across the globe. In the USA, surveys have found that one-third (31%) of couples who responded said the quarantine had harmed their relationship.
To make matters worse, in many states, like New York and California the divorce courts have been closed, and as they have reopened there has been a frantic scramble to deal with the backlog of divorce cases when the shutdowns were imposed.
Amid all this doom and gloom, if you have managed to reach the magical and well-named milestone of the 25-year platinum wedding anniversary, you not only have good cause to celebrate it, but you deserve to do so.
But given all of the difficulty and misery which so many people are experiencing, plus continuing lockdowns and social distancing, you may feel that your friends and family may not be in the mood, or even able to travel to celebrate your magic milestone with you.
So if you are lucky enough to be ready willing and able ready, willing and celebrate, here are some ways to do so without breaching the new rules of socializing in a pandemic.
How To Stage A Virtual 20th Anniversary Party
Almost everybody uses the internet these days to communicate, and many are even using it to work remotely from home. All you need is a webcam and speakers and off you go.
There are many livestreaming ways to have your friends and families join you live, so that everyone can celebrate with you in their own home. Streaming services like Zoom are low cost, and Google Meet is free.
How To Set Up Your Event
Send your guest a “celebrating 20th wedding anniversary” paperless invitation – there are numerous online services that send them out for you.
Include a special list of times for the various events, and include a link to Zoom or Google meet, that your guests can simply sign into.
Things to think about about
1. Dress Code- having a formal dress code to make it feel like a real party.
2. Food. Maybe you want everyone to prepare their meals at the same time, and have similar cuisine, with a start time for the sit down meal.
3. Decorations – have all attendees decorate their rooms in similar themes, colors and the like, so that you feel like you are all in the same room.
4. Gifts – if your guests re kind enough to send you gifts, arrange for them to drop off (socially distanced of course) or to send their gifts via the post. Then you, as the celebratory couple can open the presets at a given time.
5 Connection - make sure that at the very least, that your guests use a laptop instead of a phone or tablet, and give them tips about how to position, set up and where to place their camera.
6 Collaborate - Give your guests an opportunity to put forward their own ideas for the celebration as well as yours. For example,
maybe some of them will want to give a speech about their friendship with you
others may want to be the DJ for the evening
they might have their own skills as an entertainer, or you could hire an online magician, or singer for the evening
you could arrange to make a video about your life together and add slideshow as well.
maybe you want to reenact your first dance together live on video!
you are staging and all day event, you could set up a Netflix party, so that you can watch a movie online at the same time and chat, the possibilities are endless.
Another idea is to play some online games together. For example, if you, your spouse, and most of your family and friends are gamers, consider playing some online multiplayer games together.
It might seem like a strange concept for a wedding anniversary, but you could make it interesting by using the event to raise money for your favorite charity.
If casino games are more everyone’s forte for online gaming, you could all use a BetRivers bonus code and have the winner of any casino games donate their winnings to a charitable organization of your choice.
In addition to these ideas, maybe you and your significant other could have a virtual honeymoon, by simply staying at home, stocking up on nice food, and making time for each for spa treatments, nice food and intimacy.
In addition to these ideas, maybe you and your significant other could have a virtual honeymoon, by simply staying at home, stocking up on nice food, and making time for each for spa treatments, nice food and intimacy.
Here’s to the next 20 years and beyond!
Please feel free to share your best unusual pandemic 20th anniversary celebration ideas in the comments below.