| |

Inexpensive DIY Wedding Anniversary Party Ideas

Are you looking to throw a 40th wedding anniversary party? Here are homemade anniversary decoration ideas that kept us on budget during anniversary party planning

DIY 40th wedding anniversary ideas with DIY photo holder, banner and glitter letters spelling forty.

*Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission. Read our full privacy policy.

Besides having to feed 60-plus people at this party, I knew I really wanted to celebrate my parents by coming up with my own DIY wedding anniversary party ideas and decorations

Cheap, Simple & Homemade Wedding Anniversary Party Decor

There is no reason to spend a ton of money on an anniversary party. The most important thing is to show how much you love the deserving couple. These thoughtful decorations and ideas can do just that.

Easy party decor ideas

Idea 1: Upcycle Wine Bottle Picture Holders

Yes, I do have several empty wine bottles available. You probably do, too!

Wine bottles are perfect for simple DIY crafts. You could use them to hold items or repurpose them to make centerpieces or vases. Sometimes spray paint or simple decorating can help you cheaply create party decorations.

wine bottle with congrats on it with clothes pins and gold marker.

How To Make Personalized Wine Bottle Picture Holders

  1. Clean the wine bottle. See the tips above for removing the label.
  2. Use our favorite paint marker to create a design. For these cheap anniversary decorations, we simply put Congrats, Happy 40th, and just a 40 with dots.
  3. Add pipe cleaners and clothespins to hold old pictures. You will have to twist some pipe cleaners together to make them long enough to hold all your pictures.
  4. Place pictures of my parents, but also of their parents at their wedding. I was so lucky that my aunt sent me old wedding pictures that I could use for display.
pictures of a family in a diy wine bottle photo holder for anniversary party.

Other ideas for simple bottle designs

  • Write the anniversary year on the outside
  • Draw a heart with their names
  • Create simple number designs: repeat the anniversary year over and over, draw large bubble or block letters, add swirls
  • Draw a simple cartoon of the couple
  • Draw things they love to do on the bottle
  • Repeat their names over and over

Not only was this a fun anniversary wedding party idea, but it was an awesome way to display A LOT of old wedding pictures for their anniversary party. And let’s be honest, that is what it is all about. Celebrating the love and memories of the special couple.

In addition, my mom loved this wedding anniversary party idea so much that she took home a few of the bottles and had them on display for several months after the party.

How to easily remove wine labels?

The biggest pain of this DIY decoration or any sort of upcycled wine bottle is getting the label off. To get the label off the wine bottle, I soaked a paper towel in rubbing alcohol and left it on the label. After 10 minutes or so, you can then scrape the label off.

Get More Ways To Get Labels Off

Here is a great household hack using baking soda to help get those wine labels off for all your crafting needs or you can see our favorite sticker residue remover techniques here.

How much did the picture holders cost?

This picture display was such a hit with the party guest and it was completely free! I already owned all the craft supplies used to create these DIY anniversary party decorations.

Read more>>>>Another time we used our favorite paint markers on these keepsake boxes for my kids.

Idea 2: Year They Were Married Framed Print

This was simply done in Pages on my Mac. I believe you could create this on any device. Using a website like Canva (like I did in these inexpensive treat bags) or any other design software would work.

DIY Wedding Anniversary Party Decor Ideas.

Ideas For Facts

  • Price of bread/gas
  • Most Popular TV show
  • Top Billboard Song

The wedding anniversary party guests got a kick out of reading this information. You could even try to create a game that involved people guessing some of that information first.

Idea 3: Favorite Memory Card

On this table, I also created a simple card that I printed on colored tagboard paper. I had a chalkboard sign asking people to fill one out for my parents.

Questions For Guests To Answer

  • How long have you known the couple and how did you meet them?
  • What is your favorite memory of the couple?
  • Words of encouragement, advice or any funny story you would like to share.
  • And then a line that said with love….so party guests could put their name.

Mail Cards To Guests First

If I really had been on top of this whole surprise wedding anniversary party then I would have mailed those with the anniversary party invitations (which were total DIY invites as well). I think guests would have liked time to fill out this on their own.

I guess there is always a 50th wedding anniversary party!

Idea 4: Make A DIY Congrats Banner

Cut triangles out of blue burlap and used peel and stick glittery letters to put CONGRATS on the banner. The banner was held together on connected pipe cleaners and hung on our freshly painted mantel.

blue burlap banner saying congrats hanging on fireplace.

This banner was so simple to make because you really just have to cut the burlap, stick on the letters and use fun clothespins (these are super fun and come in several different glittery colors) to attach to twine.

Other Uses For Banner

I have used this DIY congrats banner for baby and wedding showers as well! It is great to just have it in a closet when I need it.

Other Simple Burlap Idea

The glittery letters are the easiest. But you could also stencil on the saying you want.

Every birthday I display my DIY birthday banner which is triangles of tan burlap with blue stenciled on letters. I love that every birthday there is a DIY banner on display and not just some store-bought paper banner.

Idea 5: Create a DIY Anniversary Drink Station

I made two types of sangria and had them out in two large mason drink dispensers. Small chalkboards are a great way to label each drink selection.

If sangria doesn’t sound great, here are some of our favorite drink recipes you could to make in bulk for a signature wedding anniversary drink.

DIY drink station at 40th anniversary wedding party.

We also had just light beer. Since this was a daytime anniversary party, it was perfect to just have a simple anniversary cocktail, instead of providing guests with a full bar.

Other DIY Anniversary Party Ideas

Here are a few other things I did to make sure this DIY anniversary party went well. Sometimes a simple cake stand can make cupcakes look better or a specialty drink to not break the bank.

Use a Cake Stand to Display Cupcakes

Use a cake stand to display cupcakes. I simply ordered little yellow frosted cupcakes with white shiny glass-looking sprinkles from Sam’s Club. They were inexpensive and looked amazing displayed on a large cake stand.

Yes, I am a DIY girl, but baking is not my thing.

Use Leftover Glitter Letters For Cake Topper

glitter letters spelling forty on marble table.

I was also able to create a simple cake topper using gold peel letters (the same I used on the DIY Congrats Banner) and attached them to toothpicks to put on the top.

Follow us on Pinterest, Youtube or Facebook for more DIY inspiration!

Forty Cake Topper on Cupcakes for Anniversary Party

Related Post

I am so happy that my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary party was such a fun and easy party to throw. From the simple DIY decorations to the memories shared by all, it truly was a memorable anniversary party! I loved all of these wedding anniversary party ideas (and so did my parents)!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I accept the Privacy Policy

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

4 Comments

  1. These are such lovely ideas and great photos to give inspiration for how it could love. Thanks for sharing!

    1. Thanks, Freya. I am glad you love these easy DIY anniversary party ideas!

  2. I will definitely do the wine bottle decorations, great idea. Thank you. This is a 20 year anniversary for me and my husband. We are Erin and Andy. We want it to be more of a celebration of family and friends and oh ya, it happens to be our anniversary. I want to incorporate our wedding party friends, new friends as well as maybe play father daughter dance song. We have a bartender coming but dont want it to be a drink fest. Was thinking beer, wine, soft drinks, water and maybe 3 signature drinks? I love your DYI ideas. I am all about that. I am just trying to think of a name. For example we did Club Riley for my daughters Bat Mitzvah at this same inexpensive Club House location. Thinking of what we can say for this one to incorporate Celebrating Family, Friends and oh ya, its our anniversary. This is all about US! Family Friends and Our 20 year anniversary. Thank you!! Thinking of simple saying to use throughout.

    1. Hi Erin. It sounds like you have a great plan and DIY projects are a great way to add to your event! Congrats on 20 years. Maybe…Cheers to 20 years?!?