I love, love. I love celebrating love. I hate trying to come up with unique ways to demonstrate the depth of my love.

For my wedding, people were asked to write down pieces of advice for the happy couple. At the time, most of the advice was innocuous — don’t fight about the toilet seat, don’t go to bed angry, and always celebrate holidays and special moments. These seemed like common sense, and after living with my then boyfriend for seven years, I knew the toilet seat and angry bed rule, but the celebrating specials moments seemed like a no brainer. Of course I would celebrate our anniversary! Why wouldn’t you? Of course when February 14 came along, I would think of my loved one. Why wouldn’t you?

Now in my third year of marriage, I’ve realized that it’s a lot more difficult to devise unique ways to celebrate our love — I thought about throwing in the “celebration” towel completely. I was stumped for a traditional “leather” gift, or any gift for that matter. Frantic, I stayed up all night scanning homemade Etsy pages and Pinterest boards for “anniversary” gifts and ideas. Frustrated, I went to Instagram to lose myself in mindless photos of friends’ dinner tables, when I came upon a ‘Tween Waters Inn image of the sunset with the claim of “America’s Most Romantic Sunset.” It was a great reminder that I had a romantic resource right at my fingertips!

When I contacted ‘Tween Waters Inn to find out how they might make my anniversary special, they had a multitude of suggestions from beginning to end of my mini-vacation. It started out with champagne in the room upon arrival, and then delectable dinner for two at Captiva House. If you’re celebrating an anniversary, Chef Jason Miller will include free dessert with champagne purchase.

For our second day, I scheduled a relaxing couple’s massage with Georgie, the Spa at ‘Tween Waters Inn manager. From what I hear from Innsiders Lyle and Michele, she’d have us relaxed into a bleary-eyed-, can-hardly-walk-out-of-the-spa-state. For our final evening, I thought I would keep things light with a romantic picnic basket for the beach to complement “America’s Most Romantic Sunset.”

[su_pullquote align=”right”]INNSIDER TIP: Anniversary couples might also try renting bikes or a kayak at the marina for additional action.[/su_pullquote]

Like with every two-night vacation, the resort also included the standard $100-value resort coupon book, free breakfast, free wifi, free parking, daily newspaper and no-s. Booking all of this was as easy as calling the friendly reservationists at 800-223-5865. They’ll even work to coordinate your spa reservations and picnic basket, and keep it all a secret from your loved one.

After that, it was easy as call, confirm and keep it a secret. Rather than frantic and frustrated, I was now enthused with the idea of celebrating our anniversary. While I didn’t quite find my typical “leather” gift for our third anniversary, I don’t think my husband will mind when he has a drink in hand and ocean waves as his backdrop. Three years down, only roughly 62 left to celebrate. (Which reminds me, I should probably call ‘Tween Waters Inn to set up next year’s anniversary celebration too).

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