Just got married? Now’s the time to start small romantic traditions that will last you a lifetime! Check out some of these ideas to keep the spark alive throughout your new life together.
1. Create photo albums
Get into the habit of making photo albums every six months and include pictures and highlights from your lives together. A great thing about phones these days is that we can take so many pictures on our phones and have them forever. The downside is that we pretty much never end up looking at our photos because we just have so many of them. One of the great benefits of creating physical albums is that it makes you go through all of the photos you took, organize them, label them and add captions of memories that you might forget over time. You can also choose to make an annual album and then make one each time you go on a trip or fun vacation together. This way, you can keep them on your coffee table and you’re more likely to look back at them as time goes on. Physical albums are old school but they’re just so much fun!
2. Add honey to your Shabbat table
There’s a sweet Jewish tradition to put honey on your challah every Shabbat for the first year of marriage to symbolize your hope for a sweet marriage. Some couples also put honey on their challah for the Shabbat of their anniversary each year! The symbolism is really nice, and it also is a great weekly reminder to be grateful for one another and the love you share.
3. Start a bedtime ritual
Many couples institute a “rule” that when one of them goes to sleep before the other, the other one will stop what they’re doing for a minute and come to say goodnight in bed before going back to whatever they are doing. It’s a nice way to end off the day, and you can even add a little ritual like saying one great thing that happened that day or one thing you love about the other person.
4. Leave cute notes and reminders
A super easy way to keep the love and romance alive is to leave little notes in various places around the house. You can leave a cute short note on the door before your spouse goes to work, send a nice good morning whatsapp, or leave a note on the coffee machine or bathroom mirror in the morning. You can do this on any normal day, or save it for special occasions like for big meetings at work, your spouse going to miluim, work trips, birthdays or other big milestones. Making it a habit early on means you’ll both likely continue to do it as time goes on!
5. Join an annual charity event
Choose an event or competition for charity that you’ll go to every year. It’s a nice annual tradition for you too look forward to every year and it infuses meaning and good deeds into your marriage. A marathon is great because it also means you can train for it together and you feel super accomplished when you finish. Other ideas in Israel include swimming the Kinneret, Comedy for Koby, the Alyn bike ride, or the Color Run.
6. Watch a TV show together
Most people need the occasional (or nightly!) TV show to relax and unwind from the day. You might not share taste in TV shows but try and find just one show you can watch together every so often or every night. It’s not necessarily the most engaging bonding time for the two of you, but it’s a nice way to spend some relaxing time together and enjoy something you mutually like.
7. Buy Shabbat flowers each week
Add a nice romantic element to your Shabbat each week by having one spouse buy Shabbat flowers for your house (or take turns!). My husband buys Shabbat flowers each week and loves choosing colors and finding flowers that he knows I like. It makes Shabbat extra special and is a nice cute moment for you and your spouse each week. It feels like we’re dating again for a split second every week.
8. Plan a date night
I’m sure you’ve heard this one a million times and that’s because it’s tried and true! Scheduling date night when you’re married is super important, because even though you live together now and probably see much more of each other than when you were dating, it becomes hard to have purposeful time together. It’s especially important to make your date night a “phones free” experience, so that you are genuinely together and present in the moment. It’s up to you how often you want it to be, and it doesn’t need to cost any money. My husband and I do every other week, and sometimes our date is just taking hot cocoa with us and going on a long walk without our phones. It might seem so easy to plan now, but you’ll be so happy you started this strict tradition when things inevitably get super hectic.
Have other ideas for cute traditions to start as newlyweds? Let us know in the comments!