The ultimate guide to wedding anniversaries by year

Time flies when you’re having fun, which is why your anniversary (whether it’s your first or your fiftieth) always seems to come round so quickly. Every couple has their own celebrating style to mark another year on their metaphorical marriage chalkboard. Some love to make a big fuss, jetting off to shores far away or staying somewhere special closer to home. Others keep it low-key with a quiet night in and a candlelight dinner (or takeout...). But there’s one traditional, tried and tested approach for observing a wedding anniversary milestone that the hitched and the soon-to-be-hitched generally like to pay attention to – the classic wedding anniversary list of presents.

Wedding anniversary traditions, explained

Most of us know how some of the traditions go. Silver for 25 years, gold for 50 and diamond for the big 6-0. But what about the wedding anniversary meanings that hide behind the beautifully wrapped gifts?

In a nutshell, the reason for giving a specific wedding anniversary gift by year is that it’s a symbol of the strength and worth of your marriage. So after 60 blissful years together, you’ll make it to the rock solid, bank-busting status of diamond. But if you’re in your early years, then your traditional anniversary gifts will include delicate cotton and paper. Not everybody’s on board with the idea of giving a gift as a symbol of your marriage’s fragility – understandably. The more positive way of looking at this age-old, anniversary ritual is that the materials get more robust with every extra year. Ergo, the gifts proclaim your marriage as getting stronger and stronger – definitely something to toast to!

US vs. UK traditions

Like with a lot of through-the-generations customs, there’s a bit of a muddle with what gifts go with what year. There’s the US version and the UK one, which share lots in common, but also swap a few around (for example, cotton is the traditional gift to give on your first wedding anniversary and paper for the year after. But in Britain, it’s the opposite). Sugar is number six on the UK list but in the US, you’ll receive something made from iron – two wildly different messages going on there. Later down the line at year number eight, you’ll get a bronze beauty in the US, but in the UK, it’ll be to do with salt (would fish and chips count?). So where there are differences, it would seem our British friends love their foodie things, whereas Americans are fond of heavy metals.

Traditional vs. modern wedding anniversary gifts

Countries aside, the general consensus is that there’s a specific gift for your first 15 years together, and after that, they go up in five year intervals. That is unless you’re looking at the ‘modern’ list created by the Chicago Public Library, which came about because there was a millennial outcry that the old-style list was too out of touch with today. Clocks, electrical appliances (the epitome of romance) and stationery sets (which we obviously think is a fab idea) are amongst the newcomers, and diamond slips from 60th to 30th place in the modern day list. Presumably because sixty years felt far too long to wait for a bit more bling – again, understandably.

Wedding anniversary gifts by year

Like the sound of the traditional thing? Fancy saying it with paper, cotton, leather (this is a great year for that bag, purse or wallet you’ve been eyeballing), opal (hello year number 24) or a spot of sapphire if your 45th is fast approaching? Then this is the US-style anniversary shopping list you’ll need to consult before the present-hunting begins…