Year-by-Year Wedding Anniversary Gift Guide

Wedding anniversaries are a special chance to celebrate new milestones in your marriage, each of them with different traditional meaning and gift associated with it...

What do they all mean and where do they come from?

Gift-giving on the occasion of a wedding anniversary dates back to Roman times when husbands gave their wives a silver wreath for 25 years of marriage, and a gold wreath for 50 years. Medieval Germany had a similar tradition of exchanging silver and gold wreaths on these occasions.

In the 1920s, Emily Post, an American writer started a list of anniversary themes in a book titled “Etiquette”, published in 1922, which has been completed in 1937 by the American National Retail Jeweler Association. These are known as traditional themes linked with each marital year.

More recently, a contemporary list has also been created, where all the anniversary years have been linked with a theme or material. Today the anniversary years are not only symbolised by traditional and contemporary gifts, but they often have a flower, colour and gemstone associated with them as well.

But how to keep up with all these celebrations and gifts?

While different countries have different gift themes, we have tried to compile a table that details all the themes associated with each anniversary year to help guide you when thinking about an appropriate anniversary gift for your loved ones.

There are no definitive rules, so take this list for inspiration, and adjust to the recipient's tastes to find the perfect match they will cherish forever!