Beginners guide to Wedding Anniversaries and it’s etiquette

Us oldies, occasionally forget that newly weds may not know the ins and outs of Wedding Anniversary etiquette so here’s a quick run down of the etiquette.

  • Gift giving is not mandatory, commemorating the event however is highly desirable for matrimonial harmony .
  • The couple often arrange early year anniversaries. The couples children will often arrange the later major anniversaries.
  • Every 5th year is a major milestone Anniversary
  • The 25th, 40th, 50th and 60th are the most important Wedding Anniversary years.
  • Traditionally, gift giving is often themed or made of a specific material which differs for each year. The Traditional Wedding Anniversary List shows all these materials for each year.
  • The traditional material will also give the name of the anniversary. For example the Golden Wedding is the 50th anniversary as gold is the theme for this year. Note also if you refer to the year by it’s material name it becomes a wedding not anniversary. For example Paper Wedding is the first anniversary, Silver Wedding is the 25th Anniversary etc.
  • A Modern version of the traditional list is available to offer a more comprehensive list to cover earlier anniversary years. This runs side by side with the traditional list allowing you to choose gifts from either list.
  • Other organisations have released other Wedding Anniversary lists. The only other two that are notable are the Gemstone Anniversary List and the appropriate flower list.

That’s it really, if you still have an etiquette question surrounding a wedding anniversary then please check our etiquette section or drop us a line and we’ll try and help.

If you were wondering how long you could be married, check Wikipedia’s list of longest marriages to see how long couples remain together.

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