30th Year Pearl Wedding Anniversary

Please see out 30th Anniversary Gifts page for our full range of gift ideas.

Gifts from the Traditional Wedding Anniversary List

30th year wedding anniversary

30 years of marriage uses Pearls to represent the celebration, primarily it is for this reason why the 30th year Wedding Anniversary is traditionally know as the Pearl Wedding.

For eons Pearls have been cherished due to their beauty and relative scarcity. Nowadays cultured pearls have made them far more abundant and affordable.

For this anniversary any type of Pearl is acceptable, there are more than one type. Firstly, at the basic level, there are fresh water pearls and saltwater pearls which is hopefully self describing.  Both contain the same properties that make them desirable and nowadays they are equally attainable. Secondly these are further split by if they are cultured or natural. In brief, Cultured have a bead introduced to an oyster to form the pearl whereas a natural pearl has occurred in the wild naturally. One difference is the larger types are typically the saltwater variety as the shellfish they come from can grow larger.

Unsurprising naturally Pearls are still the most sought after due to their rarity. Cultured Pearls can be as good a quality especially the ones from the top Pearl culturists.

The best known Cultured Pearl producer is Mikimoto, a Japanese producer named after the founder who discovered how to grow Pearls ‘on demand’ The results are beautiful, check out these Fine Mikimoto gift ideas from one of our partners.

If choosing Pearl as a gift please always ensure it is real Pearl, we’ve seen many items designed with Mother of Pearl which, unless you know, can be confused with Pearls. Mother of Pearl is actually the shell of the mussel or oyster that can produce a pearl.

Pearl Facts

Pears are the traditional 30th year wedding anniversary gift theme
  • Only Gem made by a living organism
  • 95% of Pearls are now the cultured variety
  • The name Margaret is Greek for Pearl
  • La Peregrina is possible the most famous Pearl in the world
  • Cultured Pearls typically take about 7 years to grow

An easy way to tell the difference between fake Pearls and real are the fake Pearls have a high surface shine and if you rub them against your teeth they will feel smooth, real ones feel rough.

Modern Anniversary List

The Modern List suggests Diamond Jewellery as the theme for the 30th year wedding anniversary

The Modern/Contemporary wedding anniversary list strangely suggests Diamond Jewellery as the appropriate gift idea for the 30th year Wedding Anniversary. Strangely the authors of this list choose to diverge from the traditional list. Additionally the reason appears to have been lost in time. Luckily it does however provide a great alternative to Pearls especially if the recipient is not keen on Pearls.

Gemstone Anniversary List

gemstone 30th year wedding anniversary gifts jade

Even more bizarre than the modern anniversary list is the gemstone list. This states Jade as the appropriate semi-precious gemstone for the 30th year wedding anniversary. We assume this is to offer a variation on Pearls. Why just have one gem for an anniversary when you can have two?

Flowers Anniversary List

Sweet Pea is the appropriate flower for the 30th year wedding anniversary

The appropriate flower for the 30th year wedding anniversary is Sweet Pea.  The language of flowers states Sweet Pea can mean blissful pleasure or thank you for a lovely time.

The 30th year wedding anniversary Facts and Figures

This year, to be celebrating your 30th Anniversary, you would have wed in 1992.

On the 30th anniversary of your marriage you would have been married for

  • 10,950 days or
  • 262,800 hours or
  • 15,768,000 minutes
  • which is over 946 million seconds

Over this time you would have shared, on average, over  82,000 hours of snuggle time (sleeping!) or over 9 years; assuming you don’t work together you’ve been apart for over 63,000  hours which is about 7 years and you would have had over 23,000 meals together which equates to approximately 568 days of continuous eating!



30th Year Wedding Anniversary Gift Ideas

Please see out 30th Anniversary Gifts page for our full range of gift ideas some are below;

Please see out 30th Anniversary Gifts page for our full range of gift ideas. Last year’s details are available here: 29th Anniversary Ideas for next year’s details see here: 31st Anniversary Ideas