When it comes to wedding anniversary gifts, we all know it’s silver for 25 years and gold for 50 years but when looking for anniversary gifts for your spouse are traditional gifts a thing of the past?
I remember the excitement of buying a gold anniversary present for both mine and Hubby’s grandparents. We didn’t stretch to buying them gold ourselves and went for some personalised engraved glassware and a personalised porcelain plate, although we know they treated each other to something more traditional.
Times have changed though. Many people don’t get married, or marry after having children and we are no exception. Hubby and I have been together for eighteen years, however only married for twelve whereas in my grandparents era it was usual for them to marry at a younger age.
The traditional and modern materials relating to each wedding anniversary, progress from the weakest to the strongest as the years go by, to symbolise the strengthening of the relationship, but many of them are outdated by today’s standards and I am not sure I would be too impressed to receive some of the gifts on this list!
1st Anniversary: Paper
2nd Anniversary: Cotton
3rd Anniversary: Leather
4th Anniversary: Fruit or flowers
5th Anniversary: Wood
6th Anniversary: Sugar
7th Anniversary: Wool
8th Anniversary: Bronze
9th Anniversary: Pottery
10th Anniversary: Aluminium
11th Anniversary: Steel
12th Anniversary: Silk
13th Anniversary: Lace
14th Anniversary: Ivory
15th Anniversary: Crystal
20th Anniversary: China
25th Anniversary: Silver
30th Anniversary: Pearl
35th Anniversary: Jade
40th Anniversary: Ruby
45th Anniversary: Sapphire
50th Anniversary: Gold
55th Anniversary: Emerald
60th Anniversary: Diamond
70th Anniversary: Platinum
For a start, one of the traditional gifts is illegal these days with the trading of Ivory banned in the UK. Plus, there is no way I would want anything that resulted in an elephant losing its life in my house.
Some of the gift ideas you could add a modern twist to, as there are some great personalised gifts to find these days. For example, for travel lovers you could get a wooden luggage tag for their 5th anniversary or perhaps go modern or get a candy floss maker for their 6th?
The other question is, do people still give gifts for anniversaries?
The most we do is sent a card to friends and family and even that has waned these days. We only ever receive cards for ours from the kids (and that is a bit hit and miss) and our respective parents. We don’t buy each other gifts either as our anniversary dates falls within a three weeks of both of our birthdays so we tend to get each other a pressie that covers all bases.
So tell me, do you expect a gift on your wedding anniversary or do you not bother at all?
We’ll “gift” travel to each other for special occasions, but my husband and I try to steer away from gifts just for the sake of gifting–we already have too much “stuff” sitting around!
We started off following this for the first few years and we did buy some nice things for us and our house, but sadly it went by the wayside. Worth doing I think if you can.
We dont really bother at all and sometimes havent even sent cards to each other lol When we were first together though we were adamant that we would follow each of these every year but you soon realise living together you buy what you want when you want anyway lol
I honestly believe our generation will be struggling to reach a Golden anniversary due to marrying later and higher divorce rates.
I know when I was married we didn’t buy gifts apart from our first anniversary and apart from parents we didn’t get cards either.
We always buy gifts and I try to link it in with the traditional gifts (or failing that the more modern wedding anniversary gifts). We were 15 years last year which was crystal. So I got the husband some bath crystals lol, he did also get an Apple watch as the modern gift for 15 years was ‘watch’ Feel a little sad I have to wait another 5 years to get to 20 now x
I must admit I don’t stick to traditions. I’m not married yet but I don’t think my other half would appreciate cotton or wool, he prefers more quirky things but I do like the idea behind the traditions
http://www.chelsea-elizabeth.co.uk/?m=1
I only expect a gift from my husband. Glad I’ve read this. It’s our 5 year anniversary in a couple of weeks x
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That 9th anniversary gift theme is certainly interesting… pottery? Happy anniversary babe, here’s a nice clay pot!
Your post made our wedding so special and amazing. Keep up the great work. Thank you very much.