Wedding Anniversary Etiquette – What… ; Frequently Asked Questions
Q.What is my Wedding Anniversary symbol or material?
A.If you know how many years you have been married or are planning to celebrate then you can find out what you anniversary is from our anniversary selector page. All those that have a traditional symbol or material associated against the year are listed here.
Q.I forgot my Wedding anniversary this year what should I do?
A. If your partner is upset by this then we would recommend a period of grovelling followed by a period of penance !! In this day and age it is often easy to forget important days such as Anniversaries by all means use our reminder to help you remember and it is provided only for this purpose.
Q.What are the Anniversaries that are considered major? The most major anniversaries are the 25th and 50th, after these come 60th & 75th and then every 5th year (i.e. 5th,10th 15th etc.) with every 10th year being more important than every 5th year.
Q.Hi, I’m doing research on the wedding anniversary materials. What I’m really looking for is what each material means. Do they represent something in each year. Please email me back if you have any information about the subject, or where I can find this kind of information. Thank you.
A. I’m afraid I can’t help you in your search for the meanings of the material against the Anniversary. The closest I have come to this is the suggestion that the materials are
selected in the order that they would wear out. I have however never had this collaborated by any research I have carried out.
Q. It will be my in laws 40th wedding anniversary. What can I do to make it special and inexpensive?
A. Try our Anniversary Gift Ideas Suggestions
Q. My problem is that I don’t know exactly what our children are doing for us…we do know they are having some kind of a celebration but we do not know the particulars. SO, we want to be ready for what ever comes up and not have “egg on our face”. I told them what ever they did, please state “No Gifts Please”. An invitation to
a celebration does not confer an expectation that gifts are expected the persons company is considered gift enough.
Q. Please help us find the right motif color for the 65th wedding anniversary of our grandparents. A. I afraid I cannot help you with your question either as I have not been able to find much details on
the 65th anniversary. Most lists miss out the 65th for some reason I have yet to discover. The only list I have found which contains a material for the 65th is the Gem stone list which states Star Sapphire as the Gem Stone associated with this Anniversary.
Q. What do you do for the 100th year Anniversary? A. A 100th Wedding Anniversary is a 10 carat Diamond anniversary and I would be
surprised to hear of couple achieving this feat. I assume you are talking about a company’s Centenary celebration which is slightly different although it is still called a Diamond Anniversary.
Q. I am giving my parents a surprise 25th anniversary party but I have a concern regarding gifts. my mother hates silver! what are some optional gifts i could suggest?
A. I’m afraid I can’t help you much on this one, all roads seem to lead to Silver on this
anniversary. I thought that the Gem list for anniversaries may show a different material however this was sterling silver. One thing you could do is recreate the era when they got married and theme gifts on that era. I make it the 70’s which would either be the Glam
Rock era or early Disco!
Q. We are giving our parents a 50th Anniversary and would like to know what we should call the female and male witnesses – attendant and grooms-man?
A. Most references refer to them as witnesses, which is not a bad term in itself as this is mentioned right back to the birth of marriage ceremonies. If they did some other function at
the wedding then these titles would also do.
Q. Is there a traditional color for the bride of 50 years to wear?
A. As it is the Golden Anniversary the color is Gold, this doesn’t mean that the outfit has to be all gold you could choose just accessories or anywhere in between. One thing to remember however; is that it is your anniversary and thus etiquette allows you to decide what you want to wear and how you would like to celebrate.
Q. If one of the children make a speech, what response and toasts, if any, should the parents make?
A. The replies you give to any speeches made are very dependant upon your family circle & culture; this makes this a difficult question to answer with certainty. Typically anniversary speeches follow along similar lines to a wedding celebration and thus thanking those who organized the event and for the people who turned up to join you in your celebration.
One thing to bare in mind is that it is your anniversary and thus you can choose how to respond.
Q. What is the proper way to ask for monetary gifts on an invitation for my parents 40th wedding anniversary. They do not want to offend anyone by asking. How can this be placed on the invitation in a nice manner.
A. It’s extremely difficult to ask for money on an invitation, most reference books on Anniversary Etiquette say that you should never ask for a monetary gift. One way I’ve seen round this and was successful was to put on the invitation the reason for money, e.g. They are saving for a holiday of a lifetime or what ever the reason and that should you wish to contribute to this then there will be a collection box at the celebration that they can
contribute. At the particular event I attended the box was placed prominently but discreetly in a corner of the room and thus you did not feel you had to contribute.
Q. I was just wondering what the 100th anniversary is. Any information you could provide would be helpful. A. The 100th Wedding Anniversary is deemed a 10 Carat Diamond Anniversary, if it is a business celebration then it is just a centenary celebration.
