Wedding Anniversary Calculator
Enter your wedding date to find out which anniversary you are celebrating this year, the traditional and modern gift themes for that year, how many days until your next anniversary, and your upcoming milestone anniversaries.
Explain like I'm 5 (where do anniversary gift themes come from?)
Hundreds of years ago, husbands in medieval Germany gave their wives silver garlands on their 25th anniversary and gold garlands on their 50th. The idea of having a different theme for each year grew from there, and by the 20th century there were lists for every year up to 70. Nobody invented the list in one go: it evolved through tradition, commercial marketing, and cultural borrowing between countries, which is why the UK and US versions differ on several years. The themes are a useful starting point for choosing a gift, nothing more. Nobody is keeping score.
Calculate
Enter your wedding date, then press Calculate anniversary.
This anniversary
- Anniversary year–
- Traditional gift theme–
- Modern gift theme–
- Days until next anniversary–
Upcoming milestones
| Year | Calendar year | Traditional | Modern |
|---|
Prove it
Anniversary year = complete years elapsed since the wedding date (the count increments on the anniversary date itself). If your anniversary date has not yet occurred this calendar year, the completed year count is one less than the simple year difference. Traditional themes are the UK standard list. Modern themes are the updated 20th-century list. Both lists have named themes for selected years only; years without a named theme show a dash.
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The major milestone anniversaries
Most anniversary years have a gift theme, but some carry more cultural weight than others. The milestones people most commonly mark with a celebration or significant gift are:
- 5th (Wood): The first five years are often the hardest as a couple adjusts to life together. Reaching five years is genuinely worth marking.
- 10th (Tin): A decade together. The modern alternative is diamond jewellery, which reflects how the modern list tends to be more expensive than the traditional one.
- 15th (Crystal): Less commonly celebrated than the 10th or 25th, but still a named milestone in both lists.
- 25th (Silver): The silver wedding anniversary is one of the most celebrated milestones. Parties comparable in scale to the original wedding are common.
- 40th (Ruby): Reached by relatively few couples, which makes it all the more significant.
- 50th (Gold): The golden wedding anniversary. Reaching 50 years together is a genuine achievement; it is worth a proper celebration.
- 60th (Diamond): The diamond anniversary. The Queen and Prince Philip celebrated their diamond anniversary in 2007.
Traditional vs modern gift themes
The traditional list is older and more poetic: paper, cotton, leather, wood. The modern list, developed in the 20th century partly through commercial influence, tends towards more expensive and practical gifts: clocks, china, silverware, diamond jewellery. Neither list is prescriptive. Most people use the theme as a starting point and adapt it to something the recipient would actually want: a leather wallet for the 3rd anniversary, a wooden chopping board or a weekend in a woodland cabin for the 5th.
For years without a named theme (years 16 through 19, for example), the convention is simply to use the theme from the nearest named year as a loose guide, or ignore the themes entirely.
Related calculators
Anniversaries are a look back. Here are the tools for the big day itself, and for the dates in between.
Frequently asked questions
What is the traditional gift for a 1st anniversary?
Paper, traditionally. Modern alternatives include clocks. In practice, anything sentimental or personalised works well for a first anniversary.
What is a ruby wedding anniversary?
A ruby wedding anniversary marks 40 years of marriage. The traditional and modern gift theme is ruby, or red-themed gifts more broadly.
What is a diamond wedding anniversary?
A diamond wedding anniversary marks 60 years of marriage. Both the traditional and modern themes are diamond. It is one of the rarest milestones, reached by a small proportion of married couples.
Do I count the wedding year as year 0 or year 1?
The wedding year is year 0. The first anniversary falls one year after the wedding date. This calculator counts completed years, so if your anniversary date has not yet passed this calendar year, the count is one less than the simple subtraction of years.
What if we got married on a leap day (29 February)?
In non-leap years, your anniversary falls on 28 February. This calculator handles that for you: it clamped the anniversary date to 28 February when 29 February does not exist in the relevant year.