Paper for the first year, silver for the 25th, gold for the 50th: every anniversary has a theme. Start with your wedding date, or jump straight to the chart.
Anniversary calculator
Pick your wedding date to see which anniversary is next, its gifts, and the #1 song the week you got married.
Suggested gifts
- Gift idea
- Traditional
- Modern
- Color
- Flower
- Gem or metal
Your song
#1 the week you married
by
Why not gift a song?
#1 songs come from Billboard's weekly charts: the Hot 100 since August 4, 1958, and its best-sellers chart from 1940 to 1958. Gift lists vary by source; see the notes below the table.
Anniversary gifts by year chart
When people talk about anniversary gifts, they usually mean the traditional list, where the materials start delicate, like paper and cotton, and get stronger and more precious with the years. One of the earliest well-known lists is in Emily Post's 1922 book Etiquette, with just eight years. In 1937 a jewelers' trade group, the American National Retail Jewelers Association, published a longer one, and later lists added store-bought gifts like clocks, watches and jewelry, which became the modern list. Colors, flowers and gems came later still, and sources disagree on them the most, so treat those as ideas, not rules.
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
| Year | Traditional | Modern | Color | Flower | Gem or metal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paper | Clocks | Gold | Carnation | Gold |
| 2 | Cotton | China | Red | Cosmos | Garnet |
| 3 | Leather | Crystal or glass | White | Sunflower | Pearl |
| 4 | Fruit & flowers | Appliances | Blue | Geranium | Blue topaz |
| 5 | Wood | Silverware | Blue | Daisy | Sapphire |
| 6 | Iron | Wood | Purple | Calla lily | Amethyst |
| 7 | Wool or copper | Desk sets | Yellow | Freesia | Onyx |
| 8 | Bronze | Linen & lace | Bronze | Lilac | Tourmaline |
| 9 | Pottery | Leather | Terracotta | Poppy | Lapis lazuli |
| 10 | Tin or aluminum | Diamond jewelry | Silver | Daffodil | Diamond |
| 11 | Steel | Fashion jewelry | Turquoise | Morning glory | Turquoise |
| 12 | Silk | Pearls | Oyster white | Peony | Jade |
| 13 | Lace | Textiles & furs | White | Chrysanthemum | Citrine |
| 14 | Ivory | Gold jewelry | Ivory | Dahlia | Opal |
| 15 | Crystal | Watches | Red | Rose | Ruby |
| 16 | — | Silver hollowware | Emerald green | Statice | Peridot |
| 17 | — | Furniture | Yellow | Red carnation | Carnelian |
| 18 | — | Porcelain | Blue | — | Cat's eye |
| 19 | — | Bronze | Bronze | Bronze chrysanthemum | Aquamarine |
| 20 | China | Platinum | Emerald green | Aster | Emerald |
| 21 | — | Brass & nickel | Orange | — | Iolite |
| 22 | — | Copper | Green | — | Spinel |
| 23 | — | Silver plate | Silver | — | Imperial topaz |
| 24 | — | Musical instruments | Lavender | — | Tanzanite |
| 25 | Silver | Sterling silver | Silver | Iris | Silver |
| 26 | — | Original artwork | — | — | — |
| 27 | — | Sculpture | — | — | — |
| 28 | — | Orchids | — | — | — |
| 29 | — | Furniture | — | — | — |
| 30 | Pearl | Diamond | Green | Lily | Pearl |
| 35 | Coral | Jade | Coral | Coral rose | Emerald |
| 40 | Ruby | Ruby | Red | Gladiolus | Ruby |
| 45 | Sapphire | Sapphire | Blue | Blue iris | Sapphire |
| 50 | Gold | Gold | Gold | Yellow roses & violets | Gold |
| 55 | Emerald | Emerald | Emerald green | Calla lily | Alexandrite |
| 60 | Diamond | Diamond | Diamond white | Orchid | Diamond |
| 65 | Blue sapphire | Blue sapphire | Sky blue | — | Blue sapphire |
| 70 | Platinum | Platinum | Platinum | — | Platinum |
| 75 | Diamond or gold | Diamond | Diamond white | — | Diamond |
A dash means most lists don't name one. The traditional list goes year by year to the 15th, then every fifth year; the modern list fills in every year up to the 29th. UK lists differ in a few years: the 4th is linen and silk, the 6th sugar, the 8th bronze and salt, the 9th copper, and the 12th silk and fine linen.
Planning your parents' 25th, 40th or 50th anniversary
When the kids plan the gift, the hard part is that after 40 or 50 years most couples already have the silver frame and the gold watch. What they don't have is their own story, told back to them.
- Collect letters. Ask each child and grandchild to write down one memory of them, then bind the letters into a book or read a few aloud at dinner.
- Make a slideshow from their wedding photos to today, set to their first dance song or the song that was #1 the week they married (the calculator above looks it up).
- Recreate a first: the restaurant from their first date, the cake from their wedding, the drive from their honeymoon.
- Give them a song about their life together. Tell us how they met, the house they raised you in and the things they still bicker about, and we'll turn it into an original song about the two of them.
The traditional gifts for the big ones: silver for the 25th, ruby for the 40th and gold for the 50th. Here's what a 25th-anniversary song can sound like:
Jazz
Maria and Paul After Twenty Five
Example song for Maria and Paul, celebrating twenty-five years with soft humor, elegance, and shared history.
Example song written from a made-up story. We never share customers' songs.
Gift ideas by milestone
What each big year stands for, plus one idea that doesn't need a store.
1st Anniversary Gift: Paper
Paper is for a marriage that's still mostly blank pages. The modern list says clocks, for all the time ahead.
One idea: write a letter about your first year and seal it to open on your 10th. Or make a song your paper gift: with Lyric Art, its lyrics come as a printable piece of art, with a QR code that plays the song.
5th Anniversary Gift: Wood
Five years in, the marriage has roots, and wood is meant to show it. The modern gift is silverware.
One idea: have your initials and wedding date carved into a cutting board you'll use every day, or plant a tree together.
10th Anniversary Gift: Tin or Aluminum
Tin and aluminum bend without breaking, which is a fair description of the first decade. The modern gift is diamond jewelry.
One idea: fill a small tin with ten folded notes, one memory from each year.
14th Anniversary Gift: Ivory
The traditional 14th gift is ivory, but real elephant ivory is out: the US bans almost all commercial trade in it. Couples use the color instead, like ivory candles, cream linens or white roses. The modern gift is gold jewelry.
One idea: ivory candles and one evening with both phones in a drawer.
15th Anniversary Gift: Crystal
Crystal is clear and strong, but it still asks for a little care, which sounds about right at fifteen years. The modern gift is a watch.
One idea: toast with the wine you served at your wedding, in two good glasses you save for anniversaries.
20th Anniversary Gift: China
China is delicate but made for everyday use, which suits twenty years. The modern gift is platinum.
One idea: set the table with your wedding china, or finally take it out of the box.
25th Anniversary Gift: Silver
The silver anniversary is the first of the big milestones, and the traditional and modern lists both say silver. It's also the one families most often throw a party for.
One idea: at the party, play your first dance song and ask everyone who was at the wedding to stand up.
30th Anniversary Gift: Pearl
A pearl forms one thin layer at a time, the way thirty years do. The modern list says diamond.
One idea: a single pearl on a chain, with a note naming three moments from your 30 years you'd live again.
40th Anniversary Gift: Ruby
Ruby red is the color of a love that's still burning after 40 years, and both lists agree on it.
One idea: dinner where you got engaged, or as close to it as you can get.
50th Anniversary Gift: Gold
The golden anniversary is the one the whole family remembers, and both lists say gold.
One idea: ask every child and grandchild for a letter and bind them into one book. Or give them their story as a song: how they met, the years since and the family they built.
60th Anniversary Gift: Diamond
Sixty years together is rare enough that the gift is the hardest natural material there is. The modern list agrees on diamond.
One idea: write their love story down for the family, from how they met to today, so the grandkids have it.
Songs for your anniversary
Music is the one gift that fits every year. Three places to start:
- Your first dance song. Play it at dinner and see who recognizes it first.
- The #1 song the week you married. The calculator above finds it for any date since July 1940.
- A song about the two of you. Not one about love in general: one about your first apartment, the trips and the joke only you two get. That's what we make.
Love songs by wedding decade
For a slideshow or a parents' party, start with the decade they married in:
- 1960s: “At Last” by Etta James, “Can't Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley, “My Girl” by The Temptations
- 1970s: “Your Song” by Elton John, “Let's Stay Together” by Al Green, “Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton
- 1980s: “Endless Love” by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, “The Lady in Red” by Chris de Burgh, “Forever and Ever, Amen” by Randy Travis
- 1990s: “I Swear” by All-4-One, “Truly Madly Deeply” by Savage Garden, “Amazed” by Lonestar
- 2000s: “Bless the Broken Road” by Rascal Flatts, “Everything” by Michael Bublé, “Then” by Brad Paisley
- 2010s: “All of Me” by John Legend, “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran, “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran
- 2020s: “Until I Found You” by Stephen Sanchez, “Golden Hour” by JVKE, “Die with a Smile” by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars
Sources and notes: Gift lists vary, so each cell in the table is the value most sources agree on, and the traditional column follows Wikipedia's list. We cross-checked Wikipedia, The Knot, the Emily Post Institute, Hallmark, Brides, Martha Stewart, Zola, WeddingWire and the Chicago Public Library's list; gems and metals against GIA, the International Gem Society, Brilliant Earth and Jewelers Mutual; and flowers against 1-800-Flowers and ProFlowers. Where two gifts are about equally common (wool or copper, tin or aluminum, diamond or gold), we list both. The #1 songs come from Billboard's weekly charts, as listed in Wikipedia's yearly lists of number-one singles: Best Sellers in Stores from July 27, 1940, then the Hot 100 from August 4, 1958 to October 31, 2026.
Give them a song for this anniversary
Tell us how you met, what the years have held and what only the two of you would understand. We'll turn it into an original song about your life together. There's nothing to ship, and you can hear a free preview in minutes.
Create your anniversary song