Which anniversary is it?
Enter how many years they have been married and get the British material, the name where the year has one, and whether it qualifies for a message from the King. Nothing to sign up for, and nothing invented where the list is silent.
Every material comes from Debrett's British list. To read the whole list at once, with the disagreements set out, see the UK wedding anniversary list; what the traditional symbols mean covers where the materials came from in the first place.
Three named years qualify for a card from the King: the diamond wedding at sixty, the sixty-fifth and the seventieth, plus every year after the seventieth. Silver at twenty-five and gold at fifty do not.
Written by Craig Fearn, Printed Weddings.
Where this list is silent, the tool says so rather than filling the gap.
25 of the years on this list carry a material. Materials from Debrett's “British Wedding Anniversaries”; royal message rule quoted from GOV.UK.
Why some years come back empty
The British list runs every year to fifteen and then jumps in fives, so sixteen to nineteen, twenty-one to twenty-four and the years inside the later gaps carry nothing at all. That is the list, not an omission here.
The oddest gap is the 65th, which has no material despite being one of only three named anniversaries that qualifies for a message from the King. That rule is set out in full on the diamond wedding page. The list and the honours system have never been reconciled.
Filled-in versions of the skipped years come from modern and American lists and are perfectly usable. Just be aware that a "wax" eighteenth has no British pedigree behind it.
Traditional and modern are two different lists
Where the modern list has a verified different value, the tool shows it - most visibly at the 30th, where the British tradition gives pearl and the modern list gives diamond. Where no modern value is shown, that means we have not verified one, not that the two agree.
The modern list is usually dated to 1937 and credited to the American National Retail Jeweler Association, a jewellers' trade body, which is worth remembering when its recommendation turns out to be jewellery. Where the modern list came from traces that attribution back as far as it goes.
The whole list in one place
If you would rather read every year at once, with the sources and the disagreements set out, see the UK wedding anniversary list.
Also in the first years
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Questions
Questions, answered
Which wedding anniversary is 25 years?
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The silver wedding. Silver is what Debrett's British list gives for year 25, and it is the value this tool returns.
Why does this tool give no material for some years?
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Because Debrett's British list gives none. It runs every year to fifteen and then in fives, so a good many years carry nothing, and the 65th is a genuine gap despite qualifying for a message from the King. Materials quoted elsewhere for those years come from modern or American lists.
Which anniversaries get a card from the King?
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Three named years: the diamond wedding at 60, the 65th and the 70th, plus every year after the 70th. Look up any year above and the tool will tell you whether it qualifies. Silver at 25 and gold at 50 do not.