Wedding and anniversary questions, answered.

Short, direct answers, grouped by how long a couple has been married rather than by theme, so the shape you learn here is the shape the rest of the site uses. Each one hands up to the guide that covers it properly.

Getting engaged

• Who buys the engagement gift?. The loose custom, explained.
• Personalised engagement presents. What "personalised" actually buys you over an off-the-shelf gift.
• What to write in an engagement card. Congratulate, keep it brief, mean it.

The wedding

• Wedding gift etiquette. Registries, timing, and thank-you norms.
• How much to spend. Why there's no fixed figure, and how to decide.
• What to write in a wedding card. Short, warm, sincere: what works and what to skip.

The first years

• The year-by-year list. The full traditional list, year by year.
• What the symbols mean. How the tradition works, and where the modern list disagrees.
• What to write in an anniversary card. How to mark the years without sounding generic.

The milestones

• What the silver wedding is. What the 25th means.
• What the pearl wedding is. What the 30th means.
• What the ruby wedding is. What the 40th means.
• What the golden wedding is. What the 50th means.
• The diamond wedding, and the King’s message. The 60th, and the first year the King sends a card.
• The 65th, and the gap in the list. The year the British list skips, and what that frees you to do.
• Platinum at seventy, and every year after. Seventy years, and the rule that keeps going after it.

Written by Craig Fearn, Printed Weddings.