100 Wedding Anniversaries According to How Long You've Been Married

Paper, silver, and even gold... Wedding anniversaries go through different materials that symbolize the changes in the relationship. Learn all about them here!

When a couple reaches the first year of marriage, it’s common for them to celebrate to remember their anniversary. However, the passage of time strengthens and marks different stages in the relationship. This translates into different reasons to commemorate wedding anniversaries every year.

Celebrating this event among friends and family – particularly on the 15th, 25th, and 50th anniversary of marriage – is a long-standing tradition that dates back to the Roman Empire. Then, it spread into the territory of present-day Germany in medieval times, to later spread throughout Europe and America.

At that time, the woman was awarded a silver crown and a gold crown on the dates that now bear that name. But did you know that all wedding anniversaries have a name, meaning, and significant material?

What are 100 wedding anniversaries named?

From the first year with paper weddings, to the 100th anniversary with bone weddings, each anniversary has an associated element or material. The general idea is that these elements become stronger with time, more resistant, and more durable, alluding to the strengthening of the bond. Let’s take a closer look at 100 wedding anniversaries.

Year 1: Paper weddings

The first wedding anniversary is very special, as it commemorates a unique night still present. However, it’s associated with paper as a blank page where much remains to be written. You can celebrate and reminisce about the wedding.

Year 2: Cotton weddings

Soft, but adaptable material, as the relationship is expected to evolve. Still flimsy because of the short time the bond has been in place. However, cotton is the basis for the making of numerous garments and items. This translates into the opportunity to build a strong and lasting marriage.

Year 3: Leather wedding

Such consolidation begins to be glimpsed in the three years, and so it relays a more solid and durable material. Also linked to clothing and clothing, leather offers greater resistance, as the marriage is gaining.

Year 4: Linen wedding

Versatile and flexible, linen is presented as a comfortable material for this stage of the bond. Since it’s a textile, it’s often used for gifts such as clothing or ornaments.

Year 5: Wooden weddings

Wood symbolizes greater solidity and strength in marriage. When the fifth year arrives, it’s common for many couples to celebrate with friends and family. As with linen, you can create gifts with this material.

Year 6: Iron weddings

It represents strength and endurance. It’ s also associated with perfume, combining the sensitivity required for coexistence.

Year 7: Wool weddings

Wool is warmth, protection, and tenderness, but it’s combined with copper, which symbolizes durability and elegance. A marriage in its seventh year begins to be characterized by diverse elements. The idea of the soft initial love is maintained while growing in strength. 

Year 8: Bronze wedding

Greater strength and durability in the bond. The eighth year focuses on the solidity of the relationship, increasingly growing in the impending pre-decade as a covenant.

Year 9: Clay wedding

Humble and moldable material. It symbolizes the building of the relationship over time. It’s also a foundation on which to build for the future, like cotton.

Year 10: Aluminum wedding

Greater adaptability for an ever-growing bond. Brightness, durability, and resistance characterize it. The first decade of marital union gives way to metals.

Year 11: Steel wedding

Marks the solidity and resistance of a marriage that has already crossed its first decade of existence. In this period, metals will become increasingly resistant and valuable.

Year 12: Thread wedding

Symbolizes the construction of the bond and also the durability: with the thread the bond can continue to be made. What breaks can be fixed.

Year 13: Lace weddings

Elegant and aesthetic fabric that attributes these characteristics to marriage. It’s linked to the effort of manual confection. Also with creativity, hard work, and attention to detail.

Year 14: Ivory weddings

Four attributes are transferred from ivory to a bond that already accumulates several wedding anniversaries:

• Purity
• Beauty
• Fidelity
• Integrity

Year 15: Crystal weddings

Related to the transparency and honesty that the bond requires to reach this stage. Although crystal is a very aesthetic material, it also hides a fragility that can be transferred to this stage of the relationship.

Year 16: Ivy wedding

Expresses spiritual growth in a new stage of marriage. Ivy is an herb with traditional uses in natural medicine and associated with healing, which gives it a sacred character.

Year 17: Wallflower wedding

The metaphors with plants continue, as the wallflower represents loyalty in adversity. In addition, there are specimens in different colors, which can symbolize the different stages that the union has already gone through.

Year 18: Quartz wedding

The relationship gains firmness again with a natural and resistant material. This mineral is associated with an aesthetic side because of its transparency and its shape. Although it looks fragile on the outside, it’s very resistant.

Year 19: Honeysuckle weddings

Climbing plant that introduces the second decade of wedding anniversaries through union and solidarity. Honeysuckle grows and grows, overcomes obstacles, and is very versatile.

Year 20: Porcelain weddings

Three characteristics identify porcelain with the second decade of marriage: beauty, elegance and fragility. The bond achieved the first two, but taking care of how fragile love can be.

Year 21: Oak weddings

Another material of natural origin: oak wood marks the solid foundations on which the bond is built. In Ancient Greece it was linked to the god Zeus, therefore, it’s associated with justice and morality.

Year 22: Copper wedding

It represents mutual protection and the work of both to reach this point. Besides being an essential mineral on the planet, it’s a fundamental nutrient for human health. And that importance gives it a protective character.

Year 23: Water wedding

The most important element of life represents the transparency and vitality that requires a relationship. It must flow like water to lead to a healthy bond.

Year 24: Granite wedding

Resistant stone that marks a new period of strengthening. This is the hardest rock used in construction, which is associated with the strongest marriage moment yet.

Year 25: Silver wedding anniversary

One of the most important and celebrated wedding anniversaries. Many consolidated couples reach the silver wedding anniversary, noble, pure, elegant, and resistant material that symbolizes these attributes in the bond.

It’s common to celebrate in party rooms with the presence of all loved ones. Although a silver gift can be expensive, many people unify their gifts to give a necklace, ring or bracelet on this unique occasion.

Year 26: Rose weddings

Marriage surpasses the quarter century with beauty and romanticism. Shiny and resistant materials are reduced to give way to natural beauty.

Year 27: Jet weddings

Special mineral for its scarcity and aesthetics. It represents protection thanks to its strength and tradition linked to this attribute.

Year 28: Amber weddings

Amber characterizes one of the wedding anniversaries framed by the strength of love with which it came to this point. This is an element linked to good energy and beauty, which also refers to sexual pleasure.

Year 29: Garnet weddings

The pre-third decade is characterized by a rejuvenating passion. Its particular color gives a unique character to the bond.

Year 30: Pearl wedding

Elegance and beauty are central attributes of pearls. These adjectives are also related to experience, so it’s a way to honor the longevity of the bond.

Year 31: Ebony wedding

Ebony is a dense and heavy wood. At the same time, it’s easy to polish and is solid and durable – adjectives that characterize such a long bond.

Year 32: Copper weddings

At this point, some materials begin to repeat themselves, such as copper, which serves to symbolize durability, now from another stage.

Year 33: Pewter weddings

A natural element that can be both firm and adaptable, a necessary characteristic in a long-lasting relationship. It represents adaptability to stage changes.

Year 34: Poppy weddings

Poppy is a plant linked to love and union. In a relationship, it symbolizes passion through the years. Also the rest and tranquility needed to reach this point.

Year 35: Coral wedding

After so long, it’s necessary for the symbiosis and communion that make the marine coral subsist. A group of organisms that form chains so large that they can become reefs.

Year 36: Flint wedding

Elegance, solidity, and resistance equate this rock with 36 years of marriage. Because of these characteristics, it’s widely used in construction, providing another type of foundation for such a long bond.

Year 37: Stone weddings

When it comes to strength, nothing is more solid than stone. Perhaps the most recognized and used element for any type of human construction.

Year 38: Jade weddings

Jade, in addition to strength and durability, presents a value based on beauty and elegance. On the other hand, it’s associated with protection and prosperity.

Year 39: Agate wedding

Another precious mineral that is identified with peace and abundance. Also with the balance between individual thoughts, the sets with the partner and the external world.

Year 40: Ruby weddings

The gemstone stage continues with one of the most coveted. The powerful red of ruby keeps the beauty in a resistant material, linked to passion and purity.

Year 41: Topaz wedding

It symbolizes joy, creativity, and purity. Many people associate topaz with balance and inner peace.

Year 42: Jasper wedding

Cleanliness and balance are linked with this purplish-red gemstone. It’s believed to help combat negative situations and bring clarity to decisions.

Year 43: Opal Wedding

This hardy mineral represents joy, loyalty, purity, and spirituality. All fundamental characteristics to reach such an advanced stage of the marital union.

Year 44: Turquoise weddings

The color turquoise is used to summon protection and good luck. In addition, it’s a symbol of happiness, a constant quest in more than four decades of marriage.

Year 45: Sapphire weddings

One of the stones most linked to love. Sapphire weddings represent the virtue and wisdom of having reached such an instance.

Year 46: Mother-of-pearl weddings

Mother-of-pearl again summons firmness and endurance in a bond already strongly established. From the spiritual perspective, it represents renewal, open-mindedness, and creativity.

Year 47: Amethyst wedding

Linked to peace and harmony, amethyst is a stone that represents the spiritual balance achieved for this advanced instance.

Year 48: Feldspar wedding

This precious mineral, present in most rocks on the planet, represents youth and rebirth in the relationship. A necessary renewal as the half-century of union approaches.

Year 49: Zircon wedding

The beauty of zircon is linked to longevity, as it’s one of the oldest minerals on Earth. It alludes to the experience of a marriage on the eve of half a century.

Year 50: Golden wedding anniversary

We have reached one of the most important and celebrated wedding anniversaries! Reaching half a century of union is not for everyone, so it deserves a celebration with all the loved ones who accompanied the couple.

There are many ideas to celebrate the golden wedding anniversary, but the important thing is to have a good time and renew the vows of love. By this time, experience and wisdom allow to instruct the younger ones about the meaning of an extended bond.

Of course, those who attend an event of such magnitude, have the possibility of giving a gift containing gold.

Years 51 to 59: Natural weddings

The next decade identifies anniversaries with natural elements, such as plants, precious minerals, and some animals. They represent the preciousness and uniqueness of a relationship that has persisted over time.

• 51. Camellia weddings
• 52. Tourmaline wedding
• 53. Cherry tree wedding
• 54. Cybeline wedding
• 55. Emerald wedding
• 56. Lapis lazuli wedding
• 57. Azalea wedding
• 58. Maple wedding
• 59. Mink wedding

Year 60: Diamond wedding anniversary

If you thought the wisdom of a couple and the maturity of a relationship were vast at the golden wedding anniversary, the diamond represents yet another decade. Hard to the point of being almost unbreakable, this stone conveys both beauty and purity.

The diamond used to be associated with the 75th anniversary, but that changed when Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom celebrated her diamond jubilee. It happened in 1897, at which point the custom of associating this element with the 60th anniversary was adopted.

The most common gifts tend to include diamonds in rings, earrings, or bracelets.

Year 65: Platinum wedding

Another of the most celebrated wedding anniversaries because of the strength and persistence that a 65-year bond implies. In this instance, it’s clear that the couple shared a lifetime or a good part of it, a reason that is celebrated with friends and family.

As for platinum, it’s an allusion to several attributes together, such as adaptability, resistance, and durability, all indispensable elements for an extended relationship.

Year 70: Titanium weddings

Not every couple gets to celebrate 70 wedding anniversaries. One of them was that of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of the United Kingdom. In 2017, at 91 and 96 respectively, they became the first couple in the history of British royalty to reach it.

Titanium symbolizes a journey of companionship, in a bond as light as it is resilient.

Year 75: Weddings of brilliance

A mélange of the attributes that all gemstones have to represent three-quarters of a century of a marriage. Beauty, endurance, durability, strength, elegance, and resilience are some of them.

Year 80: Chestnut weddings

For the next 5 years, the thousand-year-old chestnut tree, whose fruit was important to the development of life in European history, is designated. It represents the immortality of a now almost unbreakable bond.

Year 85: Marble wedding

This elegant and resistant material is related to an unusual anniversary, as one must have extensive longevity to achieve it. In fact, according to the Guinness World Record, this is where the longest-recorded marriage in history ended.

This is the bond forged by the American couple of Herbert and Zelmyra Fisher. They were 86 years and 290 days married, until death separated them in 2011, when Herbert passed away at the age of 105.

Year 90: Alabaster wedding

Another elegant mineral, white in color and compact, although with a certain fragility that can symbolize the passage of time. In Christianity, it’s associated with love and generosity.

Year 95: Onyx Wedding

This instance of marriage, still unattainable according to historical records, is represented by a beautiful opaque brownstone. As mystical values, it’s linked to the absorption and transformation of negative energies.

Year 100: Bone wedding

Finally, the 100th wedding anniversary is associated with bone, a resistant and transcendental element in human life. Do you think anyone will be able to reach this anniversary?

Wedding anniversaries grow stronger over time

The elements chosen for each anniversary are intended to represent changes in the bond. As the relationship strengthens, it also becomes adaptable and almost unbreakable. An extended marriage goes through numerous stages that must be overcome to endure.

If you know couples who celebrate their wedding anniversaries, feel free to be guided by the elements associated with each year to honor them with a gift accordingly.