January 24th, 2009 by Solange

Wedding anniversaries are lovely, I helped organise my parents’ 50^th last year, in retrospect I can say that my doubts were completely unjustified, it ended up being a very sweet celebration and of course a lovely thing to help with and  do, once you get going it is great fun.

Here are my top tips:

You need to watch “time”. These things are really time consuming, it is very easy to underestimate how long it take. Get friends and family to help with the invitations. It is the perfect time to share your hobby with them. Set yourself a time-scale and stick to it.

Co-ordinate the stationary and “gift”, lots of people start to celebrate with friends and family with their 15^th anniversary.  But there is greater scoop for the earlier years e.g.: Pottery designs make a stylish background for a 9^th wedding-anniversary card.

For your invitations use the technique you know best, this might not be the right time for experiments. Stamping is easy and relatively cheap to create multiple designs. Sometimes a straight forward invitation with a relevant embellishment has the same impact as something complicated.

Work small scale, remember that the card or invitation is very likely going to be pined up on a board, so you don’t want to create a massive object. This is an occasion where it is better to work with the lettering rather than over do the design.

Make a few spare, just in case.

So what are they? This is the classic list, there are some variations as there are a few lists. There is also a modern version where for example the 4^th anniversary: linen is replaced by appliances, hmm, I am not sure I like the idea of getting a hand-blender or a vacuum cleaner for an anniversary.

the 1^st is paper

the 2^nd  is cotton

the 3^rd leather

the 4^th linen

the 5^th  wood

the 6^th  iron

the 7^th  wool

the 8^th  bronze

the 9^th  copper

the 10^th tin

the 11^th  steel

the 12^th silk

the 13^th  lace

the 14^th ivory

the 15^th crystal

the 20^th  china

the 25^th  silver

the 30^th  pearl

the 35^th  coral

the 40^th  ruby

the 45^th sapphire

the 50^th  gold

the 55^th  emerald

60^th  diamond

65^th  blue sapphire

70^th  platinum