Need inspiration and ideas for a wedding anniversary card? Let’s be inspired by tradition and get creative.
Do you like to celebrate your anniversary? Do you want to send a thoughtful gift or original card but need some ideas? Or have you been with your partner so many years that neither of you remember 😉?
I love anniversary cards. An anniversary card can convey a heartfelt message and isn’t expensive. Anniversary cards can be creative, thoughtful and original.
My husband and I always celebrate our anniversary. We spend so much time being Mum and Dad and caring for others that we sometimes lose the essence of who we are and where we started. We are very lucky to have a family who look after our children each year so that my husband and I can go away for our anniversary and reconnect.
We’ve never gone overboard with gifts but we do like to give each other an anniversary card and a little present to celebrate. From the start of our married life I struggled to find something special for my husband that wasn’t just an ‘off the rack’ anniversary card and a boring DVD for a present (even though he would have been delighted with that!). I wanted to be more creative and give my husband an original anniversary card. I did a little research into anniversaries and started to follow the traditional gifts given for each anniversary for inspiration.
Before I was married, I never even knew that there were traditional gifts for each year of your anniversary. I think we are all familiar with milestone marriages like a golden anniversary (which is 50 years) but there are actually now traditional gifts for every year of marriage.
Did you know that wood marks the five year anniversary? And tin marks the ten year anniversary?
“The tradition of giving silver and gold gifts on your 25th and 50th wedding anniversaries is thought to date back to the Middle Ages. In those days, a lot of people didn't live long enough to reach these milestones, so it was something to celebrate if they did.
During the 20th century, more people were able to afford anniversary gifts and so more traditional symbols were added to the list.” Extract from Gosfield Hall website
Original and handmade anniversary cards based on the traditional anniversary gifts
I wanted to give a handmade and thoughtful anniversary card, but I just couldn’t find one in the shops! So I set about designing my own range of anniversary cards based on the traditional gifts given for your anniversary. I also find and give a little gift each year to symbolise this.
For instance, when we celebrated our first anniversary, which is symbolised by paper I designed a card with a little paper aeroplane on it. And I bought my husband a print from one of his favourite illustrators.I think this was a thoughtful, creative and thrifty way to celebrate our first year of being married.
The second year of marriage is cotton so I created an anniversary card with a cotton reel design, and I made him one of my embroidered photo hoops which are printed onto cotton.
I want you to be able to give creative and interesting anniversary cards and gifts too. If you are looking for inspiration for anniversary gifts for each year of your marriage then
I have put together an anniversary gift guide over on my pinterest page.
And you can browse my range of original and creative anniversary cards here
If you’re wondering what gift to buy on your anniversary, here is a list of all the traditions. My range of cards for your anniversary currently includes designs for 1 year of marriage up until your 20th anniversary and I am adding more designs monthly.