Wedding Anniversary Gift Ideas—Traditional, Modern, Gemstones

So, you forgot your anniversary was coming up, and now you have to decide what you’re going to get your loved one. Wolfram|Alpha can now help point you in the right direction. The stereotypical anniversary gift for a man to give his wife is often thought to be jewelry, but you would be surprised to know that many traditional and modern wedding gifts have nothing to do with jewelry.

People often know about the diamond anniversary, gold anniversary, or silver anniversary, but what kind of gift is given on, say, someone’s 17th wedding anniversary? Well, this depends on if you want to give the traditional gift or the modern gift. Traditionally, a watch is deemed appropriate for the 17th anniversary, but the modern convention is apparently furniture. Happy anniversary, honey, I got you a couch.

Next year, my wife and I will be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary. The wide difference between the modern and traditional wedding gifts for the 10th wedding anniversary is interesting, with diamonds as the modern gift and tin or aluminum as the traditional. One is commonly far more expensive than the other. I guess I’m “lucky” that my wife is allergic to most metals, so she grew up finding jewelry to be something that caused great discomfort. But I insisted that we have a wedding band, so we went with titanium, which is hypoallergenic and became an example for Theo Gray’s Periodic Table. But I digress. Concerning the 10th wedding anniversary, a raw diamond is kind of confusing, so I guess I get to go the cheaper route of tin or aluminum. How do you make that heartfelt? We may not be able to help you make the right decision here, but we’ve steered you in the right direction.

Now, let’s assume you haven’t forgotten your anniversary, but you are in trouble for some other reason (for example, providing too many personal details on a company blog). You’re planning to get a wedding anniversary gift, but you need something to smooth the waters a bit. If the wedding anniversary corresponds to some kind of gemstone, you could consider examining our collection of famous gemstones. Most of these anniversaries are restricted to those with impressive longevity. For example, if you’re in trouble for buying a new Lamborghini car for yourself prior to your 55th wedding anniversary without consulting your loved one, you need to go that extra mile. So, given that the 55th wedding anniversary is associated with emeralds, how about buying your loved one the largest cut emerald? Or if it’s your 40th wedding anniversary and you need to beg for mercy, how about the Mercy Ruby, which may be appropriate.

How you use this newfound data is up to you. Although I should probably provide a disclaimer that Wolfram|Alpha is not associated with nor do we provide marriage counseling services.