It’s quite common to celebrate a Silver Wedding Anniversary or a  Golden one – but what about everything in between?

There are a lot of wedding anniversaries to celebrate before your Silver or Golden, and each of them is associated with a particular material. The different names and items associated with the various stages of wedding history reflect the stage in the couple’s relationship. The materials gradually increase in strength and value each year, reflecting the steady strengthening of marriage as the years progress.

The first wedding anniversary is called the Paper Anniversary, because paper symbolizes something new and fresh, yet to be written on with the wedding couple’s history.

Your fifth wedding anniversary is your Wood Celebration: wood is stronger than paper and symbolizes a growing love and closeness.

Your tenth anniversary is called the Aluminium/Tin Anniversary. Aluminium/Tin is a sturdy and flexible material, and symbolizes a marriage which has become stronger but is also flexible – a major requirement in a lasting marriage.

It’s not until you reach your fifteenth anniversary that the material associated to your celebrations start to become really robust and precious. After fifteen years of marriage, you celebrate the Crystal Anniversary. With its value, beauty and clarity, crystal appropriately represents what a fifteen years marriage looks like.

The 20^th wedding anniversary is represented by china, which symbolizes the elegance, beauty and delicate nature of the marriage over two decades.

And this is just for the main anniversaries: there is a huge number of named milestones for marriage and each of them has a great deal of symbolism.

Here you can find the complete list of wedding celebrations: how many anniversaries do you celebrate as a couple?