One question, one answer, in as few words as the answer honestly takes. They're grouped in the same four stages the rest of the site uses, so nothing here needs relearning. Where a question deserves more than a paragraph, the answer hands you up to the guide that gives it one.
Getting engaged
The stage with no rulebook. Custom, budgets and card wording, all before anyone's booked a venue.
- Who buys the engagement gift? Nobody's obliged to buy one. Here's who usually does.
- Is a personalised engagement present worth it? Where a name on something earns its keep, and where it doesn't.
- What do you write in an engagement card? Two lines beat ten. Wording you can borrow.
The wedding
Gift ideas, card wording and practical guidance for guests and couples.
- What is the wedding gift etiquette? Timing, registries, and how long a thank-you is allowed to take.
- How much should you spend on a wedding gift? What UK guests report spending, and what to do with that figure.
- What do you write in a wedding card? Openers that land, and the lines everyone has read before.
The first years
Years one to five, plus the free lookup and the two lists that disagree about them.
- Which gift goes with which year? Each year and its material, with the empty years left empty.
- What do the anniversary symbols mean? Where the materials came from, and who wrote the rival list.
- What do you write in an anniversary card? Say the thing only you could say about their years.
The milestones
The years that get a name and a party, ten through seventy, and where the King's message starts.
- Which anniversary is the silver wedding? Twenty-five years, and silver.
- How many years is a pearl wedding? Thirty years, and the pearl-or-diamond split.
- Ruby wedding: how many years? Forty years. Ruby, with nothing to argue about.
- Which year is the golden wedding? Fifty years, and why gold still doesn't get a royal card.
- Does the 60th get a card from the King? Sixty years: the earliest anniversary a royal message covers.
- What is the 65th anniversary material? No material on the British list, a royal message anyway.
- What comes after the 70th? Seventy years, then a message every year that follows.
- When to apply for the King’s message