Every wedding anniversary carries the name of a material: paper for the first year, cotton for the second, leather for the third, linen for the fourth, wood for the fifth. Then the list moves on to harder materials, up to silver at twenty-five years, gold at fifty and diamond at sixty. Below is the full table, from the first to the seventy-fifth year, with the variants marked row by row and the source of each layer of the list.
To stay under €100, the Falce set (from €79, fitted sheet and pillowcases); between €100 and €200, the Mezzaluna set (from €129, with flat sheet); over €200, the Plenilunio set (from €199, with duvet cover), all in the set collection. If you do not know the size or colour of the bed, a gift card avoids the mistake. Standard packaging: there is no gift wrapping service, the box arrives as listed in the catalogue.
What kind of anniversary: the year-by-year table
The logic of the list is simple and becomes clear reading it from the top: you start with paper, which tears with two fingers, and end with diamond, which does not scratch. The material shows how well the bond has held, and in the early years it also helped suggest what to give.
| Year | Name of the anniversary | Variant you come across |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | paper wedding | none |
| 2 | cotton wedding | none |
| 3 | leather wedding | skin wedding |
| 4 | linen wedding | flower wedding |
| 5 | wood wedding | none |
| 6 | iron wedding | sugar wedding |
| 7 | wool wedding | copper wedding |
| 8 | bronze wedding | none |
| 9 | pottery wedding | clay wedding |
| 10 | tin wedding | aluminium wedding |
| 11 | steel wedding | maple wedding |
| 12 | silk wedding | rope wedding |
| 13 | lace wedding | lacework wedding |
| 14 | ivory wedding | none |
| 15 | crystal wedding | porcelain wedding |
| 16 | ivy wedding | none |
| 17 | violet wedding | none |
| 18 | quartz wedding | none |
| 19 | honeysuckle wedding | none |
| 20 | porcelain wedding | crystal wedding |
| 21 | oak wedding | none |
| 22 | copper wedding | none |
| 23 | water wedding | none |
| 24 | granite wedding | none |
| 25 | silver wedding | none |
| 30 | pearl wedding | none |
| 35 | coral wedding | jade wedding |
| 40 | ruby wedding | none |
| 45 | sapphire wedding | none |
| 50 | golden wedding | none |
| 55 | emerald wedding | diamond wedding |
| 60 | diamond wedding | emerald wedding |
| 65 | platinum wedding | stone wedding |
| 70 | titanium wedding | iron wedding |
| 75 | brilliant wedding | platinum wedding |
The table covers every year up to the twenty-fifth and then goes in steps of five, which is exactly the structure set in 1937 by the American National Retail Jeweler Association, when it completed a list that until then stopped at the main anniversaries.
In brief
- The year-by-year list dates from 1922, when an etiquette manual assigned a material to each anniversary and the custom spread from there (source: Emily Post, Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home, 1922)
- The first 15 years have stable names: paper, cotton, leather, linen, wood, iron, wool, bronze, pottery, tin, steel, silk, lace, ivory, crystal
- The years from the 16th to the 24th have a precise date of birth: 1937, when the American National Retail Jeweler Association completed the year-by-year grid up to the 20th and then in steps of five
- Silver, gold and diamond correspond to the 25th, 50th and 60th anniversary: the Treccani dictionary records this under the entry nozze, and they come from the medieval German custom of silver and gold crowns
- 5 of the first 12 years bear the name of a textile fibre: paper, cotton, linen, wool and silk
From the first to the fifteenth year
The first fifteen years are the part of the list where there are no doubts, and also the most pleasant to read in one go. The paper of the first year is a poor and delicate material, which lasts only if someone takes care of it. The cotton of the second is already a woven thread, the leather of the third softens with use instead of wearing out, the linen of the fourth is a fibre that outlasts the person who weaves it.
From the fifth year onwards the materials become household things: wood, iron, wool, bronze, pottery, tin. These are the objects of a home that has really been set up, with pots and furniture in place of wedding presents. Then comes the steel of the eleventh, which does not bend, and the silk of the twelfth, the only precious fibre on the list.
The last three of this first part change register. The lace of the thirteenth year and the ivory of the fourteenth are materials of luxury and patience, the crystal of the fifteenth is the first that belongs in a display cabinet rather than the kitchen. It is the moment when the tradition stops talking about everyday work and starts talking about a milestone, and not by chance the anniversaries thin out from here on.
On this stretch of the list the gift was meant to be something you use, not something to put on show: the material of the year indicated the category, and whoever received it made use of it.
The years between the sixteenth and the twenty-fourth
These are the years that many Italian lists skip, and yet they have precise names: ivy in the sixteenth year, violet in the seventeenth, quartz in the eighteenth, honeysuckle in the nineteenth, oak in the twenty-first, copper in the twenty-second, water in the twenty-third, granite in the twenty-fourth.
They all come from the same place, and that is why they appear together or not at all. Up to the 1930s the list covered the first fifteen years and then the main anniversaries; in 1937 the American National Retail Jeweler Association published a complete version, with one material for every year up to the twentieth and then in steps of five up to the seventy-fifth. The intermediate years were born there, and from there they reached the Italian lists.
The choice of materials follows a recognisable logic: climbing and hardy plants in the first part, ivy and honeysuckle, then minerals and hard woods, quartz, oak, granite. It is the same progression from the fragile to the durable that holds the whole list together, applied to the years that were left uncovered.
The big anniversaries: 25, 50 and 60 years
Three anniversaries carry a different weight from all the others, and they are recognised by the fact that they have a name even outside the lists. The silver wedding at twenty-five years, the golden wedding at fifty and the diamond wedding at sixty are celebrated with a real party, often with the same guests as the wedding, and in many families with the renewal of vows.
They are also the three that have no variants, and the only ones recorded by the dictionary: the Treccani defines silver, gold and diamond as the twenty-fifth, fiftieth and sixtieth anniversary. They come from a custom older than the year-by-year list, which inherited them rather than inventing them.
The two that swap places are sapphire and diamond between the fifty-fifth and sixtieth years. The version most widely used in Italy puts emerald at fifty-five and diamond at sixty, and that is the one shown in the table.
The colours of anniversaries
The colour of an anniversary comes from its material, and for the big anniversaries it is immediate: silver for twenty-five years, gold for fifty, ruby red for forty, blue for the sapphire of the forty-fifth, green for the emerald of the fifty-fifth, white for the pearl of the thirtieth, pink for the coral of the thirty-fifth.
For the early years the matter is different, because paper, cotton and linen do not have a colour of their own. The lists that assign a colour to the first years do so by recent convention and without agreement among themselves, so it is better to treat it as an aesthetic suggestion and not as a rule to follow.
If the colour is needed for laying the table or choosing a fabric, the safest route is to start from the natural tones of the material of the year: the beige of paper and linen, the warm white of cotton, the brown of leather and wood. These are the same logics for pairing home linen, collected in the guide on how to coordinate colours and fabrics in the bedroom, and for those who want to stay with green there is the piece on sage green pairings.
Where the list comes from
The list has three layers, and it is easier to understand them by looking at them in order of age.
The oldest is the one of the crowns. In medieval Germany the husband crowned his wife with a silver crown at the twenty-fifth year of marriage and with a gold one at the fiftieth: this is where the two names that everyone still recognises come from, and the Treccani dictionary records them under the entry nozze together with the diamond of the sixtieth.
The second layer is nineteenth-century. English etiquette manuals began to assign a material to the minor years as well, and the custom crossed the Atlantic. In 1922 it appeared in the manual that made it popular across the English-speaking world (source: Emily Post, Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home, 1922), which covered the first fifteen years and the big anniversaries.
The third layer dates from 1937, and it is the one that completes the grid: the American National Retail Jeweler Association publishes a list with one material for every year up to the twentieth and then in steps of five up to the seventy-fifth. In the same period the librarians of the Chicago Public Library, overwhelmed with requests, put in writing the version that became the most consulted reference. The lists found today descend from these two works.
Why so many anniversaries carry the name of a fibre
Five of the first twelve years bear the name of a fabric or of the fibre that makes it: paper, cotton, linen, wool, silk. The list here recorded an economic fact. For centuries textiles were the household good that was worth the most for its bulk, the one that went into the trousseau and was counted piece by piece, and it has remained the gift category that a couple uses every day without thinking about it.
The internal hierarchy of the list follows the value those fibres had: the paper of the first year is worth little and lasts little, the cotton of the second is everyday, the linen of the fourth is the fibre that gets handed down, the silk of the twelfth was the luxury. Anyone looking today for the right fibre for the home has a wider choice than before, and that is the theme of the guide on which fabric to choose for sheets.
Among the fibres of this family there is also bamboo viscose, cellulosic like linen and cotton, with a cooler feel to the touch: the Looniva bedding set is 300TC with OEKO-TEX Standard 100 class I certification, the class intended for articles for babies. What distinguishes genuine bamboo viscose from a generic label is explained in the guide on how to recognise bamboo viscose, and if the gift has to be chosen by someone else's bed size, the double bed sheet sizes come in useful.
The variants in circulation and which one to follow
Where a year has two names, it is almost always because the two layers of the list treat it differently: the list of 1922 and the one of 1937 do not coincide on every box, and in Italy they have overlapped with local customs. These are two documented names, not two opinions.
The pairs that come up most often are crystal and porcelain between the fifteenth and twentieth years, iron and sugar in the sixth, wool and copper in the seventh, tin and aluminium in the tenth, emerald and diamond between the fifty-fifth and sixtieth years. The table shows the version most used in Italy, with the other one beside it.
The rule that works in families is that of use: you keep the name that the parents used or the one that circulates among relatives, because the function of the name is to make the anniversary recognisable, and a name nobody recognises serves no purpose. The year is the fact that matters, the material is the frame.
Frequently asked questions
How many years is a silver wedding?
Twenty-five years of marriage. It is the first of the three big anniversaries, together with the golden wedding at fifty years and the diamond wedding at sixty, and the three are the only ones that every list reports in the same way. It is usually celebrated with a real ceremony, often with the renewal of vows.
Which good-quality sheets would you recommend as an anniversary gift under €150?
Under €150 the most complete set in the catalogue is the Mezzaluna set, from €129: fitted sheet, flat sheet and pillowcases in bamboo viscose. To spend less there is the Falce set from €79, without flat sheet. Both are in the set collection, with sizes and colours to choose from.
What are the names of 60 years of marriage?
Diamond wedding. It is the highest anniversary that is regularly celebrated, and the diamond closes the scale of materials because it is the one that does not wear away. Some lists bring it forward to the fifty-fifth year, putting emerald at sixty, but the current Italian version keeps emerald at fifty-five.
Which bed set should I give for a wedding if I do not know the exact mattress size?
When the size is not certain, it is best to ask the recipient for the width of the mattress: a single number is enough. If you do not want to ask, a gift card leaves the choice to them. The most common format in Italy is the double, in the Mezzaluna set at €169, in the set collection.
Which anniversaries carry the name of a fabric?
Five of the first twelve years: paper in the first year, cotton in the second, linen in the fourth, wool in the seventh, silk in the twelfth. It is why textiles remain the gift category most tied to these anniversaries. Bamboo viscose belongs to the same family of cellulosic fibres: Looniva sets are 300TC, certified OEKO-TEX Standard 100 class I.
Is it better to give a complete bed linen set or a gift card if I do not know the colour of their bedroom?
Without knowing the colour of the bedroom, the gift card avoids the most common mistake. Alternatively, neutral tones such as sand or light grey go with most furnishings and are among the options in the set collection. The packaging remains the standard catalogue one, with no gift wrapping service.
Edoardo Guarise