Anniversary Wedding Rings by Year and their Colors (Explained)

Marriages are not static things. They change and grow over time, just like any relationship between two people.

So why let your original wedding rings stay the only symbol of your love for each other?

Many anniversaries have long and time-honored traditions associated with them, and these are all great ways to update the symbol that you wear on your finger.

1st Anniversary: Gold

With your first anniversary comes a renewal of the promises that you made when you first got married.

It’s a signpost for you to look back at the time that you’ve had together so far and to consciously decide to keep going through thick and thin.

Getting your spouse a gold ring is a gesture that says “I’m still shooting for forever.”

For this anniversary, yellow and white gold are the most traditional, but rose gold is also a fun option that you could choose if you think it would be more meaningful.

2nd Anniversary: Garnet

Garnets are a deep crimson red, which makes for absolutely striking pieces of jewelry.

These rings are especially meaningful if your spouse is a Capricorn, as garnets are the birthstone for that particular sign.

Garnets symbolize commitment and creativity.

Hopefully, two years is still quite early in your marriage, so that commitment thing is definitely something that you should be thinking about.

If your spouse is an especially creative person, this gem might mean even more to them.

3rd Anniversary: Pearl Band

Pearl’s are the greatest treasures of the ocean, symbolizing innocence and purity.

In Christianity, pearls also often represent wisdom, as in the parable of the pearl of great price.

What better way to really show off how serious you are about spending forever together than with a pearl in this early year?

Pearl’s are also traditional for the thirtieth anniversary.

If you choose to get rings for both, be sure that the latter ring is different and special in some way, to show how much the two of you have grown over the years.

4th Anniversary: Blue Topaz

Blue Topaz for the fourth anniversary is meant to symbolize eternal romance and friendship.

Giving your spouse this ring is a promise to continue deepening your bonds in perpetuity, come what may.

Blue Topaz also symbolizes honesty and communication—two critical ingredients in a healthy marriage.

If you want to show your spouse that you’re truly committed to telling them the truth and only the truth, then this year is a great one to do that with this beautiful gemstone.

5th Anniversary: Sapphire

Your fifth anniversary is your first big milestone, and we can’t think of a better stone to go with it than sapphire.

It is noble, it is true, and it is faithful. What can sum up four years of marriage better than those three?

Not to mention that unique blue color that sapphire can bring to the table for anyone who’s already wearing more than one ring at a time.

With a gem as bright and versatile as this one, there are all sorts of fashion decisions that you can make.

You can stack it with your wedding and engagement bands, or you could wear it all on its own on your other hand, or you could wear it on the adjacent finger.

Whatever you choose, sapphires tend to stand out just due to their nature.

6th Anniversary: Amethyst

Amethyst is all about purity, strength, and courage.

This is a great ring for if you and your spouse are facing a big challenge together, like moving far away from home or starting a new career.

7th Anniversary: Onyx

Onyx is said to absorb conflict and keep things cool between people.

In scientific terms, it probably doesn’t do that, but it can easily symbolize your desire to let past slights stay in the past and can represent your mutual forgiveness of any problem that you’ve had in the past.

8th Anniversary: Tourmaline

Tourmaline is representative of reconciliation.

If you’ve had a difficult time with your spouse in the last couple of years, this could be a great way to put a cap on that and move on.

This feels best when it comes from a place of mutual understanding when you can start to build your relationship back up from a bad place.

9th Anniversary: Lapis Lazuli

Lapis represents wisdom and truth, a great choice for showing appreciation to your spouse for all the support that they give you.

10th Anniversary: Diamonds

The tenth anniversary is diamonds! With this second big milestone, it can be a great time to look back on what has made you stay together for so long and to remember the little things that made you fall in love in the first place.

Diamonds will bring you both back to those old days when you were preparing to get married and will make you say, “let’s live like that again.”

This band can either be an update to your original wedding ring or sit right alongside it.

Many people like to wear this ring as a part of the wedding ring stack, which can offer a unique look that no one will be able to copy considering your specific choice of rings.

15th Anniversary: Ruby

With this milestone, you get to celebrate with a bright red gem that can’t be mistaken for anything but a ruby.

Rubies look best when paired with yellow or white gold, perfect for expressing your love for your spouse.

Rubies represent wealth and prosperity.

This can either be symbolic of the achievements that the two of you have brought to your family over the course of your marriage, or it can be about the wealth of loving moments that the two of you have shared. Either way, this can be a very meaningful anniversary.

20th Anniversary: Emerald

Emeralds are a color that we’ve yet to see so far on this list: a brilliant green!

A stylish green can bring a new dimension to any collection of rings and plays well with both the red of rubies and garnets and the blue of topaz and sapphire.

Emeralds represent protection, love, wit, and eloquence.

Whether you’re promising to protect your spouse from danger or thanking them for always knowing what to say, this gemstone can say it in a way that will make them feel like the center of your world.

Emerald is also the gem of choice for the thirty-fifth anniversary.

If you choose to do both, you can either renew the original meaning that you put into the twentieth-anniversary ring or find something entirely new to highlight some other aspect of emerald.

25th Anniversary: Silver Jubilee

Twenty-five years is a quarter of a decade and for most people more than a quarter of a lifetime.

What can be more exciting than discovering that you’ve spent more than a fourth of your life with the person you love most in the entire world?

For this ring, anything silver will do. Make it striking, and make it something that has personal meaning to both of you!

This anniversary is all about celebrating each other, so as long as it means something to both of you, it’s fair game.

30th Anniversary: Pearl Jubilee

Thirty years is a long time, and at this point, it’s safe to say that your marriage is like the pearl of your life.

You’ve spent such a long time maturing it and really building it into something that shines.

Since this is the second pearl ring on this list, you may need to work extra hard to make this one stand out.

40th Anniversary: Ruby

That’s right, it’s ruby again! This is either a chance to give your spouse their first ruby ring or an opportunity to really outdo yourself and show how much they mean to you through something truly extravagant.

50th Anniversery: Golden Jubilee

It is a rare marriage indeed that lasts for fifty years, which makes this the perfect time to look back at your life together and to remember your first exchanging of vows.

This is a year to celebrate the joys of life, so pick something gold that reminds you of that!

At this point, your marriage is an achievement in and of itself.

55th Anniversary: Alexandrite

Alexandrite symbolizes luck, and lucky is exactly what you are if you’ve been happily married for fifty-five years.

Remind your spouse how lucky you feel to have met them by giving them this ring.

60th Anniversary: Diamonds Again

Your relationship needs to be as tough as diamonds to last for sixty years.

If you make it to this milestone, you can celebrate with a classic favorite and commemorate the joy that your relationship has brought into your life for decades now.

70th Anniversary: Platinum Jubilee

Platinum is a miracle of nature, and this ring shows that you recognize just how valuable your spouse is to you after all this time.

Not only is platinum beautiful, but it lasts forever, showing that even when the inevitable occurs and the two of you are separated by death, your love will continue forever.

75th Anniversary: Sapphire Jubilee

This is round three for sapphires, but this time is perhaps the most important since you never know what anniversary will be your last.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that you should pull out all the stops for this one ring, it just means that you should pick something that will really mean the world to your spouse.

At this point, you probably know your loved one better than anyone else does.

You know their favorite gemstones, you know what they’ll love. Do what will make them the happiest.

80th Anniversary: Ruby Jubilee

This is the last anniversary for which there is a tradition. It’s your choice whether to follow it or not, but rubies are on the table again!

Other Anniversaries

Of course, you can give your loved one rings any year, even years that aren’t on this list.

Giving them a new ring on an off-year can really catch them off guard and remind them of why they love you in the first place.

If you choose to do this, it might be hard to find a list that goes past the first ten years.

Here’s a quick rundown of every tradition from year one to year twenty.

You can also get an anniversary ring to commemorate some other important anniversary, like your first kiss, your first date, or when you bought your first house together.

What kind of ring you get for these anniversaries is all up to you.

Wearing Anniversary Rings

As mentioned earlier in this article, you can wear your anniversary rings however you want.

You could wear only the one most recent ring to keep you anchored in the present, but you could also stack your rings to show the way that your past and present entwine.

Unlike wedding rings, there isn’t any particular etiquette to wearing anniversary rings, meaning that you can do whatever you want with them just as long as it looks good.

Anniversary Ring Styles

Anniversary rings can be any style that you like. From infinity rings to classical bands, your style can be unique to your relationship.

There are a few popular styles that you can choose from if you want.

Three Stones

This style has one large central gem with a smaller gem flanking both sides of it.

Along with being quite a fun choice for a ring, it can also be said to symbolize the past, present, and future of your marriage.

Bands

While most engagement rings tend to have solitaire diamonds right in the middle, anniversary rings can be a lot more modern in their construction.

This means that they can have many small gemstones inlaid throughout, which can be quite the image.

Stackable Rings

These rings are designed to be stacked one on top of the other, which can look very unique and be a great avenue for personal expression.

They’re often compatible with engagement and wedding bands, which can add a whole extra layer to the fun.