Let’s face it the 10 year point for a marriage is a significant milestone and well deserved of a big CONGRATULATIONS! Ten years will have put you through your paces and you will have experienced some highs and lows no doubt.
But what is the 10th Wedding Anniversary?
Tin. The 10th Wedding Anniversary is your tin wedding.
The modern version of this traditional symbol is diamond jewelery
The symbolic flower is the daffodil.
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It has long been a tradition that weddings under anything like 20 years are only celebrated by the couples themselves but as time progresses (and perhaps this is due to generation differences) more and more people are opting to celebrate with their family and friends.
We don’t blame people who want to do this! It doesn’t have to be an all singing all dancing party it can be a small celebration, it’s whatever suits you best.
If this your 10th anniversary here’s some information for you:
What are the 10th Wedding Anniversary Colors?
The traditional colors are blue and silver. Most anniversary only have a single color but the 10th is different in that it is has two – blue and silver.
This means that if you want to stick to traditions your gift or theme for any celebration should ideally incorporate those two colors.
What is The 10th Wedding Anniversary Flower?
The Daffodil. Daffodils are associated with spring, happiness and joy plus a new lease of life or the start of something new.
As fantastic as a single daffodil looks on it’s own a whole big bunch of them together look absolutely wonderful – just like yourselves!
Why is the 10th anniversary tin?
Well first of all this is just the traditional symbol (tin) there is a modern equivalent which was compiled by the Chicago Public Library in the 1930’s.
This was thought to be a commercial move to introduce an injection of spending into the economy as a lot of the new anniversary symbols appear to be expensive products, the modern 10th Wedding Anniversary gift is diamond jewelery.
We prefer the traditional symbols ourselves, just our opinion.
But the representation of tin is because this is to store things and help to preserve them to keep them as fresh as possible. It stops whatever is contained within the tin from decaying and keep it going longer. Now apply this analagy to a 10 year marriage!
This is why we prefer the traditional explanations – imagine a marriage after 10 years – it has been used to preserve the couple’s love for each other, both people have supported each other and prolonged the positivity of life within each person.
Well.. not always haha but every marriage has it’s ups and downs but on the whole a strong 10 year marriage has provided each person with a life partner to share the good, the bad and everything in between.
How should you celebrate your 10th wedding anniversary?
It depends on what type of a couple you are and what you find enjoyable.
If you were married in the summer or warmer months of the year then you could take a break away in together (without the kids) to somewhere you have both wanted to go for a while. Eleanor and I went to Las Vegas for our anniversary and it was fantastic.
Or if your anniversary is during the winter or a colder time of the year you could book a romantic cabin somewhere and get cozy together, perfection would it snowing outside. Picture perfect, say ahhhh.
Or you may want to hold a celebratory party with family and friends, it’s up to you how large a gathering you make this but in our opinion as time goes on it feels right to start celebrating the big events in life and a 10th wedding anniversary is not to be sniffed at – go for it.
10th wedding anniversary gifts ideas for her or for him
It is worth mentioning at this point that just because the wedding anniversary is associated with tin that you must buy something in tin – not at all – all of the symbols associated with the years of marriage are symbolic, in other words as long as your gift has some significance with regard to it’s representation then this counts.
So what can you give that has a relation to tin? Bit tricky this one. You may have to compromise in fact. If you look through Amazon, Ebay, NotOnTheHighStreet, Etsy or any of the stores you may find from a Google search you will see lots and lots of presents that you could give and not all of these have anything to do with tin at all but they’re still pretty cool.
You could opt for something made of tin that can be engraved with a message of love or devotion, here’s a couple of off the wall ideas, every couple is different but off the top of our heads here’s a few:
- A tattoo of your spouse to mark the occassion – it’s not for everyone but it shows a devotion
- A collection of video messages from family and friends telling your spouse how they feel about them
- Make something yourself – we really like this one as it is more personal than buying something off the shelf, nothing wrong with buying off the shelf but to put time and effort into creating something that is very personal it really shows you feel about your loved one – go on make them feel special, because they are!
- Renew your vows!
- Go away to the same place you had your honeymoon
- In keeping with the tradition of a tin wedding you could place some keep sakes or memories from years gone by into a tin – you could engrave the tin with an appropriate message
- You could put items into a tin timecapsule and bury it with instructions to dig it up in many years to come
As we said above tin is the traditional symbol but the modern symbol is diamond jewelery (in the UK we spell this as jewellery but this site is aimed at our larger audience which appears to be predominantley from the USA – Eleanor and I are in the UK in case you wondered) so you could (if you have the money) buy some diamond jewelery (jewellery) for your loved one.
What About You?
So what about you? How do you celebrate your anniversary? Do you have plans for your 10th? Not everybody has the time or money (or sometimes even the will) to do something about this occasion which is fair enough because life just get’s in the way.
The truth is if you are like us then at the 10 year point you’ve probably got a few kids. This probably means that they are at an age that even with all the will in the world it’s just so difficult to find the time or the money to do what you would really like to do that your day probably looks a bit like this:
So all in reality what you might be better doing is one of the following:
- Get a takeaway – it might delivered in tin or aluminium containers – job done!
- Watch a film after the kids have gone to bed
- Go to bed early and enjoy each others company
- Massage – a good one and greatly appreciated as long as you both get a look in
- Have a day out or a day out at the weekend, you probably will have the kids in tow but insist on having a day at a location of your choice
- Get a baby sitter and go out for a drink or a meal
- Go for a walk together
These are just some examples of what most couples probably actually do but we understand that everyone is different and each circumstance is different, pick what’s right for you guys – either way WELL DONE YOU MADE IT THIS FAR, KEEP GOING!
Check out our posts on “what is the 20th wedding anniversary?” and “what is the 15th wedding anniversary?”
An anniversary sundial is a good idea, it is a clock that tells time using the sun. We have one that sits on the window sill and makes rainbows in the room when the sun shines. It was handmade just for us with a special date line that the time shadow follows on our anniversary day each year, and there is a mark on that line that the shadow touches at the actual moment of our ceremony. We’ve had it for several years and it works great – I don’t remember what it is called exactly but you can find it online with a search. I think it is one of the best wedding or anniversary gifts that I have ever heard of!
That sounds like a great idea Paul, good tip!
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