Quotable Quotes for a 20th Wedding Anniversary

DO WE REMEMBER?

A woman awakes during the night to find that her
husband was not in their bed.

She puts on her dressing gown and goes downstairs to
look for him.

She finds him sitting at the kitchen table with a
hot cup of coffee in front of him. He appears to be
in deep thought, just staring at the wall.

She watches as he wipes a tear from his eye and
takes a sip of his coffee.

'What's the matter, dear?' she whispers as she steps
into the room, 'Why are you down here at this time
of night?'

The husband looks up from his coffee, 'I am just
remembering when we first met 20 years ago and
started dating. You were only 16. Do you remember
back then?' he says solemnly.

The wife is touched to tears thinking that her
husband is so caring, so sensitive.

'Yes, I do' she replies.

The husband pauses. The words were not coming
easily.

'Do you remember when your father caught us in the
back seat of my car?'

'Yes, I remember!' said the wife, lowering herself into a chair beside him.

The husband continues. 'Do you remember when he
shoved the shotgun in my face and said, 'Either you
marry my daughter, or I will send you to jail for 20
years?'

'I remember that too' she replies softly.

He wipes another tear from his cheek and says...

'I would have been released today.'

Entitled “Do men remember anniversaries?” this funny story was forwarded to me roughly two years ago. I saw it again in my computer as I looked for good material in my computer and various sites in the internet for my own 20^th wedding anniversary which will be tomorrow, Jan. 26.

Levity aside, wedding anniversaries are excellent occasions for married couples to celebrate their love for one another and remember why they tied the knot in the first place!

The tradition to celebrate wedding anniversaries, particularly the silver (25^th) and golden (50^th) are said to have been traced to medieval Germanic Europe where silver and gold wreaths were given to the wives by their husbands, friends or neighbors in recognition of their long and harmonious relationship. During those times, these anniversaries were known respectively as silver wedding-day and golden wedding-day. In time, symbols in the said Germanic tradition expanded and had certain materials assigned to various stages of married life. In principle, commonly used household items were the assigned gifts to aid the young couple. In later years, luxurious gifts were given as the couple was expected to have obtained the things they would normally require in their daily lives.

In 1937, the American National Retail Jewellery Association came up with a more comprehensive list of symbolic materials for all the traditional wedding anniversaries for each year up to the 15^th anniversary and then for every fifth year after that until the 60^th anniversary. Still, the gifts may slightly vary from one country to another but the major anniversaries seem to have more or less the same gifts. For instance, many countries generally assign the following gifts to these major occasions: 5th Wooden, 10th Tin, 15th Crystal, 20th China, 25th Silver, 30th Pearl, 40th Ruby, 50th Golden, 60th Diamond.

Diamond is well known to be associated with the 75^th anniversary but in the United Kingdom it was also used for the 60^th anniversary after Queen Victoria’s 60 years reign was described as her ‘Diamond Jubilee’.

The traditional gift for a 20^th wedding anniversary was china. The modern assigned gift for the same occasion was changed to platinum.

There is also a list of flower gifts assigned to important wedding anniversaries. For the 20^th anniversary they assigned the flower Aster.

So what quotable quotes about wedding anniversaries did I see in the internet? A lot.

It goes without saying that each passing day and year for a married couple is or should be special but would probably differ in importance and meaning for every couple. Having said that, most quotations may actually be applicable not only for a given number of years together as a married couple. In addition wedding anniversary quotations can be funny, serious, tender or spicy. Often short but concise, it should warm up people with its wit and subtlety.

Take the case of the quotation attributed to Robert Bridges - “Unto us all, our days are love’s anniversaries. Each one in turn hath ripened something of happiness.”

Another is attributed to Beverly Nichols. He was quoted in saying something like “between prose and poetry, the first chapter in marriage is with the latter.” The rest is presumably with the former!

An anonymous person is said to have uttered “Love may be blind but marriage is a real eye-opener!”

From Ogden Nash - “To keep your marriage brimming, with love in the loving cup, whenever you’re wrong, admit it; whenever you’re right, shut up!”

Interestingly, an old Chinese proverb popularly used for anniversaries teaches us a similar bit of wisdom as, “married couples who love each other tell each other a thousand things without talking.”

Perfect for a silver wedding anniversary are Mark Twain’s famous words about marriage: “Love seems the swiftest, but the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century.”

Consequently, Paul Sweeney summarizes everything in this quote: “A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity. The order varies for any given year.”

Let me end with one of my personal favorites, a commonly used poignant quotation from Mignon McLaughlin, “A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.”

As I ask for your prayers for my marriage, may the good Lord also bless your own marriages with peace, prosperity and happiness!