A milestone worth celebrating
30th Anniversary Gifts
Pearl is the traditional gift and diamond the modern theme. Green is the traditional thirtieth anniversary colour.
A genuine dark green rose, finished with a lustrous glaze and 24 karat gold, is a lasting way to mark your first thirty years together.
The meaning behind your year
Gift ideas
Pearl, Mother-of-Pearl and Diamond: Six Anniversary Gift Ideas
A few traditional, a few practical, and all of them better with a note attached.
Pearls for every day
A full strand is the classic, but studs or a single pearl on a fine chain are what actually get worn on an ordinary Tuesday. Ask the jeweller to lay a few side by side so you can compare their lustre.
New silk for old pearls
If pearls were worn on your wedding day, or handed down from a mother or grandmother, have them cleaned and restrung. The silk wears and stretches over the years, and a freshly knotted strand is ready to be handed on.
See where the pearls grow
Australia is one of the world’s leading sources of South Sea pearls. At Willie Creek Pearl Farm near Broome you can take a boat ride on the creek, visit the oyster nursery and watch a guide open an oyster to find the pearl.
Mother-of-pearl, for either of you
Mother-of-pearl gives you the same shimmer without a full strand. Think cufflinks, a watch with a mother-of-pearl dial, or a frame for your favourite wedding photo.
Oysters by the water
Book a long lunch with a view of the water and start with a dozen oysters. It’s the pearl anniversary, and somebody else is doing the dishes.
Diamond, the modern gift
Diamond is the modern 30th anniversary gift, and the hardest material on earth. An eternity ring worn beside a wedding band is the classic choice; a pair of diamond studs suits someone who doesn’t wear rings.
The dark green glazed rose
A dark green rose to celebrate thirty years together
A genuine dark green rose with a lustrous glazed finish, its petals and leaves edged in 24 karat gold and its stem plated in matching gold. Each rose retains its individual shape and character, so no two are exactly alike—a lasting reminder of your first thirty years together.
- Includes a certificate of authenticity
- Presented in a luxurious display case, inside a gloss white gift box bearing our debossed gold leaf logo
- A timeless symbol of love, preserved to keep forever
- Rose approximately 30 cm long; display case 34 cm long
What the 30th means
Why pearls
for thirty years?
Pearl is the traditional gift for a thirtieth wedding anniversary. A pearl grows slowly, one fine layer over another, which makes it a fitting image for a marriage built over three decades.
Why pearls
Made slowly, in layers
A pearl begins as an irritation. When a parasite gets into an oyster or mussel, or its soft body is damaged, the animal coats the trouble spot in nacre, the mother-of-pearl that lines its shell, and keeps adding layers.
It is slow work. An Australian South Sea pearl spends about two years inside its oyster, and that long growth is what gives it thick nacre and a deep glow. Thirty years of marriage builds up in much the same way, one ordinary layer at a time.
Where it began
Pearl weddings, Adelaide 1953
In April 1953, Adelaide’s Advertiser sorted its anniversary notices under golden, ruby, pearl and silver weddings. Under ‘Pearl Weddings’, Mr and Mrs J. L. Davies of Crafers announced thirty years since their marriage in Adelaide on 11 April 1923.
Brisbane’s Telegraph had already listed pearl for the thirtieth in 1937. That same year, according to the Emily Post Institute, American jewellers filled in most of the year-by-year list, and today Emily Post and Hallmark both give pearl as the traditional gift and diamond as the modern one.
Around the world
Pearls from Germany to Japan
In Germany the thirtieth is the Perlenhochzeit, the pearl wedding. German writers describe a string of pearls as the years a couple has come through together, and a pearl necklace for the wife is still the classic present.
The French call it the noces de perle, and Dutch lists offer ivory, pearl or mother-of-pearl. In Japan it is shinjukonshiki, the pearl wedding, a good fit for the country where Kokichi Mikimoto succeeded in culturing a pearl in 1893.
30th anniversary symbols
Pearls, diamonds and lilies
Pearl and diamond
Pearl is the traditional 30th anniversary gift on American, British and older Australian lists, and diamond is the modern choice. Diamond also marks the 60th anniversary, so it doubles as a promise to reach your diamond wedding.
Pearl
GIA names cultured pearls as the 30th anniversary gem. There are four main kinds: akoya, the classic white or cream; Tahitian, in grey, black or brown; South Sea, from white to silver or gold; and freshwater, in a wide range of shapes and colours.
Lily
On modern anniversary flower lists, the lily belongs to the 30th. In Victorian flower language a white lily meant purity and a yellow one ‘walking on air’. If you share your home with a cat, choose another flower, as true lilies are highly toxic to cats.
Celebrating the 30th
Make a little time for the two of you
Take the honeymoon you couldn’t afford the first time, have your old wedding film or slides digitised and watch them together, or let the children cook you dinner for a change. Thirty years gives you plenty to remember, and a good reason to make time for each other.
For a pearl wedding party, invite as many of your original wedding guests as you can find. Play your first dance again, serve the main course from your reception, and ask the best man or a bridesmaid to tell one story from the day.
However you mark the day, add a few handwritten lines. After thirty years, the small, specific things are the ones worth saying.
More romantic anniversary ideasWhat the 30th means to others
Letters that capture thirty years
Thirty years in, a lot goes unsaid simply because it’s known. A letter is a chance to say it anyway. Here are three to borrow from, and three real stories about pearls and the thirty-year mark.
Letters to inspire your own
We wrote these as examples. Borrow any line you like.
Dear Graham,
Thirty years ago you stood at the front of St Jude’s in a hired suit with sleeves down to your knuckles, and a moustache we have agreed never to discuss. You looked terrified. You also looked like the kindest man I had ever met, and that part hasn’t changed.
We’ve raised three children, moved house four times, and survived your home-brew phase and my sourdough year. When Mum was ill, you drove to Dubbo and back every weekend for four months without once making me ask.
The house is quiet now that Lucy has moved out. I thought I’d hate it. Instead I’ve found I still like your company best of all, even when you hum along to the news theme.
Happy thirtieth. I’ve booked the little Italian place where you proposed. Same table, if they still have it.
All my love,
Jan
Dear Helen,
The kids tell me thirty is the pearl anniversary. I looked it up: a pearl starts as a bit of grit the oyster can’t get rid of. After thirty years, we both know which one of us is the grit.
You’ve put up with my snoring, my cricket, three job changes and a kitchen renovation that took two years longer than I promised. You remember every birthday, mine included, and you’re still the one the children ring first.
When I had my heart scare two winters ago, you sat by that hospital bed for nine days, reading the crossword clues out loud so I’d have to answer. That’s when I understood how lucky I’ve been since 1996.
So here’s to the next thirty. I’ll keep being the grit if you’ll keep being the pearl.
Love always,
Pete
To us, at thirty,
In 1996 we promised ‘for richer, for poorer’. We’ve done both, occasionally in the same week. ‘In sickness and in health’ turned out to mean gastro on a ferry and a broken wrist on the netball court.
What we know after thirty years: a good argument beats a long silence. Dinner tastes better when someone else cooked it. The children turned out well, mostly despite us.
What we promise now: a walk every morning, even in winter. Visiting the kids without rearranging their kitchens. Saying thank you for the small things, and holding hands at the movies like we did at twenty-five.
Same vows, same people, a few more grey hairs. We’d say yes again.
Love,
Us
Worth reading
Real stories and finds about the thirty-year mark. Links open in a new tab.
Writer Gretchen Rubin met her husband, Jamie, in a law library and married him on 4 September 1994. For their thirtieth she listed thirty small things she has learned about staying happy together, from both liking to get to the airport early to the day in 2015 when Jamie was declared cured of hepatitis C. Honest, specific and easy to borrow from.
A short column from an 1876 Michigan newspaper that runs through the anniversary names, from cotton at one year to diamond at seventy-five, with pearls presented at thirty. Invitations were printed on materials to suit the year, from thin wood to tin foil and silk, and every guest who accepted was expected to bring a gift. Proof that the pearl wedding was on the list 150 years ago.
Scientists sliced open pearls from oysters raised on an Australian pearl farm and counted the layers of nacre: one pearl had laid down 2,615 of them in 548 days. When one layer came out thin, the next came out thicker, so small flaws evened out over time. A short read, and not a bad description of a long marriage.
30th anniversary FAQ
