A milestone worth celebrating
6th Anniversary Gifts
Iron and sugar are the traditional gifts and wood the modern theme. Purple is the traditional sixth anniversary colour.
A genuine purple rose, finished with a lustrous glaze and 24 karat gold, is a lasting way to mark your first six years together.
The meaning behind your year
Gift ideas
Iron, Sugar and Amethyst: Six Anniversary Gift Ideas
A few traditional, a few practical, and all of them better with a note attached.
A cast-iron pan for life
A good cast-iron frying pan or casserole gets better every time it’s used, and it will still be cooking when the grandchildren come for dinner. Cook the first meal in it together.
Wrought iron for the garden
An iron arch for a climbing rose, a bench for two, or a gate with your initials worked into it. Every time it’s in flower, you’ll remember why you put it there.
Your wedding cake, again
Ask your baker for the recipe, or have a cake maker copy it from your photos, and share a small version on the night.
A chocolate class for two
Spend an afternoon learning to temper chocolate or make macarons together, then bring home a box of what you made.
Wood with your date on it
Wood is the modern sixth anniversary gift. A clock, a photo frame or a serving board engraved with your wedding date and a line from your vows will be used every day.
Amethyst, in any shade of purple
Amethyst is the 6th anniversary stone, from soft lilac to deep violet. Earrings or a pendant suit everyday wear, and it’s also the birthstone for February.
The purple glazed rose
A purple rose to celebrate six years together
A genuine purple 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 six 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 6th means
Why iron and sugar
for six years?
Iron and sugar are the traditional gifts for a sixth wedding anniversary. Iron stands for a strength that lasts, and sugar for the sweetness of everyday married life.
Why iron and sugar
Strength and sweetness
Iron is strong, and it gets better with use. Every meal cooked in a cast-iron pan adds to its seasoning, and a well-kept one will outlast the people who bought it. Six years of everyday life does something similar for a marriage.
Sugar is the softer answer. It stands for the sweet, ordinary part of being married: the coffee made just the way they like it, the chocolate saved for them, the jokes nobody else gets.
Where it began
A sugar wedding, Brisbane 1937
In February 1937, the children’s page of Brisbane’s Telegraph explained that nearly every anniversary had a name, even if you ‘seldom, if ever’ heard of a sugar wedding. Its list ran cotton, paper, leather, fruit and flowers, wood, then sugar for the sixth.
Iron is the American choice. Emily Post’s list gives iron as the classic sixth anniversary gift and wood as the modern one, while Hallmark’s list offers candy or iron.
Around the world
Sugar, iron and Cyprus
In Austria and parts of Germany the sixth is the Zuckerhochzeit, the sugar wedding. It marks the start of what Germans call the verflixte siebte Jahr, the ‘cursed seventh year’, and the sweet name is meant as a reminder of the good times before it.
Dutch lists offer plaster, iron or sugar. Japan has both an iron wedding and a sugar wedding for the sixth, and in France it is the noces de chypre.
6th anniversary symbols
Iron, amethyst and calla lilies
Iron, sugar and wood
Iron is the classic 6th anniversary gift on American lists, for strength that lasts. British and older Australian lists give sugar, for the sweetness of married life. Wood is the modern alternative.
Amethyst
Amethyst is purple quartz, ranging from bluish purple to reddish purple. Legend says St Valentine wore an amethyst ring carved with an image of Cupid, which makes it a fitting stone for a love token.
Calla lily
In the language of flowers, the calla lily stands for beauty. Its single curling petal comes in white, cream and deep purple, and a few stems make an elegant bouquet on their own.
Celebrating the 6th
Make a little time for the two of you
Go back to the restaurant from your first date, cook the meal you made in your first home, or spend an evening looking through your wedding photographs. Six years gives you plenty to remember, and a good reason to make time for each other.
If you like a theme, buy a good cast-iron pan and cook dinner in it together, or go the sugar route with a dessert tasting or a box of handmade chocolates.
You don’t need anything elaborate. A letter written today is something you can both keep.
More romantic anniversary ideasWhat the 6th means to others
Letters that capture six years
Six years in, the wedding photos have moved off the fridge and real life has moved in. A short letter is a good way to say what you’d still choose again. Here are three to borrow from, and three real stories about year six.
Letters to inspire your own
We wrote these as examples. Borrow any line you like.
Dear Ben,
Six years ago you promised, in front of everyone we know, to always make the coffee. I didn’t think you meant it literally. You’ve made it every morning since, including the week you had the flu and the morning after the twins arrived.
This has been a bit of an iron year, hasn’t it? Your dad’s surgery, my redundancy, the roof. Not once did you let me feel I was carrying any of it on my own.
I don’t need anything big for our anniversary. I’d just like the coffee to keep coming, and you with it.
All my love,
Kate
Dear Mel,
You once told me you married me for my cooking. Six years on, we both know that wasn’t true, because you’ve tasted my cooking.
What you have done is turn our flat, and now this house, into a place people want to come back to. Our friends stay late at our table because of you. So does the cat, who still won’t sit on my lap.
This year I’ve bought us a cast-iron pan, the kind that gets better every time you use it. I’m told that’s the sixth anniversary gift. I think it’s also a fair description of us.
Happy anniversary. Dinner’s on me, and I promise to follow the recipe.
Love,
Dan
To us, at six,
They say the seventh year is the hard one. In Austria the sixth anniversary is called the sugar wedding, a sweet reminder before it starts. So here’s ours.
What we know after six years: we’re better at saying sorry than we used to be. We still can’t agree on the thermostat. The best nights are the ones we didn’t plan, and we laugh at the same terrible films.
What we promise for year seven: one dinner a month, just the two of us, with the phones in another room. Holding hands in the car. Saying the good things out loud, not just thinking them.
See you at seven.
Love,
Us
Worth reading
Real stories of the six-year mark. Links open in a new tab.
For his sixth anniversary with his wife, Michaela, Simeon Pilgrim went looking for the traditional iron gift and found a local ironwork shop that could make flowers. He came home with a pair of cast-iron roses on a stand, and they both loved them. A short, happy post, and proof that iron and roses go well together.
Amy and Jordan, high-school sweethearts and wedding photographers from Franklin, Tennessee, married in June 2009. For their sixth anniversary, Jordan wrote Amy a letter that counts the days since the wedding and walks back through their story, from their first date to a hard goodbye at college. Sweet, simple and easy to borrow from.
A short piece from the children’s page of Brisbane’s Telegraph on 27 February 1937, listing the name of each wedding anniversary, with sugar for the sixth. Guests, it says, brought gifts to suit the occasion, though by then only silver and golden weddings were usually celebrated. Worth a look for the original newsprint alone.
6th anniversary FAQ
