Anniversary wishes for every year worth counting.

What do you write in an anniversary card?

Three things, in this order: something you're grateful for, one memory, and a line about the years ahead. That's it. Three to five sentences is plenty for a card, and one or two for a text. The mistake most people make is writing about marriage in general ("love is patient, love is kind") instead of about this marriage. The general version could go in anyone's card. The specific one could only go in yours.

If you're stuck, start with "Thank you for" and finish the sentence with something that happened this year. The move, the illness you got through, the holiday that went wrong in a way you both laugh about now. Then add "Here's to" and what you're looking forward to. You've written an anniversary message.

What do you send your husband or wife?

Something that shows you've noticed the small things. Married people hear "I love you" all the time. What they hear much less is "thank you for checking the lock twice every night" or "you make the plans and keep us all together". An anniversary is the one day a year when it's normal to say those out loud, so say one.

Plenty of couples split it: a funny text in the morning, the sincere line in the card or at dinner. The husband and wife pages each have both, sorted into romantic, funny, short, first anniversary, long marriage and longer messages written for the card. The husband page is written in a wife's voice and the wife page in a husband's, which matters for the Hinglish and Hindi lines, where the verb changes with the speaker.

What do you write for your parents' anniversary?

Thank them for the marriage, not just congratulate them on it. Grown children tend to see their parents' relationship more clearly than they did growing up, and an anniversary is a good day to say what it taught you. "Everything I know about love, I learned watching you two" is the kind of line parents keep. If there's a family group chat, send it there. It'll be forwarded to every aunt anyway.

In Hindi or Hinglish, use आप (aap) for your parents, even if you'd say tum to a friend's parents in conversation. A wish like "आप दोनों की जोड़ी हमेशा सलामत रहे" (may the two of you always stay together) is the traditional shape, and every line on this page for parents is written that way.

What do you say to a couple celebrating their anniversary?

Something warm, short and about the two of them. "Watching you two together is proof it can be done" is a lovely compliment, because it says they're doing something hard and doing it well. With close friends, teasing works too: "another year of you two finishing each other's stories, and getting the ending wrong". Keep it about the couple. An anniversary wish from a friend isn't the place to mention your own relationship.

On social media, a short wish under their photo is enough. Save anything longer for a message, and if you're going to their dinner, write it in a card and hand it over.

What makes a 1st, 25th or 50th anniversary different?

The first anniversary is traditionally the paper anniversary, which makes a handwritten note a gift in its own right. It's also the year of small discoveries, and a message that names one (how they take their eggs, what they're like when they're ill) is charming and very specific to year one.

The 25th is the silver anniversary and the 50th the golden, and both are usually family occasions. Children often organise the party, and someone reads a message aloud. Write it to be heard. Name the years and what they held: the cities, the children, the things they got through together. The simplest lines are the most moving at this point: "Fifty years. Half a century of choosing each other."

Lists of traditional gifts for every other year exist, but they differ from country to country, so we haven't printed one here. If a particular year matters to the couple, ask them, or pick a gift they'll use.

What if you forgot the anniversary?

Own it straight away, in one line, and make a specific plan. "I got the date wrong and I'm sorry. Dinner on Saturday, my treat, and I've booked the place you like" does more than a long apology, because it shows you're taking it seriously. Don't blame work. Then put the date in your phone with a reminder a week before, so next year it's an anniversary rather than a story.

What do you send when you're apart on the day?

A message timed to arrive as they wake up, then a call. Being away on an anniversary is common, whether it's a work trip, a posting or family duty, and the timing matters more than the length. A short wish that's the first thing they read says you planned it. Promise the celebration for when you're together, and name what it'll be. The long-distance page has more for longer separations.

How do you work out how long you've been together?

The love counter does it from your date, in years, months and days, and lists your next six milestones, such as your 1,000th day or your next anniversary. It works from your wedding date or the day you got together, and has captions for the big ones.