What to write in an anniversary card: messages and quotes
The best anniversary message is short and specific: name the milestone, mention one real moment you shared, wish them well for the year ahead and sign off in your own voice. Below are more than 90 original messages you can copy as they are or tweak, sorted by who the card is for, plus a set of wedding anniversary quotes whose sources we have checked.
For a 50th or later anniversary in Australia, the couple can also receive free congratulatory messages from the Prime Minister, the Governor-General and, from the 60th, the King. They only arrive if someone asks, so the etiquette section below explains who sends what, how to apply and how far ahead to lodge the request.
Anniversary messages to copy
Anniversary messages for your husband
Warm, personal lines for a husband, from sweet to a little cheeky.
Happy anniversary to the man who still makes me laugh before I have had my coffee. I love you more every year.
Another year of you warming up the car on frosty mornings and acting like it is nothing. It means a lot to me. Happy anniversary.
You are my best mate and my favourite person to come home to. Happy anniversary, darling.
Thank you for every school run, every cuppa you made without being asked and every time you held my hand when it counted. Here is to plenty more years of us.
I married a good man, and somehow you keep getting better. Happy anniversary, love.
Of all the decisions I have ever made, saying yes to you is the one I am proudest of.
Happy anniversary to my husband, my co-pilot on every road trip and the keeper of the snacks.
This year asked a lot of us, and you never once let go of my hand. Happy anniversary. I am so grateful it is you.
All these years on, my heart still does a little skip when I hear your key in the door.
To my husband: thank you for building a life with me that feels like home wherever we land.
Still my favourite. Happy anniversary, handsome.
Anniversary messages for your wife
Lines for a wife that say thank you as much as I love you.
Happy anniversary to the woman who makes an ordinary Tuesday feel like something worth celebrating.
You are the bravest, kindest person I know, and I still cannot quite believe you chose me. Happy anniversary, my love.
Thank you for your patience, your cooking and your terrible singing in the car. I would not swap a single minute of it.
Every year with you has been my favourite one so far. Happy anniversary, gorgeous.
You turned a house into a home and a good life into a great one. Happy anniversary, darling.
I fell for your laugh first. Years later it is still the best sound in our house.
To my wife: you make the hard days lighter and the good days even better. Thank you for another year of us.
We juggled a lot this year and you carried more than your share. Happy anniversary. Tonight, dinner is on me.
Happy anniversary to my wife, my favourite travel companion and the only person allowed to pinch my chips.
I would marry you all over again, same dodgy DJ and all. Happy anniversary.
Lucky me. Happy anniversary, beautiful.
Anniversary messages for your partner
Gender-neutral wording for a partner, whether you are married or simply counting the years together.
Happy anniversary to my favourite person. Here is to more long lunches, lazy Sundays and bad puns.
Another year with you, and I am still glad I said hello that night. Happy anniversary, love.
You are my calm in a busy week and my adventure on a free weekend. Happy anniversary.
Thank you for choosing me again this year, through the good bits and the messy ones.
Life with you is the best thing I never planned. Happy anniversary.
Here is to us: two people who still have plenty to talk about over brekkie.
We never needed a certificate to know we were in this together. Happy anniversary, my love.
I love the life we have built, the jokes only we get and the way you find me across a crowded room.
Whatever next year brings, I want to face it standing next to you. Happy anniversary.
Miles apart today, but you are still the first person I think of every morning. Happy anniversary. See you soon.
Anniversary messages to a couple
For anyone writing to a couple, from close family to workmates, with their names in place of "you both" wherever you can.
Happy anniversary to two of our favourite people. Thank you for showing us what a good team looks like.
Congratulations on another year together. We hope the next one is a cracker, full of good food and better company.
Wishing you both a happy anniversary and a year ahead that is kind to you.
You two make it look easy, even though we know it takes work. Happy anniversary, and well done.
We still talk about your wedding. Happy anniversary, and here is to the next big party.
To a couple who always have the kettle on and the door open: happy anniversary, with love from all of us.
Happy anniversary! May your year bring long weekends, good coffee and very few arguments about the aircon.
Happy anniversary to you both. I hope you get a proper night off to celebrate.
Happy anniversary from over the fence. It is a joy living next door to two people who are so good to each other.
Here is to the love you share and the friends you have gathered along the way. Happy anniversary.
Anniversary wishes for parents and grandparents
Messages from children and grandchildren, with a gentle option for a year when one parent is missed.
Mum and Dad, happy anniversary. Everything good in our family started with the two of you.
Thank you for showing us that love looks like cups of tea in bed and lifts to the airport at 5am. Happy anniversary.
Mum and Dad, you have weathered droughts, renovations and three teenagers. Happy anniversary to the toughest team we know.
To my parents: your marriage is the best example I could have asked for. Happy anniversary, with all my love.
Happy anniversary to the two people who taught me how to argue fairly and make up quickly.
Nan and Pop, happy anniversary. Yours is the love story we all ask to hear again.
Happy anniversary to the best grandparents anywhere, from your biggest fans.
You built a home where everyone had a seat at the table. Happy anniversary to the best Mum and Dad.
Happy anniversary to you both. Thank you for making two families into one, with room for everyone.
Thinking of you today, on what would have been your anniversary. Your love for each other is still all around us.
Anniversary messages by milestone
The traditional material for the year makes an easy play on words.
One year down and a whole notebook of blank pages to fill together. Happy first anniversary.
Happy first anniversary to you both. The confetti has settled and you are still grinning, which is a very good sign.
Ten years in, and you are still the best thing in my life. Happy tin anniversary, love.
A whole decade of you two! Congratulations on ten years of laughs and teamwork.
Twenty-five years married and you still save each other the last biscuit. Happy silver anniversary.
Mum and Dad, happy silver anniversary. A quarter of a century on, you still make marriage look like fun.
Forty years of love, as rich and deep as a ruby. Happy anniversary to you both.
Happy ruby anniversary to the couple who have held this family together for four decades.
Fifty golden years. Thank you for every Sunday roast, every story and every bit of love in between.
Happy golden anniversary! Half a century side by side is something to be very proud of.
Sixty years together, as strong and bright as a diamond. Congratulations to you both.
Nan and Pop, happy diamond anniversary. Sixty years on and you still finish each other's sentences, mostly to correct them.
Short anniversary messages
For a text, a gift tag or the bottom of a card that already says most of it.
Happy anniversary, my love.
Here is to us.
Still choosing you.
Happy anniversary to my favourite human.
Cheers to another year of us.
You two are the real deal. Happy anniversary.
Love you more than yesterday.
Happy anniversary to a cracking couple.
Another year, same lucky me.
Best decision I ever made. Happy anniversary.
Funny anniversary messages
Light ribbing that works best with one sincere line written underneath.
Happy anniversary to the only person who knows exactly how annoying I am and stays anyway.
Another year of you hogging the doona. I would not have it any other way. Happy anniversary.
Thank you for laughing at my jokes, even the ones you have heard forty times.
Happy anniversary! You are still my favourite person to sit on the couch and do absolutely nothing with.
Marriage is mostly asking "what do you want for dinner?" for the rest of your life. I am glad I get to ask you.
Happy anniversary to my partner in crime, my partner in snacks and my partner in falling asleep halfway through the movie.
Congratulations on another year of not leaving each other at a servo on a road trip.
We have survived flat-pack furniture together. Nothing can stop us now. Happy anniversary.
Happy anniversary to the person who still loads the dishwasher wrong. I love you anyway.
Happy anniversary to you both. Whoever is in charge of the remote, we hope you share it tonight.
Mum and Dad, thanks for not swapping us for a quieter family. Happy anniversary.
Religious and blessing messages
Gentle wording for a couple of faith, or a blessing anyone can send.
May God bless your marriage with patience, kindness and many more happy years together.
Thanking God for you today and every day. Happy anniversary, my love.
May the love that brought you together keep you close in every season.
We pray your home stays full of laughter, faith and family. Happy anniversary.
May the Lord keep you, guide you and give you joy in each other for many years to come.
Your marriage has been a blessing to everyone who knows you. Wishing you peace on your anniversary.
Sending blessings for the year ahead and gratitude for all the years behind you.
Charity suffereth long, and is kind. Happy anniversary to two people who live those words every day.
Wedding anniversary quotes
Every quote here has a checked source; the McLaughlin, Saint-Exupery and Maurois lines are still in copyright, so keep them short and credited.
Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
Marriage is one long conversation, chequered by disputes.
God, the best maker of all marriages, Combine your hearts in one.
A world-without-end bargain.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be.
Till a' the seas gang dry.
Wheresoever she was, THERE was Eden.
There is only time for loving, and but an instant, so to speak, for that.
A good marriage is founded on the talent for friendship.
A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.
Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.
A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day.
Anniversary card etiquette, and official messages for 50 years and beyond
Do
- Follow a simple order: the milestone, one memory from the year, a wish for the next one, then your sign-off. Two to four sentences suit friends; a partner or parents can take six to ten.
- Write the way you talk, then read it aloud before you seal the envelope. If it sounds like you, it is right.
- Add your own line under a printed "Happy Anniversary". A single handwritten sentence turns a shop card into a personal one.
- Ask for the official messages for a 50th or later anniversary. The Prime Minister and the Governor-General send congratulations from the 50th, and the King joins them for the 60th, 65th and 70th, then every year after the 70th. A single request to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) covers all three.
- Lodge that request through the PM&C online form, by email to anniversary.messages@pmc.gov.au, by post, or through the office of any federal MP or senator for your state or territory. The couple must be Australian citizens or permanent residents.
- Time it well. The online form will not take a request more than 3 months before the date, and the Governor-General's office asks for at least 2 months' notice so the letters arrive on time.
- Have the paperwork ready: a copy of the marriage certificate, or a statutory declaration from someone who knows the couple's full names and wedding date. Stat dec forms are available at any post office, and postal requests should include copies only.
- Planning a surprise party before the actual date? Say so on the request. PM&C can post the messages up to a month early, and to a different address so the couple does not see them first.
- If the date has slipped past, you can still apply up to 6 months afterwards. A couple whose 60th went unrequested can have one message for any anniversary from the 61st to the 64th.
- For distant family, gather everyone's wishes in one group e-card so the couple gets a single card full of names.
Don't
- Do not assume the official letters will turn up on their own. Nothing is sent automatically, and a separate request is needed for each anniversary.
- Do not plan around a state page when the rules disagree. WA Government House says the King cannot send belated messages, and an NSW table lists the King only every fifth year after the 60th, while PM&C, the Governor-General and the Royal Household say otherwise. Where sources conflict, check with PM&C.
- Often misattributed: do not credit "reality is finally better than your dreams" to Dr Seuss, "being deeply loved by someone gives you strength" to Lao Tzu, "a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages" to Nietzsche, "how you deal with incompatibility" to Tolstoy, "a long conversation which always seems too short" to Andre Maurois, or "the union of two good forgivers" to Ruth Bell Graham. None has a primary source, so use the line without a name or pick a checked quote above.
- Do not post original certificates. PM&C asks for copies and cannot confirm when a postal request has arrived.
- Do not let a joke carry the whole card. Gentle teasing reads as affection when a sincere sentence sits beside it.
- Do not guess at titles. Use the names the couple use for each other, from husband and wife to Nan and Pop.
Anniversary message questions
Start with the milestone ("Happy 25th"), add one memory or something you admire about them, then a wish for the year ahead and your sign-off. For a partner, that might run to a short paragraph; for a couple you know through work, a warm sentence or two is plenty.
Something you would actually say out loud: "Still choosing you", "Here is to us" or "Happy anniversary to a cracking couple". Short lines work well on gift tags and texts, and they leave room for a personal note if the card has space.
Request it through PM&C online, by email or post, or via a federal MP or senator, with a copy of the marriage certificate or a statutory declaration. The same request brings letters from the Governor-General and the Prime Minister, and the King writes again for the 65th, the 70th and every anniversary after that.
Aim to lodge it 2 to 3 months before the date, since the online form opens 3 months out. Permanent residents are eligible for PM&C messages, but the Royal Household refers to citizens of the King's realms, so a couple who are permanent residents should confirm with PM&C which letters they will receive.
Yes. The Prime Minister and the Governor-General both send messages from the 50th wedding anniversary, at no cost, when someone requests them. PM&C may also pass the details to state and territory leaders so their offices can send their own letters, unless you ask in writing that it does not.
PM&C accepts requests up to 6 months after the anniversary, and the Governor-General's office gives the same window. Delivery by the day is only likely with 2 months' notice, so a late request suits a belated card or a party held after the date.
It is usually credited to Andre Maurois, but it does not appear among his sourced quotes. A line he did write is "A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day", from The Art of Living (1939). For a similar idea with a solid source, Robert Louis Stevenson called marriage "one long conversation, chequered by disputes" in 1882.
Keep it warm and simple: congratulate them on the number of years, wish them a lovely celebration and sign your name. "Congratulations on 30 years together, I hope you have a wonderful night" says everything it needs to.
Usually, yes, as long as the joke is one they would tell about themselves. Pair it with a line of thanks, such as "Mum and Dad, thanks for not swapping us for a quieter family, and thank you for everything else too."
Sign one card together
Collect messages from the whole family in a group e-card, or set up an anniversary registry so friends can chip in for one gift the couple will love.