What to wear to a Christian wedding anniversary

A Catholic anniversary observance, typically the 25th (silver) or 50th (gold), occasionally the 40th or 60th, is often celebrated with a Nuptial Blessing within a Sunday Mass or a special anniversary Mass. The couple wears formal attire, often more elevated than typical Sunday wear: a suit or tuxedo for the husband; a formal dress, formal pants outfit, or in some traditions the original wedding gown for the wife. Family and guests dress at a wedding-guest formality register, slightly less elevated than at the original wedding.

Some Hispanic Catholic, Italian Catholic, and Filipino Catholic families maintain substantial 50th-anniversary traditions; the family's own practice carries the register.

Orthodox practice typically observes anniversaries through a Service of Thanksgiving (Doxology) rather than a separate sacramental rite. The couple wears formal attire; family members in business-formal or Sunday-formal. The observance is normally lighter than the original crowning but recognizable as a family liturgical event.

Greek and Russian Orthodox families especially carry strong 25th and 50th anniversary traditions.

The 1979 BCP's Anniversary of a Marriage rite (or in some parishes, a renewal of marriage vows) is celebrated within or after a Sunday Eucharist. The couple wears formal attire, a dark suit for the husband, a formal dress for the wife. Family and friends in wedding-guest formality. The rite is moderately formal; the diocesan calendar sometimes includes anniversary celebrations for the diocese's jubilarian couples.

The 2019 ACNA BCP carries a similar rite.

Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Reformed anniversary observances are typically at the family's discretion. A vow renewal at the parish or a small home-based blessing are both normal. The dress register matches the chosen observance: formal attire for a parish renewal, business or Sunday-formal for a home gathering. The denominational service books include anniversary blessings; the pastor specifies any particular convention.

Specific practice varies widely; the family's own tradition normally carries the register.

Evangelical and Baptist anniversary observances are normally less liturgically structured. A vow renewal at the family's home, a brief blessing at the end of a Sunday service, or a family meal at a restaurant with a brief shared prayer are normal forms. The dress register matches the chosen form; formal for a parish blessing, business casual to Sunday-formal for a home or restaurant gathering.

African-American Christian anniversary celebrations carry a higher formality register similar to weddings in those traditions; the milestone anniversaries (25th, 50th) are normally substantial.

Formal attire approaching the original wedding's register. The wife may wear the original wedding gown (where it still fits and is in good condition), a formal anniversary dress in white or the chosen year's color (silver for 25th, gold for 50th), or a formal dress in the couple's chosen palette. The husband wears a dark suit or tuxedo matching the wife's formality. Some couples wear matching corsages and boutonnières as at the original wedding.

Dress varies widely by what the couple is doing. A private dinner at home or at a restaurant carries no specific dress register beyond the couple's own preference. A brief blessing at a Sunday service is normally accompanied by Sunday-formal attire. The non-milestone anniversaries (the 5th, 10th, 15th, 30th, 40th, 60th) are typically less elaborately observed than the principal silver and gold milestones.

At a 25th or 50th anniversary Mass with the family gathered, the couple's adult children dress at wedding-guest formality. Daughters in cocktail dresses or formal pants outfits in the chosen palette; sons in dark suits or, for a tuxedo-level evening event, formal black tie. The adult children's spouses and the grandchildren attend in similar register.

Family-formal at a milestone anniversary: dresses for granddaughters in family-formal style and palette; suits for grandsons. Younger children may carry small role assignments, bringing flowers to the couple at the start of the rite, presenting a small anniversary gift, reading a brief passage. The dress is normally chosen to fit these movements practically.

Wedding-guest formality at a 25th or 50th anniversary Mass; business or Sunday-formal at smaller observances. The couple's long-time friends, the godparents of the children, the grandchildren's godparents, and other longtime family connections are normally present at a milestone anniversary; the formality matches the original wedding's register, sometimes a step less elaborate.

Catholic priest in white vestments for the anniversary Mass; the white liturgical color is appointed for marriage observances. Anglican clergy in alb-and-stole or cassock-and-surplice with a white stole. Mainline Protestant clergy in the denominational vesture. Evangelical pastors in dark business attire or denominational pastor attire.

The 25th anniversary is traditionally called the silver anniversary, and the 50th the golden anniversary. Some couples carry silver and gold colors into the dress register: the wife in a silver dress at 25, a gold dress at 50; complementary accessories and flowers. The dress code on the invitation sometimes specifies "silver and white" or "gold and white" for the family. The convention is more pronounced in Catholic Hispanic, Italian Catholic, and African-American Christian families.

Some brides at a 25th or 50th anniversary wear the original wedding gown, preserved across the years, sometimes altered to fit, sometimes worn as-is. The convention is a family-honoring gesture and is normally photographed alongside the original wedding photographs. Where the gown does not fit or is not in condition to wear, a formal dress in white or in the milestone year's color is the typical alternative.

Hispanic Catholic families normally observe the 25th and 50th anniversaries with substantial family events, a Nuptial Blessing within Mass, a substantial family meal afterward, sometimes with the original padrinos of the wedding present. Padrinos de aniversario (anniversary sponsors, sometimes from the couple's own godparents) may be present. The dress register approaches wedding formality; the families normally coordinate.

Some couples observe an anniversary with a renewal of vows (the couple repeats some form of their original vows before the priest or pastor); others observe with a blessing (the priest or pastor blesses the couple's ongoing marriage without re-stating the vows). The dress register is similar for both, though a renewal of vows is sometimes treated more formally, the couple appears more bride-and-groom-like, with attendants and a small wedding-party register.

African-American Christian milestone anniversaries (25th, 50th, 60th) are normally substantial family celebrations across Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, and other traditions. The dress register approaches the wedding; women normally wear hats; the post-rite reception is a substantial second event. Multi-generational family attendance is the norm.