How to use the anniversary calculator
- Enter the date you got together, got engaged or married.
- Read how long you’ve been together in days, with the exact breakdown and totals in weeks, months, years and hours.
- Check your upcoming milestones, with dates, countdowns and traditional themes for yearly anniversaries.
- Add them to your calendar with the .ics download, or print the list.
- Browse traditional themes for every major anniversary year.
If you enter a date in the future, such as a wedding day, the calculator counts down instead.
How the calculation works
Dates are compared as calendar days, so time zones and daylight-saving changes can’t shift the result. The day count is the exact number of days between the two dates. The breakdown counts whole years, then whole months, then remaining days, the way people naturally say “two years, three months and five days”. Leap years are included; an anniversary on 29 February falls on 28 February in other years.
Milestones combine round day counts (100, 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 days, plus others), early month milestones (1, 3, 6, 9 and 18 months) and yearly anniversaries up to 75 years. The next eight are shown, nearest first.
Worked examples
Example 1: a young relationship
Together since 14 May this year? In October the calculator shows your days together and that 6 months (14 November) and 200 days (30 November) are coming up within weeks. Many couples like to mark these with a small date.
Example 2: the 1,000-day celebration
Three years in, your 1,000-day milestone falls somewhere in the third year, and many couples don’t realise it’s coming. Add it to your calendar so it doesn’t slip by, and plan something fun.
Example 3: choosing a 10th-anniversary gift
The upcoming list shows your 10-year anniversary with its traditional theme: tin or aluminium. One idea is a vintage tin filled with ten notes, one for each year.
Traditional anniversary themes
Themes start with paper, cotton and leather in the first three years and become more precious over time: crystal at 15, silver at 25, pearl at 30, ruby at 40, gold at 50 and diamond at 60. Some lists differ by country, and modern alternatives exist. Where a tradition involves something no longer appropriate, such as ivory for the 14th year, the calculator suggests an alternative.
Celebrating milestones
- Mark small milestones with small gestures: a note, a favourite meal or a walk.
- Revisit meaningful places, like where you met or had your first date.
- Create a tradition you repeat every year.
- Look back together at photos from each year.
Common mistakes
- Counting the first day as day one. By convention the start date is day zero.
- Forgetting time zones. This calculator avoids them by comparing calendar dates.
- Treating themes as obligations. Use them only if they inspire you.