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14th March is my parents' 60th Wedding Anniversary!

And I arranged for them to receive a congratulatory card from HM The Queen. You can do this online nowadays, for the 60th, 65th and 70th anniversaries.

The card arrives on a van from the local delivery office, with a special tag of instructions (this is supposed "to be removed before flight" but they forgot this time.)

These instructions command the manager of the telegraph office to ensure the card is delivered first thing or else to call Buckingham Palace to explain why not, and there will be an official inquiry. There's official ribbons and so on, and a picture of Her Maj in all her glory.

It's all quite impressive and makes you think it's worth having Brenda around to do this kind of stuff. If you've got parents old enough and you're British, look up how to do this. It's easy and free. The thing is your parents have to be British citizens.

If you're not British, is there any such custom in your country? I know the Japanese get sent a silver cup by the Emperor when they reach 100.

My grandparents got the same last year. It's a nice touch I think.

My grandparents got one a few years back, had it framed and placed above the fireplace.

My family member did roughly the same thing.
They got a birth congratulations from the president.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
If you've got parents old enough and you're British, look up how to do this. It's easy and free.

I think my dad would refuse it at the door

My gran is quite excited about her telegram in a couple years, though.

Well done, your gran!

My grandparents just managed to get their 70th anniversary card before Grandad died...

 Kilkrazy wrote:
14th March is my parents' 60th Wedding Anniversary!

And I arranged for them to receive a congratulatory card from HM The Queen. You can do this online nowadays, for the 60th, 65th and 70th anniversaries.

The card arrives on a van from the local delivery office, with a special tag of instructions (this is supposed "to be removed before flight" but they forgot this time.)

These instructions command the manager of the telegraph office to ensure the card is delivered first thing or else to call Buckingham Palace to explain why not, and there will be an official inquiry. There's official ribbons and so on, and a picture of Her Maj in all her glory.

It's all quite impressive and makes you think it's worth having Brenda around to do this kind of stuff. If you've got parents old enough and you're British, look up how to do this. It's easy and free. The thing is your parents have to be British citizens.

If you're not British, is there any such custom in your country? I know the Japanese get sent a silver cup by the Emperor when they reach 100.

Thats absolutely badass.

My parents hve only been married for 51 years. Miles away.

The Netherlands has the same kind of custom.
At your 50th wedding anniversary you can get a letter from the mayor.
At your 60th and 65th wedding anniversary you can get a letter from the King.
At your 70th wedding anniversary you can in addition receive a gift (usually a cake or flowers) from the King.
At your 75th wedding anniversary the King's Chamberlain will come to congratulate you in person.
Should you ever reach your 80th wedding anniversary, you will also receive a congratulatory visit from the King's Commissioner (the head of a province in the Netherlands). Although given how rare 80th wedding anniversaries are, this is really rare.

Also, in many places, it is traditional for the mayor to visit people starting from the 60th anniversary.

Congratulation to your parents!

The letter from the Queen on a hundredth birthday is common knowledge, but I didn't know about the wedding anniversaries. Seems like a difficult achievement to hit in reality; you can't imagine many people who marry at 20 these days still being together at 80. Or alive; the social class that tends to marry young here will often be dead before 80 and separated abut 57 years earlier. Back when many people did marry young enough their life expectancy wasn't so great

 Iron_Captain wrote:
The Netherlands has the same kind of custom.
At your 50th wedding anniversary you can get a letter from the mayor.
At your 60th and 65th wedding anniversary you can get a letter from the King.
At your 70th wedding anniversary you can in addition receive a gift (usually a cake or flowers) from the King.
At your 75th wedding anniversary the King's Chamberlain will come to congratulate you in person.
Should you ever reach your 80th wedding anniversary, you will also receive a congratulatory visit from the King's Commissioner (the head of a province in the Netherlands). Although given how rare 80th wedding anniversaries are, this is really rare.

Also, in many places, it is traditional for the mayor to visit people starting from the 60th anniversary.

This is awesome

If it were done here, we'd have to toss people in Boston Harbor afterwards, to wash all that monarchy off.

And then take them to the hospital, to get the harbor off...

Voss wrote:
If it were done here, we'd have to toss people in Boston Harbor afterwards, to wash all that monarchy off.

And then take them to the hospital, to get the harbor off...

You won the thread!

'MURICA!!!

To the OP: Congratulations to your parents on reaching 60 years married! That is actually quite an achievement! Here's hoping they have more years together.

Is this only for the UK or can say Australia get on board?

You have to be a citizen of a Commonwealth country where the Queen is head of state, so Australians qualify.

https://www.royal.uk/anniversary-messages-0

Someone has to apply in advance for these messages. They don't come automatically.