10th Anniversary Gift Ideas for Your Wife

Ten years in, you probably share a house, a routine and a calendar full of other people's plans, and she has heard every version of happy anniversary you know. The best 10th anniversary gift for a wife shows her you still notice the small things she does, the ones that got buried under school runs and work. The traditional material is tin or aluminum and the modern one is diamonds, and either can work. Our top pick is a song about your first ten years, because it says what a card never has room for.

Hear a real Songbond anniversary song

This one was made for another family. Yours would carry her name and your stories.

11 10th anniversary gift ideas for your wife

1. A song about your first ten years ($39.90). You tell Songbond how you met, what she said on your first date and the moment you knew. Songbond turns it into an original song, ready within 24 hours, and she can play it on her phone for the next ten.
2. Ten notes in a tin. Buy a small tin box and fill it with ten folded notes, one for each year, each about one thing that happened that year. The tin costs under $15. The notes take an evening, and they are what she will keep.
3. Diamond studs. Diamonds are the modern 10th anniversary gift, and studs are the piece she will wear most, with jeans and at weddings. Expect $300 to $1,500 depending on size.
4. An aluminum cuff stamped with where you met. A thin hand-stamped cuff with the coordinates of the bar, the office or the campus where it started. It is light enough for every day and usually costs $25 to $60.
5. Flowers in an old tin watering can. Fill a vintage can with the flowers from her wedding bouquet. The can stays on the porch long after the flowers are gone. Usually $40 to $90.
6. Two nights at the hotel from your wedding night. Book the same hotel, ask for the same kind of room if you can, and have the babysitting settled before you tell her.
7. A date night every month for a year. Twelve dates on the calendar with the sitter already paid. After ten years, the gift she may want most is time with you that she does not have to organize.
8. The class she keeps putting off. Pottery, painting, Italian, whatever she mentions every January. A term usually runs $150 to $400.
9. A printed book of your early messages. Your first texts, emails or letters, printed and bound. Reading what you wrote to each other before the mortgage and the kids is funny and a little moving. Usually $30 to $70.
10. A punched-tin lantern for the back step. It throws small patterns of light across the yard. Light it on the evening of your anniversary and every one after. $30 to $80.
11. Her rings cleaned and checked. Borrow her engagement ring and band for a day, have a jeweler check the prongs and polish the metal, then give them back in a new box. It costs $20 to $100 and pairs well with any other gift here.

How to choose her 10th anniversary gift

Think about what the last ten years have asked of her. If she has been carrying the house and the calendar, time and rest will mean more than an object. If the years have been easier, a keepsake that marks the decade feels right. Many husbands pair one small tin gift with one bigger one.

• If she is sentimental: the song, the notes in a tin or the book of messages.
• If she is worn out: the monthly date nights or the two nights away.
• If she loves jewelry: the diamond studs, the cuff or her rings made new.

What to write in a 10th anniversary card

Skip the lines about ten wonderful years. Write about one specific moment instead: the night the baby would not sleep and she sang in the hallway until 3 a.m., or the move when she packed the whole kitchen alone. Name the thing, then say what it showed you about her. Three sentences like that will mean more than a full page of general praise. If you are giving the song too, write the card first. It helps you find the stories worth putting in it.

Make her 10th anniversary song

Create a 10th anniversary song for your wife. Share your ten years with us and her song is ready within 24 hours. If the anniversary is tomorrow, express delivery gets it to you in about an hour.

Also in the Journal: songs for a 10th anniversary and an anniversary song for your wife.