5th Anniversary Gift Ideas for Your Wife

Five years married is the wood anniversary, and wood is a good symbol for where you are: rooted, a little weathered, still growing. The best 5th anniversary gifts for a wife honor the five years behind you and the home you built in them. Here are 12 ideas, many in wood, a few in sapphire or silver. Our top pick is a song about your five years, because it tells the whole story, not just this year.

Listen to a song Songbond made

This one was made for someone else. Yours would carry her name and your stories.

12 fifth anniversary gift ideas for your wife

1. A song about five years married ($39.90). Share the wedding, the homes, the children or pets who arrived and the moments that held you together, and Songbond turns it into an original song. It is ready within 24 hours.
2. Sapphire earrings or a pendant. Sapphire is the gemstone often linked to the fifth anniversary. Choose a small, clear stone in a simple setting. Usually $150 to $600.
3. A cutting board with her family recipe. Have a recipe engraved into a wooden board in her mother's or grandmother's handwriting. Usually $40 to $90.
4. Five photos printed on wood. One photo from each year of your marriage, printed on thin wood panels and hung in a row. Usually $40 to $100.
5. A wooden jewelry box with a line from your vows. Engrave the line inside the lid where only she will see it. Usually $50 to $150.
6. A silver bangle engraved with five places. The towns or streets where you have lived since the wedding. Silver is the modern fifth anniversary gift. Usually $60 to $200.
7. A wooden music box that plays your first dance. Some makers can set a custom tune if yours is not on their list. Usually $50 to $150.
8. A wooden jigsaw of a family photo. Cut from your favorite photo of the family you have made. Usually $40 to $80, and it comes out every holiday.
9. Five letters, one for each year. Write about what each year of marriage was like from your side. Seal them and number them one to five.
10. A garden bench with your names carved in. For the spot where she drinks her morning coffee. Usually $150 to $400.
11. A wooden bird feeder by the kitchen window. Something to watch while the kettle boils. Usually $30 to $80.
12. A wooden recipe box, started for her. Fill the first cards with the dishes from your five years: the first meal you cooked together, the soup from the winter the baby came. Usually $30 to $70.

How to choose for your wife

Five years in, you know her well. Choose between something she wears every day and something that lives in your home. Both work. They just say different things.

• If she loves jewelry: the sapphire or the silver bangle.
• If she loves your home: the cutting board, the bench or the bird feeder.
• If she is sentimental: the five letters, the photos on wood or the song.

Wood, sapphire and silver: using the tradition

Wood is the traditional fifth anniversary gift because a marriage at five years has started to put down roots. Silverware is the modern gift, and sapphire is the gemstone. You do not have to pick one. A simple way to honor all three is to give the main gift in one material and wrap it in another: a sapphire pendant inside a small wooden box, or a song paired with a card written on thin wood veneer. If you have children, let them help with the wooden part. A tray they painted or a spoon they sanded will mean more to her than anything from a shop.

Make her fifth anniversary song

Create a fifth anniversary song for your wife. It is ready within 24 hours. If you are short on time, express delivery gets it to you in about an hour.

Also in the Journal: 5th anniversary songs and an anniversary song for your wife.