An Anniversary Gift: Two Names, One Crest

Why a crest suits an anniversary

A wedding is about two people becoming one household. Heraldry had its own picture for that long before anyone printed a wedding album. When a married couple displayed their arms together, heralds placed the two coats side by side on a single shield divided down the middle. The practice is called impalement, and in the traditional arrangement the husband's arms took the dexter half (the viewer's left, the side of honor) and the wife's family arms the sinister half. An older method, dimidiation, cut each coat in half before joining them, which could produce some strange half-lions; impalement keeps both designs whole.

You do not need inherited arms to borrow the idea. In Crest Studio the Per pale division splits the shield into two halves, so each of you can have a color, and the emblem sits across the join. Put both names across the top and the year you married on the motto ribbon, and you have a design that tells your story at a glance.

Designing a crest for two

Colors: one each, or one shared

Choose a color for each of you, or the colors from your wedding day. Heraldry's rule of tincture keeps it readable: pair a metal (gold or silver) with a color (red, blue, green, purple or black), and avoid putting color directly on color. Red and gold, blue and silver, and green and gold all print cleanly, even in one ink.

Names: whatever you call yourselves

Both first names ("Daniel & Priya"), a shared surname ("The Whitakers"), or a joined double name all work. The name line holds up to 40 characters. If you choose "Your initial" as the emblem, the shield shows the first letter of the name you type, so put the letter you want first.

Emblems with a meaning for couples

• Heart: love and devotion, the clearest choice for a romantic gift.
• Rose: love and beauty, and a soft look on a framed print.
• Key: trust, and the home you share. Good for a couple who has just bought a house together.
• Tree: a family that has grown roots, ideal for a milestone year with children and grandchildren.
• Laurel: an achievement worth celebrating. A fitting choice for a 25th or 50th.

The symbols and meanings guide covers every color and emblem in the studio, with the traditional meanings for each.

Mottos: the year, a promise, or a line from your vows

The year you married is the simplest motto ("Since 2019"), and the ribbon holds up to 48 characters, so the full date fits too. A phrase the two of you always say works just as well. For Latin, Omnia vincit amor means "love conquers all" (from Virgil's Eclogues), and Ubi concordia, ibi victoria means "where there is unity, there is victory." The Latin motto generator lists more with their standard translations.

Matching the traditional anniversary themes

Anniversary gift themes are older than most people think, but the full year-by-year lists are fairly modern. Material for milestone years such as silver for the 25th and gold for the 50th goes back to at least the 1800s, and paper for the first year appears in lists from the same period. The long lists with a material for nearly every year were standardized in the twentieth century, partly by American jewelers. So treat the themes as a fun starting point rather than a rule. A crest fits the best known of them neatly:

• First anniversary (paper): a framed print of your crest, or the certificate of arms, which explains your design in heraldic language and in plain English. Under "Giving it as a gift?" in the studio you can add who it is presented to and who it is from, and it prints on the certificate with the date.
• Tenth anniversary (tin): the SVG file in every paid set is vector art, the kind an engraver or sign maker can use on a metal plaque or a tin sign.
• Twenty-fifth anniversary (silver): use Argent (silver) as the metal in the design, and frame the print in silver.
• Fiftieth anniversary (gold): use Or (gold) on a deep color such as black or purple, and add the laurel for a crest that looks like a medal of honor. It makes a fine centerpiece for the party, printed on the cake card, the welcome sign and the invitations.

How to give it

1. Design it together, or as a surprise. Designing is free and needs no account, and your design is saved in your browser so you can come back to it.
2. Download the set for $9: a 4000 by 5000 px print file (about 13 by 16 inches at 300 pixels per inch, so 8 by 10 and 11 by 14 frames print sharply), an SVG, the certificate of arms sized for US Letter, a profile picture and a phone wallpaper.
3. Print and frame it, at any local print shop or online printer. The files arrive instantly, which helps if the date has crept up on you.

Still planning the wedding itself? The wedding crest maker covers invitations, signage and wax seals. For other occasions, see family crest gifts.

Design an anniversary crest

More free heraldry tools