40th Wedding Anniversary: Create Special Memories

If you're throwing a party for a couple celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary, decorations can be worked around the traditional meaning of the day. The 40th wedding anniversary is traditionally known as the Ruby Anniversary.

To play into the theme, choose rich red ruby with gold, silver or black as accents for the main colors of your 40th wedding anniversary decorations. To make the day a special memory for the happy couple, draw on their lives as inspiration for the decorating and for the events that you plan for the day.

Start the 40th wedding anniversary celebration with a ceremony for the couple to renew their vows. Most churches have beautiful and moving rituals that were designed exactly for occasions like this. If you have access to wedding pictures, you may be able to have a florist try to reproduce the aisle flowers and altar arrangements from the original wedding day. If not, you can add a special touch to the church with pew ribbons of silver edged with a rich ruby.

Is it possible to rent the hall where the original wedding reception was held? Forty years is a long time, but if you're lucky, the reception venue may still be in operation. Imagine what a sentimental surprise it would be for them to celebrate 40 years together in the same room where they began their journey.

Drawing on memories of the couple's life together is another great source of inspiration for the decorating. Set up a life gallery as part of the room's decor. When you send out invitations, ask your guests to bring with them (or send you beforehand) at least one photo of the anniversary couple taken at special events throughout the year.

Raid your old photo albums and family memory boxes as well. Rent corkboard room dividers or screens from a rental company, and drape them in ruby fabric. Trim with silver, and mount a happy 40th anniversary message on the screens.

Start the gallery off by tacking up photos you've gathered, and provide plenty of pushpins and tacks for guests to add their own photos as they arrive. Every photo added will spark memories to add to the love and laughter being shared in celebration. At the end of the day, gather all the photos to present to the couple in an album to keep.

The anniversary cake can be another focal point of the decorations for a 40th wedding anniversary party. Drape the table with a ruby-red tablecloth and edge it with a silver garland of stars. Sprinkle the tabletop with glittery silver and ruby stars, and set the cake in the center.

Complete the picture with an arrangement of fresh cut flowers in white and red. For a very special touch, you can have the cake decorated with a photo of the bride and groom at their wedding, or have a baker recreate their original wedding cake.

You can carry the ruby theme of the 40th wedding anniversary party into the table centerpieces with flowers and ribbons, but if you'd like a special table decoration that plays on the memories of 40 happy years, try this idea. A few weeks before the party, choose several photos of the couple that represent happy memories - a wedding photo, the christening of their first child, the two of them walking hand-in-hand on the beach.

Have the photos copied - a copy of each photo for each table at the party. Slip the photos into a Lucite picture cube purchased at a department store, and then mount the cube on a pedestal surrounded with flowers.