What is the traditional 20th anniversary gift?

China. A dinner on the wedding china with the song playing covers it.

Can the song mention our children?

Yes. Name them in your lines and the lyrics can include them, while the chorus stays about the two of you.

Is twenty years too much for a two minute song?

Pick three moments, not twenty years. The song works best around a few specific memories rather than a full timeline.

Should I make it a surprise or tell them first?

A surprise usually works better at twenty years, because the details in the lyrics do the surprising. If your spouse dislikes surprises, play it together at home with no audience.

20th anniversary

Twenty years, teenagers or an empty house, and a marriage that survived the boring parts. Those count too.

A 20 year anniversary song for two decades together

By twenty years, a couple has usually been through a mortgage, a few cars, teenagers or the empty nest, and at least one crisis that only the two of them really know about. A twentieth anniversary song can hold all of that in two minutes.

Hear the second a name lands

Saoirse, my love, you are my home.

You wrote“Every Sunday she sings to the dog, Murphy, while the toast burns.”

The song singsOn Sunday mornings, Saoirse starts to sing. Serenading Murphy on the kitchen rug.

From a real song made here: “Ten Octobers with You”, for Saoirse, from what her husband typed.

The moment you give it

For once the back seat is empty. The song is about the boring, steady parts: the school runs, the Sunday breakfasts, the years that blurred. You both realize those were the good years.

Now playing

A song with your name in it

Coast road, no kids in the back seat

Passenger seat: the one who still reads the map out loud

Weekend away, first in years

Start with one memory

Pick a question. The form opens with your first line already started.

An anniversary song made on this site

Written for ten years rather than twenty, but built the same way: a few real details, her name in the chorus.

Ten Octobers with You

for Saoirse · wife · Anniversary · Acoustic pop

We met on a rainy platform in Cork in 2016. She lent me her umbrella and kept it for a year. Every Sunday she sings to the dog, Murphy, while the toast burns. Ten years this October.

1:55

Sweeter Than Cocoa

for Claire · wife · Christmas · Upbeat pop

Claire puts the tree up the day after Thanksgiving, no exceptions. We got engaged at the Christmas market in Chicago in 2019. She makes hot chocolate with way too many marshmallows.

1:55

What you get for $12.99

You hear it first, free. You pay once, only if you keep it.

Free preview: The first 60 seconds, ready in about two minutes after you enter your email. No card.
The song: The full song, about two minutes long, as an MP3 to download and keep.
Lyrics: Every line is on the preview page before you pay. Unlocking adds the lyric sheet, to print or save as a PDF.
Their link: A private link that plays the whole song without an account, with your name and a short note. Switch it off any time.
Photo video: Free: a vertical 9:16 photo video of your photos with the lyrics on screen, plus 15- and 30-second cuts. Made in your browser.
The name: Unusual name? Type how to say it (SEER-sha for Saoirse) and the singer says it that way.
Re-record: One free re-record per song: change a line, the style or the voice and record it again.
Name sung wrong?: After you pay, a free remake with the name fixed, once per song.
Languages: Sung in English, German, French, Spanish or Japanese.
Teaser: Before you pay, a 15-second teaser link that tells them a song is on its way.
For this song: Making an anniversary video? Download the MP3 and lay it under your own clips, or let the free photo video set your photos to it.
: Want a nudge next year? Opt in and we email you three weeks and one week before the date.

China, the twentieth anniversary gift

China is the traditional gift for twenty years: something fine that has been used every day and kept anyway. Play the song over a dinner on the good plates you have owned since the wedding.

What twenty years usually holds

The house you bought, or the three you lived in before it.
The kids, from first steps to driving lessons, if you have them.
The job one of you left, and what came instead.
A trip you still talk about.
The hard year, and how you got through it.
The joke that has lasted all twenty years.

For example

A twentieth anniversary brief might read:

We married at 24 with three hundred dollars between us and a borrowed car.
Two kids, one dog, and the same Saturday pancakes for twenty years.
When I was sick in 2019 she slept in the hospital chair for two weeks.

Style and voice

Piano ballad and country both carry two decades well. If your kids are making the song for you both, see the anniversary song for parents instead.

Ways to give it after twenty years

Play it on the porch or in the car, somewhere the two of you spend ordinary time.
Hide the MP3 in a playlist you both use, so it comes on by surprise.
Book the restaurant from your early years and play it on the drive there.
Give it the morning of the anniversary, before the cards and calls start.