Year forty six is the only entry on the anniversary list that asks you to make something rather than buy something. The suggested gift is original poetry. My honest advice is not to write a poem.
What is the 46th anniversary gift?
Original poetry, on the modern list. There is no traditional material for year forty six, since the traditional list runs on five year intervals after forty. Poetry is the only guidance the year has.
It is an unusual entry because every other year names a substance. Paper, iron, silver, sapphire. Forty six names a task, and it assigns it to you.
Should you actually write a poem?
Only if you write. That sounds discouraging and it is meant kindly.
A poem written by someone who does not write poetry is a difficult object to receive. The recipient has to react to the effort while reading something that is, in most cases, not very good. Forty six years of marriage means they will be honest about it eventually, and the poem ends up in a drawer with the reaction attached to it.
The instinct behind the entry is sound. Words are the right medium for this year. The mistake is assuming the words have to be new ones.
What words should you use instead?
Theirs. Every couple married this long has a phrase that belongs to them and nobody else.
Something one of them always says when leaving the house. A name they call each other that started as a joke in 1979. A line from the wedding, a line from a letter, or the thing said in the kitchen every single morning without either of them noticing they say it. Those are the words the year is asking for, and they already exist.
Three to six words is the working range. Anything longer stops being a phrase and starts being a paragraph on a wall, which is read once and then ignored.
How do you find the phrase?
Ask the children, not the couple. Asking a couple what they always say produces a blank look, because the whole point of a habitual phrase is that the people saying it have stopped hearing it.
The children hear it constantly. So do the grandchildren, who will usually produce the answer instantly and be surprised anyone had to ask. If you are one half of the couple, ask a sibling or a close friend who has been around long enough to notice.
Does a text piece work as wall art?
It does if the typography carries it, and it fails badly if it does not. This is the one category where the lettering is the entire object, since there is no image, no map, and no shape to hide behind.
Short phrases suit heavier, more confident letterforms. Long ones need a lighter hand and more space, which means a larger piece. Mixing a script and a clean sans serif works when there are two parts to the phrase and one is subordinate to the other. The wider font logic is in choosing a font for a custom sign, and sizing in what size sign you actually need.
What if the phrase is embarrassing?
That is usually a sign it is the right one. Private language between two people is almost always slightly ridiculous to everyone else, and that is what makes it private.
The test is not whether a visitor would understand it. The test is whether the couple would recognise it instantly. A piece that means nothing to a guest and everything to two people is doing exactly what it should. If it needs explaining to the family, it is working.
Should the date go on it too?
Yes, small and underneath. The phrase carries the piece and the wedding year anchors it.
Without a date the object is a nice sentiment. With one it becomes a record, and records get kept. Use the year rather than the count of years, for the reasons in the quiet power of a sign that just says a year.
What if you cannot find a phrase at all?
Then go to the timeline instead. A timeline piece is the other way to make words the subject, and it works when the marriage does not have a single line that sums it up.
Five or six dated moments across forty six years reads as a narrative, which is the closest thing to poetry the list is likely to get out of most families. Choosing which moments to include is harder than writing them out, and I covered it in how to choose the moments for a love story timeline.
Allow two to three weeks for anything personalized, and read the proof aloud before approving. Timing detail is in how far ahead to order a personalized gift. The rest of the series sits in anniversary gifts sorted by year.