Don’t you just love love? Seeing your friends happy and fulfilled in their romantic relationships is one of the nicest feelings there is.
And when your friends celebrate major milestones, it is natural to want to be right there beside them, showing them that their love is appreciated and valued, and that you are sharing in their happiness.
That said, no matter how happy you are for your friends, it can still be tricky to find the right words to congratulate them on the continued success of their relationship.
If you’re struggling to express yourself, have a look at this extensive list of sample inscriptions for anniversary cards for friends.
Whether you’ve been friends with one or both members of a couple since childhood, have gotten to know them as an adult, or met them through your own partner, sending anniversary wishes is a great way to demonstrate your investment in your friendship.
As we get older, more and more of our friends will pair off into couples. Whether you’re single or have a wonderful partner of your own, remaining close to our coupled-up friends is vital for maintaining a full and thriving social life.
One way to stay close to friends when life gets hectic and fills up with the demands of mortgages, marriages, and kids is to remember to congratulate them or commiserate with them on the big moments in their lives.
Whether that means writing a sympathy card for a friend after they lose a loved one or congratulating them on the birth of a child, do your best to show up for them regularly.
The anniversary of a friend’s marriage is a wonderful occasion to send them a card to show you are thinking of them.
Here are a few things you might inscribe in a card to congratulate friends of another successful year of marriage.
1. I love you both and I love your love story. Here’s to many, many more happy chapters.
If you’ve known a couple since the beginning of their relationship, this message is the perfect way to congratulate them on their anniversary.
This inscription will remind them both of your long-standing friendship and of the early days of their relationship.
Bringing up your shared history is a great way to connect with friends, especially if you haven’t seen them for a while.
2. Happy anniversary to the most fun-loving couple in my life. I hope you celebrate this day with all the pomp and circumstance it deserves!
If a couple you are friends with is always up for a good time, this anniversary card text is ideal. It honors their commitment to their love as well as their commitment to a fun-loving approach to life.
3. From the night you two met, I thought you had something special. As they say, I knew you had each other at hello. The kind, compassionate, supportive, and silly way you love each other is a beautiful thing to witness.
If you are genuinely enamored by a couple’s relationship and find the way they care for each other very moving, you could send them this message on their anniversary.
Your friends will appreciate how much thought you’ve put into your card and will be happy to hear that you can see how much they love one another.
Plus, if you were there from the moment one of them responded to “Hi,” from the other, you know the whole story of their love. That means the happy couple will value your support especially.
4. Congratulations on having somehow figured out the secret to a successful marriage — may the rest of us be so lucky!
It is often said that there is no such thing as the perfect marriage, but that doesn’t stop every reporter who interviews someone in a happy marriage from asking them their secret.
If you know that your friends have a very harmonious relationship, you can congratulate them on having figured out the secret to a successful marriage.
If nothing else, they’ll be flattered and find it chuckle-worthy.
5. Another year down. Congrats, love birds!
Some friendship groups are sappier than others.
If your friends tend to ask and respond to “what’s good?” as a greeting and would never sincerely ask one another, “how are you really doing?” then this inscription is a good way to go.
If you can’t imagine speaking to your coupled-up friends about how loving their relationships are because the thought makes you want to gag, then this text for an anniversary card is probably more your style.
6. Congratulations, you two! I love watching you do life together.
This is a straightforward way to wish a couple happy anniversary.
It can sometimes feel like we have to choose between being straightforward and being informal. But that’s not true at all.
By referring to your friends’ relationship jokingly as them “doing life together,” you are introducing an informal element to this quick and straight-to-the-point message.
7. Well done on another year of marriage and thanks for always letting me be your third wheel.
If you’re single and your best friend is in a relationship, one of two things usually happens: Either your friend excludes you completely, or they invite you along for the ride, and you become a permanent fixture of their relationship.
If you’re forever third-wheeling a couple whose anniversary it is, then this is the perfect message to send them.
8. Dear best friend, marrying that man was the smartest thing you ever did. I’m delighted to hear he’s still putting up with you.
If your best friend is married to or seeing a great guy whom you don’t know all that well, then addressing the card to her and jokingly saying you’re glad to hear her partner is still putting up with her is a funny way to wish her a happy anniversary.
9. Here’s to the day nine years ago when you promised yourselves to each other forever. Only forever more to go!
It’s always nice to show your friends that you’re paying attention to their lives by including what anniversary it is in a card.
If your friend has been married for nine years, come right out and say, “Happy nine years!”
Another way to approach it is to say it the way this sample inscription does.
Add an element of humor to your anniversary wishes by contrasting the number of years your friends have been married with how long they’ve said they’ll be together––which is usually forever.
10. Happy anniversary to my favorite double-dating companions. Here’s to many, many more dinners, drives, and holidays away together.
If you always go on double dates with a couple whose anniversary it is, you can acknowledge the shared good times you’ve had as a foursome and express your interest in continuing to spend that time together.
11. Your relationship is an inspiration. Congratulations on another year of happily wedded life.
If you think that friends of yours have a particularly inspiring relationship, you can congratulate them by telling them how much you admire their marriage.
12. Happy anniversary and congratulations on living out your happily ever after in style.
No matter what the occasion, a card inscription will be less detailed than a letter.
For example, writing a sympathy letter to your best friend for a the loss of a husband involves much more forethought and time than writing out a short text for a sympathy card for someone you didn’t know well.
If you are writing an anniversary card for friends who are more like acquaintances, you don’t have to draft a full-length novel.
Instead, a quick, complimentary message about them living out their love in style is more than enough.
13. Happy anniversary, you two. You’ve faced this challenging year together and come out stronger than ever. Congratulations on standing together through tough times.
There’s a reason why wedding vows include the phrase, “for better or for worse.”
If a couple you know have had a rough time, either because one of them has lost a loved one, or because they’ve struggled to see eye-to-eye in their relationship, you can tactfully acknowledge this when you wish them happy anniversary.
If they’ve been struggling, they won’t want to hear sappy lines about how perfect their relationship is. So, instead, congratulate them on standing together through thick and thin.
14. The house doesn’t fall when the bones are good. Even though you’ve had ups and downs, your relationship is built on a foundation of mutual love and respect. I know you’ll celebrate many, many more anniversaries together, and I look forward to being right there beside you when you do.
This is another way to avoid skating over a rocky patch in your friends’ relationship when you wish them happy anniversary.
It compassionately addresses the difficulty they’ve experienced, while offering an optimistic view of the future.
Including yourself in your vision of their future will make them feel like they have a community around them that supports their love and wants them to succeed.
15. I love watching the two of you build a life together. Happy anniversary and may all your dreams come true.
This is a heartfelt, sweet inscription for an anniversary card for friends that would look great in a card sent with flowers.
16. You’ve been a team from the day you met, and I admire your commitment and loyalty to one another so much. Here’s to your anniversary and to all the future hurdles and triumphs that you will face side by side.
Some couples keep their individual senses of identity so fiercely that you’d struggle to know they were together if they weren’t wearing rings or living in the same house.
Others become joined at the hip and always seem to know where the other one is.
In fact, you’d probably guess they know everything their significant other has had to eat that day.
While both approaches can result in healthy relationships, there is something particularly cute about a couple that spends all their time together. This card is for the co-dependent couple in your life.
17. Happy anniversary you two! May the rest of us be so lucky as to find a love like yours.
Saying that other people would be lucky to have a love like your friends’ is a sweet way to compliment their relationship on the anniversary of their marriage.
18. I couldn’t have dreamed of a better wife for you, Jared. Stacy, my sincerest thanks for taming him. Love you two and wishing you the best anniversary.
If you are friends with a couple because you are a long-term close friend of one person in the relationship, you can largely address your card to your friend.
Making a lighthearted joke at their expense while complimenting their partner makes for a funny anniversary card.
19. It’s a privilege to watch you love and care for one another. Happy anniversary and thank you for always being such great friends to myself and Mandy.
If you are writing to a couple on behalf of yourself and your partner, you can thank them for always being such good friends to both of you.
20. Sending good wishes to my favorite couple on the anniversary of their wedding.
Calling a couple your favorite couple is a nice touch. This card is ideal if you’re a single guy who is writing an anniversary card for a long-term friend and his wife.
21. Helen and I are so fortunate to be friends with such a generous, warm, and funny couple. We look forward to celebrating this anniversary with you in style this weekend!
Feeling like you are invested in the happiness of their relationship will make any couple feel grateful for your friendship.
This card will surely make them both want to reach out to you when things are tough and to update you when things are good.
22. Even though, as your adopted child, I’m a little offended I didn’t get an invite to the anniversary dinner, I’d still like to tell you how unbelievably proud I am of the two of you for establishing such a beautiful relationship.
If you’re single and spend so much time around a couple that you’ve started to jokingly refer to yourself as their child, then this is an ideal card to send them on their anniversary.
By joking that they should have invited you to their anniversary dinner, you’re referencing an inside joke that the three of you share.
Following that up by changing your tone and congratulating them on their love shows them that as much as you like to joke, you have a lot of respect for the integrity of their relationship.
23. Happy anniversary and congratulations on your new home!
If a couple has just bought a house, this sample message makes a great inscription for an anniversary card.
People like to be reminded of the milestones that mark the success of their relationship, and a house is a big deal.
24. There is no such thing as the perfect marriage…is what people say until they meet you two. Happy anniversary to the most annoyingly good-looking, smart, and charismatic couple on the planet.
This is a cute card to send a couple whom you’re good friends with and who have a reputation as “the beautiful, put-together couple.”
They’ll enjoy your affectionate joke. After all, it is always nice to hear that friends regard your relationship in a positive light.
25. What a wonderful year for your relationship! Happy anniversary and congratulations on founding a family.
If you are sending your friends a card to congratulate them on their wedding anniversary in the year that they had their first child, it is nice to acknowledge their expanding family in your congratulatory wishes.
26. May you reminisce on the good memories and look hopefully upon the dreams of tomorrow. Happy anniversary!
Some people appreciate a crass joke in a card, while others prefer a classier touch and a sweet and sentimental message.
It all comes down to knowing your friends and tailoring your message to their preferences.
This is certainly a sweet and sentimental message.
27. Keep it up, you two!
This would look nice scrawled on the inside of a store-bought anniversary card that already contains its own funny message.
If you’re a single guy, you might struggle to write an anniversary wishes card for your friend and his wife.
You don’t have to change your personality and say some insincere, sappy stuff just because a year has passed since your friend’s last anniversary.
The most important thing is that you communicate your well wishes in a way that is true to you.
28. Nothing is perfect…but your relationship comes pretty close. Happy anniversary!
The thing about complimenting your friends’ relationship in an anniversary card is that it only works if you genuinely mean what you’re saying.
If a couple you are friends with are constantly at each other’s throats, it will be almost offensive to wish them a happy anniversary while offering them too many compliments about how good their relationship is.
They’ll suspect you are being insincere, and your card may make them feel worse rather than better.
29. Happy anniversary, dear friends. The first of many, many, many more. I hope you give yourselves the pat on the back you deserve as you celebrate this big day.
Marriage and relationships are hard. Keeping a relationship healthy takes dedication and a commitment to good communication.
If your friends have made it through their first year of marriage, this card inscription is a great way to let them know that even if there have been imperfect patches, they are doing really well.
30. Ten years and counting! I hope you have a wonderful anniversary.
This is a cute way to wish a couple a happy anniversary.
Just replace “ten” with however many years they have been married, and voila, you have an easy card inscription that is appropriate in almost every circumstance.
31. Happy silver anniversary, to my favorite silver fox and his platinum-blonde partner in crime. 25 years down, forever to go!
If your friend is celebrating a milestone anniversary, you can make a clever joke about the gift traditionally associated with that anniversary.
The first anniversary is the paper anniversary, the fifth is wood, the tenth year is tin, the twentieth is china, the twenty-fifth is silver, and the fiftieth is gold.
Whatever milestone your friends have reached, incorporate mention of the traditional congratulatory gift in your message.