Frank and Anita Milford, Britain’s longest living married couple, have celebrated their 81st Wedding Anniversary.
They were married on 26th May 1928.
Frank is 101 and Anita will be 101 next month. In February they will break the record to become the longest married couple in Britain.

They have two children, five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.

Their oldest son, said the secret of his parents’ wedded bliss was simply being happy with each other.

“They’ve enjoyed themselves… enjoyed their lives very much,” he said.

We’ve added a new range of anniversary gifts to our website this month.

The Silver (25th) Mother of Pearl (30th) Ruby, (40th) and Gold (50th) Wedding Anniversary Albums have been created to help you celebrate these milestone anniversarys with a gift that is appropriate to the occasion.

Ideal as a present to a couple - these beautifully created albums can be filled with the memories and achievements of their years together.
A gift that can be viewed on many occasions and shared with family and friends.

We’ve added some new gifts to the site for the start of 2009.
It’s our second year of trading and we’re keen to increase our range so that we can offer as wide a choice as possible.

The new anniversary presents include a fanastic leather bag from an ethical co-operative in Rajasthan.  It’s beautiful and stylish and would make a perfect Leather Wedding Anniversary Gift.
We also have a handsomely designed Bristish Isles Map cushion which would make a fine addition to any room and is an ideal Wool Wedding Anniversary Gift.
Another ethical gift is the Mowani Silver Photo Album made from recycled acid-free cotton paper and natural acid free interleaves.  An elegant Cotton Wedding Anniversary Gift.

Check out our What’s New section on the ‘Home’ page of the main website to see the new gift ideas and we hope the tales of gloom aren’t putting you off what could be a fantastic new year ahead.

All the best for 2009.

A new law introduced in England yesterday makes it easier for couples to have their wedding service in a church where they have a family or special connection.

Previously, couples wishing to marry in a Church had to attend it regularly or live within the Parish.
If they wished to marry in another parish, they required a special licence or six months regular attendance there.

Now couples can marry anywhere they have lived for six months or where their parents or grandparents were married.

The Church of England has introduced a marriage measure law that opens up over 16,000 churches to couples and puts this change down to the increasing mobility of society, with many people moving away from the areas where they grew up.

Figures released from the Office of National Statitics (ONS) for 2007 show the number of couples getting a divorce (in England & Wales) has dropped to the lowest rate for 26 years.

Divorce figures fell for a third consecutive year, (132,562 couples divorced last year) and now stand at the lowest level since 1981.

Unfortunately, this decrease in England and Wales was set against rising numbers in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The ONS said this rise could be due to the reduced periods couples are required to be separated before divorcing in these countries.

Marriage guidance group Relate, has stated that a growing number of couples were fighting to save their marriages. People are marrying later in life and are more aware of what they want from marriage and are of a generation that has seen the effects of parents and friends getting a divorce. They know how it can affect children and so think more carefully about the relationships before turning to divorce.

The 10th wedding anniversary is a true milestone, and we receive lots of enquires about what to give on this special occasion. The perfect answer is, of course, something made of tin, but what?

For those of us living in the UK, there is nothing quite as special as Cornish Tin, which is why we have just added a small, but perfectly formed range of beautiful, yet affordable 10th Anniversary Gifts crafted from this special metal.

For wives, we have a choice of heart-shaped earrings, a tin heart necklace and a stunning bracelet. For husbands, we have a pair of polished oval tin cufflinks. All presented in leatherette giftboxes lined with satin and velvet.

We will be adding to this collection over the coming months, but in the meantime, hope that those of you celebrating your 10th wedding anniversary will find that this helps you make your life a bit easier when it comes to choosing that special present.

On Sunday the actress and model Jerry Hall talked to Andrew Marr about her new radio show - Aspects of Love, that will be aired on 14th February, especially for Valentine’s Day!

Playing on BBC Radio2, Jerry enlists the help of artists, philosophers, scientists and authors to explore the topic of love - be it platonic, spiritual, romantic and forbidden - to discover how it influences our personal happiness.

The physical aspects of love and how people’s minds and bodies are affected will be explained by the scientists, whilst Jerry’s other contributors consider how love is manifested in artistic forms such as a great song, poem or work of art.

Jerry’s guests include Baroness Professor Susan Greenfield, Dr Miriam
Stoddard, Dr Rupert Sheldrake, Alain de Botton, Dr Deepak Chopra, Annie
Lennox, Dave Stewart, Bryan Adams, Tracey Emin, David Bailey, Pete Townshend
and Anjelica Huston.

Aspects Of Love
Thursday 14 February
10.00-11.00pm BBC RADIO 2

As February fast approaches we decided to investigate where the romantic tradition of Valentines originated from.

The history of the valentines day is shrouded in mystery.

A popular story is that Valentine actually sent the first ‘valentine’ card himself, while in prison.
It is believed that he fell in love with a young girl who visited him during his confinement and before his death wrote her a letter, signed ‘From your Valentine,’ an expression that we still use today.

February was long associated as a month for romance in the Christian and Roman calenders but it was Pope Gelasius that declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day around 498 A.D. The Catholic church recognises 3 different saints named Valentine, so the origins are unclear but it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds’ mating season, which increased the idea that the middle of February — Valentine’s Day — should be a day for romance.

In the seventeenth century Valentine’s Day began to be broadly celebrated in the UK, through letters and tokens of love. This then evolved into printed and ready-made cards, which was an easier way for people to express their emotions when the direct expression of feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also increased the popularity of sending Valentine’s Day cards and today, according to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.)

Interesting facts:

• Approximately 85 percent of all valentines are purchased by women.
• In addition to the United States, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia.
• The oldest known valentine in existence is a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.
• In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America using lace, ribbons and colourful pictures - thus cementing her place as the ‘mother of the valentine.

We know inspiration can be difficult at times, especially when you run out of time, so we’ve added a link that shows a list of useful Wedding Anniversary Quotations that can be used to Toast a happy couple, or show how much you love your partner.
Here are a few examples:

• Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end.
  ~ Author Unknown
• Love one another and you will be happy. It’s as simple and as difficult as that.
  ~ Michael Leunig
• An anniversary is a time to celebrate the joys of today, the memories of yesterday, and the hopes of tomorrow.
  ~ Author Unknown
• The highest happiness on earth is marriage.
  ~ William Lyon Phelps

Please click on Wedding Anniversary Quotations to access the page.

We were absolutely chuffed to receive a 4 star rating from top UK internet magazine - Web User this week (Issue 178 - out 03.01.08).

“This smart, new online shop aims to help people find creative anniversary gifts for deserving or demanding couples.”

As 2008 begins, we are aiming to increase our range and offer a wider selection of products so that you can find even more inspiration at The Anniversary Present for your next special celebration.