When a special occasion comes around, it’s the ideal opportunity to show your wife just how much you appreciate her and how much she means to you. While birthdays and Christmas are of course important, the one that takes precedence is without the anniversary. Remember the day you got hitched? No? Well, your wife does. And buying anniversary gifts for her is the toughest of challenges and one to which you really have to give special thought. So read on.

The first rule of buying anniversary gifts for her: DON’T FORGET to buy anniversary gifts for her.

I’m sure even the most attentive, romantic husband has come close to forgetting the anniversary, especially as wives are so keen to really test their other halves and are therefore very careful not to drop any hints, ensuring hubby gets no help in remembering.

So remember the date – tie a knot in your hanky, write it on the back of your hand, imprint it on your brain, whatever it takes. Just don’t forget, OK?

The second rule of buying anniversary gifts for her: Leave yourself plenty of time to find something suitable. Rushing round the high street at the last minute will prove, at best, fruitless and, at worst, downright disastrous. Something random like a pair of hedge clippers or some wilting flowers from the local garage will not do – you know it and she will most certainly know it.

So you need a proper buying strategy, which leads us to…

The third rule of buying anniversary gifts for her: Shop online.

This one is a no-brainer. Which would you rather do – fight traffic, crowds and queues while dragging your sorry frame from shop to shop looking for the anniversary gift that you might never find, or sit back with a cold beer, browsing online and making your purchases from the comfort of your own home? Yep, thought so. Shopping online it is, then.

Luckily for you, there are plenty of specialist online gift shops. Take a website like www.dotcomgiftshop.com, for instance. All the bases are pretty much covered. There are romantic gifts for her, like a set of six chocolate love heart tealights in a wooden giftbox, or a heart shaped pink furry hot water bottle (could help save on the heating bills). Or there are plenty of those girly things women seem to like for a reason that’s impossible for the male brain to grasp, such as a set of four nesting pink heart shaped decoupage (whatever that means) storage/gift boxes (with printed flock inner, no less) or a large lovebird votive candle.

You can get just about any gift you’re after online – and what’s more, you can get it delivered, so no embarrassing moments standing at the check with something flowery or smelly.

The fourth and final rule of buying anniversary gifts for her: Whatever you do, make her happy. Buy something that you know she will like. Because if you do, you will be suitably rewarded. But if you don’t, you will pay. Oh yes, you will pay.