Japanese Wedding Language
 

I'm making a gift for some Japanese friends to commemorate their wedding, and I was wondering if there was any traditional phrase or greeting asides from the obvious 結婚おめでとう that I could use. Like how at New Years you might get written greetings such as 謹賀新年 or 賀正 on your new years card?

Yes, there are some. What exactly would you like to say?

For a starter, the appropriate word is ご結婚, not 結婚.

I'm making an ornament with their names on one side and the date of the ceremony and on the other. It's something to keep and last a long time, and maybe to only get out once in a while, so somehow I feel like a that kind of straight-forward おめでとう type message would go stale over time. That's more like what you'd say on the day, right? So maybe something with the connotation of a long happy marriage might be better.

Though I really should not be thinking about what a stranger should say on yet another stranger's wedding at 4:30 a.m., I just thought of a cute one.

「愛は小出しにするもの・・・らしいですよ。」

You are right about words like おめでとう going stale in a matter of weeks.

^^^ great line!

hee~ that is really cute. Thanks Masaegu, I'll have to see if it fits.