What the paper anniversary actually means

The traditional anniversary list gives every year a material, and year one is paper. The usual explanation is that paper is thin and easily torn, like a marriage in its first year, but layered and bound it becomes something that lasts. Whether or not you find that convincing, it is a useful brief: it points you away from buying an object and towards giving something written, printed or made.

The modern list swaps paper for clocks. Most people quietly ignore this, because a clock is a strange thing to give someone you have been married to for twelve months.

What to give when "paper" feels too small

The trap with paper gifts is that they can read as an afterthought. A card is paper. A voucher is paper. Neither says much. What works is paper with your own history printed on it — something that could only have been made for this person, by you.

• A printed photo book — the obvious answer, and a good one if you take the time to sequence it properly rather than dumping a camera roll into a template.
• A written letter — free, and consistently the thing people say they kept. Worth doing alongside anything else you give.
• Tickets to something — technically paper, and it buys you a day together rather than an object.
• A custom comic — your photos redrawn panel by panel, with your own captions written underneath. It is the version of a photo book that people actually read from start to finish, because it has a story rather than a chronology.

How ours works

You choose the length, order it, and personalise it afterwards — there are no photo uploads before you pay. Adding your pictures, picking an art style and writing the captions takes about ten minutes, and it saves as you go, so you can start on your phone and finish on a laptop later.

Every photo is redrawn in the style you choose, so the finished book reads as one comic rather than a folder of pictures. You see a full proof of every page before anything is printed, and nothing goes to press until you say so.

Leave enough time

The one thing that catches people out is timing. Because you personalise after ordering, the clock includes however long you take to finish it — we cannot print a book that has not been made yet. The delivery estimate on this page is live and based on your country. If your anniversary is close, check it before you order, and we will tell you honestly if it is too tight for print.