The date, the place, and the two of you
An anniversary is the one occasion where the present is allowed to be about something that happened a long time ago, and these covers all take the same approach to that: they turn one fact the two of you already own into the picture on the front: where it started, the sky above it that night, two names lettered along a pair of linked hands, a photograph with a date under it, or the handwriting off the card they gave you, lifted off the paper and cut into leather. Nothing here states a count of years, because the number is rarely the interesting part, with one exception: the first. A first anniversary is the PAPER one, and a notebook is the rare paper present that is not in the bin by Easter, so two of these covers say so on the front, under the pair of hands: FIRST ANNIVERSARY, or ONE YEAR MARRIED.
Nothing on this page is printed onto anything. Every one of these is cut into the hide by a laser in-house, on a book made once you have ordered it, and every one of them is drawn from something you supply: a place, a date, two names, a photograph. The preview shows you the finished cover, at the size it will be engraved, before you pay for any of it. An anniversary is a fixed date and a photograph takes a moment to redraw, so give yourself time and read the delivery details below before the date gets close.
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- First anniversary, two hands£17.99
- One year married, two hands£17.99
- A photograph and a dateOne photograph engraved on the cover with a line beneath it, which on an anniversary is usually a date and two names.£17.99
- A poem about the pair of youTell us about the years, the house and the argument about the thermostat, and we write a short verse for the cover.£17.99
- Where it all startedThe street, the town or the postcode where the two of you began, drawn as a map with its name and coordinates beneath.£17.99
- The sky on the nightThe exact night sky above the place you were married, on the date you were married, charted across the whole cover.£17.99
- The two of you, years onTwo hands with their little fingers linked, and your names lettered along the forearms in the same hand as the drawing.£17.99
- The card they wrote youPhotograph the card from the wedding, or a letter kept since, and the handwriting alone is lifted onto the cover.£17.99
A place and a night are better than a number
The obvious anniversary present says how many years it has been, and it is the weakest thing you can put on a cover: the number is true for one year and then the book is wrong. A place is true forever. The map takes any spot on earth, whether that is the register office, the pub you met in, the street you first rented or a field in the rain, and draws it with its name and coordinates beneath. The sky chart takes the same place and a date and draws the night exactly as it was above it, which is a fact nobody can get wrong afterwards. Both of them read as a picture first and only give up what they are of when somebody looks properly, which is why they survive being kept on a desk at work.
Their handwriting, and other things you already have
A pair of these start from paper rather than from a form. The handwritten note cover takes a photograph of something already written, whether that is the card from the wedding, a letter or the recipe in their mother's hand, and lifts the handwriting alone onto the cover, leaving the paper, the coffee ring and the biro's shine behind. The photograph cover takes a picture and sets a line under it, which on an anniversary is usually a date and two names. Both are the presents that cannot be bought anywhere else, because the thing being engraved is not for sale: it is already in a drawer in your house.
How much to say, and who else will read it
The commonest mistake on this page is writing the whole sentiment onto the cover. A notebook is carried about, opened in meetings and left on kitchen tables, so anything you put on the front is read by whoever is in the room. A pair of names and a date is enough for almost everybody. If you want more than that, the poem cover is the one built for it: tell us about the years, the house and the argument about the thermostat, and a short verse comes back for you to edit before anything is engraved. Read whatever you have typed out loud once before you buy, in the voice of somebody who is not in the marriage, and you will know immediately whether it belongs on the front or inside.