One year married. The tradition says the first anniversary gift should be paper, the idea being that a marriage starts as a blank page you write together. It's a lovely thought, but it also makes paper anniversary gifts surprisingly hard to get right. A card feels small. A book is nice but not personal. Concert tickets are paper, technically.
Our favourite answer is a map of the place you said I do.
Why a map of your wedding venue works
Your wedding photos show what everyone looked like. A map shows where it happened: the church or hotel at the centre, the roads your guests drove in on, the streets you walked between the ceremony and the reception. A year on, that's the bit that quietly becomes the story.
- It's genuinely paper. Our prints are made on 200gsm matte fine-art paper, so it fits the tradition without feeling like a technicality.
- It's personal without being cheesy. Your names, your date and one line of your choosing under the map. Nothing else.
- It lives on a wall, not in a drawer. Framed, it becomes part of your home rather than something you look at once.
What to put on it
Most couples go with the ceremony venue. Some choose the reception instead, or the hotel where they stayed that night. A few put the spot where they first met on one print and the wedding venue on another, and hang them side by side.
For the words, keep it short. Lines people love:
- Where we said I do
- Year one
- The first page
- Where forever started
Add both names and the wedding date underneath and you're done. If you're stuck, our guide to picking a map style helps with the colours.
The colour that suits a wedding
Black & Gold is the most popular choice for weddings and anniversaries. It looks formal on a living room wall and works with almost any decor. Monochrome is the quieter option, and Midnight (deep navy) is lovely in a bedroom.
Framed or unframed?
If it's a surprise, framed is easier: it arrives ready to hang, in a solid wood frame with a shatterproof front. Unframed suits people who already have a frame they love, or who want to choose one together. Our size guide covers which size fits where.
Ideas for later anniversaries
The traditional list keeps going: cotton for the second, leather for the third and wood for the fifth. A framed map works for the fifth too, because the frame is solid wood. For a tenth or twenty-fifth, some couples add a second print of where they live now, so the two maps tell the story from the first day to today.
How to make one
Open the editor, search for your venue, pick a colour, add your names, date and line, and order. It takes a few minutes, it's free to design and there's no account needed. We check every design by hand before it prints, and delivery is free to Ireland and the UK, usually 7 to 12 days from order to door.