Anniversary book: your love story, written and illustrated for you

An anniversary book is a book made about one couple and given to mark the years they have spent together. Most people picture one of three things: a photo book of the year's pictures, a guided memory journal you fill in by hand, or a story book that retells how the relationship unfolded.

A Love Tales anniversary book is the third kind, done for you. You answer questions about your relationship and upload a photo of each of you. Love Tales writes 10 chapters from those answers, how you met, your first date, the year you are celebrating, and illustrates every chapter with you both as the main characters in one of four art styles. You read it, change any line, and choose a digital copy or an 8.5″ × 8.5″ hardcover printed on 170gsm paper.

Search for an anniversary book and you will find all three formats side by side. They solve different problems, so it helps to know which one you are actually after before you spend an evening on it.

It is one of the most common anniversary plans, and one of the most often abandoned. The idea is lovely, then the blank page wins. The trick is that you don't need to write the book, only to remember it. Answer these five questions in your own words, as you would tell a friend, and Love Tales writes every chapter from them. You can still edit any line before you approve the book.

Your wife remembers the details: what she wore on your first date, the song on the radio that night, the apartment with the broken heater. An anniversary book for your wife shows you remember them too. Share the moments she brings up every year and the small things only you would notice, like the way she reads the last page of a novel first. Those are the pages she will reread. For more ideas, see our personalized books for husband or wife.

Most husbands say they don't want anything for your anniversary, then keep the card for twenty years. An anniversary book for your husband gives him something to keep that is actually about him: the road trip where the car broke down, the way he proposed, the dog he swore you would never get. Keep the tone as funny or as sentimental as he is. It works as well for a first anniversary as for a twenty-fifth.

Shopping for your parents, grandparents or friends? A wedding anniversary book for a couple tells their story instead of yours, which makes it one of the few gifts a long-married couple does not already own. Collect photos and stories from the family, ask a sibling for the anecdote everybody retells at dinner, and the book turns it into 10 illustrated chapters with both of them as the main characters. It is a popular gift for 25th, 40th and 50th anniversaries, often opened at the party itself. Browse more personalized books for couples.

Every anniversary has a traditional material, and a book sits comfortably alongside each one. Here is how couples use it at the milestones people search for most.

Flowers, jewelry and a dinner reservation are lovely, but anyone could give them. An anniversary book can only come from you, because every chapter is built from memories the two of you share. The recipient can't guess it and can't find it in a store.

The tradition of marking each year with a material, paper for the first, cotton for the second, leather for the third, up to gold for the fiftieth, exists because we want each milestone to feel distinct. A printed book honors that tradition. It is a paper anniversary gift by definition, but paper that holds a year, or twenty, or fifty, of your own history.

What people tell us after giving one is rarely about the printing. It is the feeling of seeing their inside jokes and a slightly disastrous first date written down and illustrated. The book makes a private history feel like an occasion, which is what an anniversary asks for.

Order your anniversary book 2 to 4 weeks before the date if you want it printed. Writing and illustrating takes about ten minutes, but give yourself a day or two to read it and adjust the illustrations. Standard printing and shipping take 6 to 10 business days. Express shipping takes 5 to 8 business days in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. Check the shipping page for your country before you count on a date.

Closer than that? The digital book needs no shipping. Many people share it on the day and let the printed copy arrive later as a second surprise.

For a milestone year, weight the first chapter toward how you met, even if that was decades ago. The contrast between the early days and where you are now is what makes the book land.