First Wedding Anniversary Gift Ideas for the Paper Year

The first wedding anniversary is the paper anniversary, and paper is a better theme than it sounds. It can hold a letter, a ticket, a map or a photo, which means it can hold almost anything that matters. Here are 12 first wedding anniversary gift ideas, most of them made of paper, all of them built around your first year married. Our top pick is a song about that first year, because it tells your story in a way a card cannot.

Listen to a song made with Songbond

This one was made for someone else. Yours would carry your names and your stories.

12 first wedding anniversary gift ideas

1. A song about your first year married ($39.90). Share the proposal, the wedding day and what year one actually looked like, and Songbond turns it into an original song. If you want something to hang on the wall as well, a printed keepsake plaque of the song is available.
2. A papercut of your wedding venue. An artist cuts the church, barn or garden from a single sheet of paper. Usually $80 to $250, and striking in a deep frame.
3. Your invitation, framed with the RSVP cards. Pull the invitation and the funniest RSVP notes out of the box in the closet. Usually $40 to $100 to frame well.
4. Paper flowers folded from your honeymoon map. Fold roses from the map or guidebook you carried on your honeymoon. Make them yourself or buy them for $50 to $150.
5. A book printed the year you met. An old copy of a novel, an atlas or a cookbook from that year, with an inscription inside the cover. Usually $20 to $150.
6. A newspaper from your wedding day. A print of the front page from the day you married, framed. Usually $20 to $50.
7. Twelve letters for year two. Write one sealed letter for each month of the coming year and label them. It is free, and it stretches the anniversary across the whole year.
8. A one-line-a-day journal. Five years of short entries on one page per date, so you can see what you were doing on the same day each year. Usually $20 to $35.
9. A picture book of how you met. An illustrator turns your story into a short, bound book. Usually $60 to $200.
10. A trip, hidden in a paper card. Fold the booking confirmation into a hand-drawn card, or tuck printed train tickets into an envelope. The price depends on the trip.
11. A clock for the wall. Clocks are the modern first anniversary gift. Engrave the date on the back of a good wall or mantel clock. Usually $50 to $150.
12. A string of instant photos from year one. Print your favorite phone shots of the year as small instant-style prints and clip them along one wall. Usually $20 to $40.

How to choose a paper anniversary gift

Decide first whether you want to stick to paper or just nod to it. Either works. A strict paper gift feels clever. A bigger gift wrapped in paper feels generous.

• If they love tradition: the papercut, the framed invitation or the newspaper.
• If they want something useful: the clock or the one-line-a-day journal.
• If they are sentimental: the twelve letters, the picture book or the song.

Why the first year is paper

The traditional list starts with paper because a new marriage is a lot like a blank sheet: fragile, but ready to be written on. It is the first rung on a long ladder that runs through cotton, leather and wood toward silver and gold. A good way to honor it is to start a paper habit that lasts. Keep this year's card, and every card after it, in one box. Or write each other one letter every anniversary and read the old ones before you open the new. By your silver year, you will have the story of your marriage in your own handwriting.

Make your first anniversary song

Create a first anniversary song. It is ready within 24 hours, and express delivery gets it to you in about an hour, with nothing to ship.

Also in the Journal: songs for a first anniversary and romantic first dance songs.