Guide
Digital anniversary gift ideas that are not a gift card
Digital anniversary gifts have a reputation problem: most of them are a gift card with a photo on it. The good ones share a trait with the good physical ones. They took an evening, they could only be for this person, and they can be kept. Here are six that clear that bar, and how to hand them over so they feel like a gift rather than a link.
Each one is a part of one of Longlove's five templates: The Magazine, Flowers, The Question, The Ticket and Under the Same Sky. You pick the template, add your photos and words, and send one link. Building and previewing is free, and publishing is $9.99, once.
1. Your story, as a page in a magazine
The Magazine has a page for your story: how it started, in a paragraph. Write it in order, with real details. The name of the cafe, the weather, the first thing they said. Around it sit the cover with both your names and a photo, your letter, and a back cover that says something like 'Happy 2 years'. It is the gift that says 'I remember', and it takes about thirty minutes if you have the photos.
2. Nine reasons, one on every heart
A page of nine hearts, each of which flips over to show a reason. It is a gift in itself, and the reasons are the part people photograph and send to friends. Write them from the last year, not from the vows: small, specific things you noticed. Mix a couple of funny ones in. If you would not say it to their face, cut it. If it could be about anyone, replace it.
3. A photobooth strip of the two of you
The photo pages include a photobooth strip, which is made for a run of silly frames, and film strips for the longer story. You can add up to twenty photos in all. Dig out the candid ones from this year, plus one from the very beginning, and put the best one on a full page with a big line across it. It makes a camera roll feel like an album.
4. Your songs on a spinning vinyl
A page where your songs sit on a spinning vinyl, each with a title and, if you have one, a Spotify link. Pick three or four: the one from the first drive, the one from the hard year, the one you would play at a party. It is less a playlist than a soundtrack for the two of you, and it is the page they will play when you are not there.
5. A bouquet that does not wilt
If the magazine is more than you want to make, Flowers is a hand-drawn bouquet with your letter tucked inside, with up to six photos as polaroids, the miles between you, a daisy with one reason per petal and the moon the night you met. It is smaller, quicker and gentler. Send it with a real flower if you can: the page is the card.
6. A boarding pass for the next trip
If you are planning a trip, or you live apart, The Ticket is a boarding pass they tear open, with a little plane flying from your city to theirs and a countdown to landing. Add your big line, a letter in an airmail envelope and up to six photos. It is the only gift here that points forward, which makes it good for a second or third anniversary, when you want to give them something to look forward to.
How to hand over a digital gift
Do not just send the bare link. Send it with one line, like 'I made you something', at a moment you have chosen: first thing in the morning, or just after midnight. Preview it on your own phone first, since previewing is free and private. After they open it, you get an email, and when they write back from the reply box you get another. Some people write the link on a card, so there is something to hand over as well as something to open.
Questions
Related pages
Start with The Magazine
Starts as The Magazine, filled in for you. Add your photos and words, preview it for free.
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