A paper anniversary gift: the day you flew away together

Paper for the first year

The traditional list of anniversary gifts starts with paper for the first year, then cotton for the second and leather for the third. Modern lists swap in a clock for the first, but paper is the one most couples know. It covers anything printed, written or folded, which is why first anniversaries bring so many letters, books, tickets and prints.

A print of the day your married life set off is a paper gift with a story in it. It is not a stock picture of a plane: it is the real sky over one airport on one day, drawn from the path of every aircraft that took off, and one of them was yours.

The day you flew away together

Choose the airport you left from and the day you left. We draw every departure of that day as a line from the runway along the path it really flew, coloured by how long each flight lasted: yellow for a hop of under two hours, through orange and pink to purple for the longest. A honeymoon across an ocean shows up among the pink and purple lines. How a day of flights becomes a print explains the rest.

Under the airport's code and name goes a line of your own, up to 60 characters.

Your plane is not singled out. Every take-off of the day is drawn the same way, which is the point of the picture: the whole sky you joined that morning. The date and your line are what make it yours.

Other days that work

The honeymoon departure is the classic choice, but it is not the only one:

• The day you came home. Choose your home airport and switch the print to arrivals: it draws every flight that landed that day, yours among them.
• The day you flew to a wedding abroad, from the airport you set off from.
• Your first trip together, if it was recent enough.

Our calendar starts in late September 2025, which covers every first anniversary from now on. The day has to be one our receivers saw in full, and it has to be at one of our 385 airports.

What to write

Keep the line short and yours. A few that read well on the print:

• Anna & Tom, the day we flew away together
• Married on Saturday, gone by Sunday
• One year since we left for Lisbon
• Mr and Mrs Ellis, off on honeymoon

You can change the name under the code too. It shows the city by default, but you could write your destination instead: "JFK" above "Off to Bali".

Getting it on the wall in time

The pack is drawn in under a minute after you pay, and the link comes by email: four print files for the common frame shapes, plus a phone wallpaper you can both use. The printing and framing are what take time, so allow a few days, or a week for a big frame. A matte or lustre photo paper keeps reflections off the black background, and our guide to poster sizes and frames helps you pick a size.

If the anniversary is tomorrow, the files alone make the gift: send the link, or set the poster as their phone's wallpaper before they wake up, and frame it later.