Diaries & card decks · 3 min read

A Diary for a First Year of Marriage

The first year is the least recorded stretch of a marriage. A diary catches what the wedding album cannot — if it is given to both of them, on purpose.

There are more photographs of a wedding than of any other three days in most people’s lives, and almost none of the year that follows it.

That year is the one with the change in it — a new house, two families becoming one set of obligations, the discovery of how the other person actually lives. None of it is photographed, because none of it looks like an occasion.

Give it to both of them

The distinguishing decision for this diary, and the one that makes it work.

Two people, one book, alternating entries. It becomes a conversation rather than a journal, and a conversation is far more likely to be continued — if one of them stops, the other notices.

It also produces the thing worth having in ten years: two accounts of the same year, which almost never agree.

One writer Two writers
Stops quietly The other one notices
One perspective Two, and they differ
Private Shared, which changes what gets written
Fills unevenly Fills alternately, which paces it

⚠️ Say this out loud when you give it. A diary handed to a couple without instruction is a diary one of them assumes is for the other.

What to print at the front

The wedding — but briefly. Six to eight photographs, not sixty. The wedding has its own book and this is not it. Best format for a wedding →

Better at the front: the years before the wedding. The flat, the friends, the two of them when nobody was organising anything. Very few couples have that printed anywhere.

When to give it

Not at the wedding. There are forty gifts there and this one needs an explanation.

A few weeks after, when the house is quiet and the year is actually starting. That is also when the couple is most likely to have an evening in which to start it. What to give the couple after the wedding →

What it costs

Size Pages Price
60 sheets 120 ₹699
80 sheets 160 ₹899

Two people writing fills faster than one, so 80 sheets is reasonable here where it is not for most single-writer diaries. Flat ₹70 delivery anywhere in India.

Frequently asked

Is a diary a good wedding gift? Not at the wedding itself. A few weeks after, when the year is actually starting and there is an evening to begin it.

Should both of them write in it? Yes, alternating. It becomes a conversation rather than a journal, and it is much more likely to be continued.

How much of the wedding should be printed in it? Six to eight photographs. The wedding has its own book; this is about the year after.

What size? 80 sheets is reasonable because two people fill it faster. 60 is fine for one writer.

What is the best thing to print at the front? The years before the wedding. Almost no couple has those printed anywhere.


Part of our guide to photo diaries and card decks. See also: a diary for a pregnancy and what to give the couple after the wedding.

For the first year: Photo Diary from ₹699 · Personalised wedding gifts