Written by the Puzzlify team. Puzzlify is our product, so read this with that in mind; the second half of the post is ideas that have nothing to do with us.
Anniversaries have a way of sneaking up. You know the date, you meant to plan something, and suddenly it's Thursday and the dinner reservation is the only thing on the calendar. A small extra that works well alongside dinner (or instead of a big present, if you've both agreed to keep it low-key) is a photo of the two of you turned into a jigsaw your partner solves on their phone, with a note that only appears when the last piece goes in.
It's quick to make, it costs less than a card and flowers, and it gives them five or twenty minutes of slowly working out which photo it is. Here's how to make it feel personal rather than like a gadget.
Choosing the photo
The photo matters more than anything else. Some that tend to land:
- Your first photo together. Scroll back as far as your camera roll goes. The awkward early selfie is usually better than the polished wedding portrait, because it's a surprise.
- The place it started. The bar, the campus bench, the bus stop, the friend's kitchen. If you don't have a photo of it from back then, a recent one of the same spot works too.
- An ordinary day you both remember. Moving day with boxes everywhere, the first meal you cooked in the new flat, the dog on its first night home.
- Something with detail. Faces, clothes, background clutter and colour make the puzzle fun. A sunset over the sea is beautiful but very hard to solve, because half the pieces look the same.
Use the original image from your phone, not one that's been sent through a chat app and compressed. Puzzlify takes a JPG.
How hard should it be?
Think about where they'll solve it. On the sofa with a phone, 48 or 80 pieces is plenty (roughly ten to twenty minutes). If they like puzzles and you want it to last an evening, 130 pieces on a laptop is a nice slow solve. 252 is for real jigsaw people on a big screen. 24 pieces is a good choice if you want it to be a quick "aww" at the breakfast table before work.
The note at the end
When the puzzle is finished, a short dedication appears. Keep it to two or three lines and make it about something specific:
- "Seven years since this terrible selfie. Still my favourite person to be awkward with."
- "Same bench, ten years later. Dinner's at eight."
- "You said this flat was too small. You were right. Happy anniversary."
If the note points to what happens next (a reservation, a weekend away, a film you've been saving) the puzzle becomes the reveal rather than the whole gift, which is often the nicest way to use it.
Ways to give it
- Hide it in plain sight. Send the link in the morning with "a little something to solve before tonight".
- Write it in the card. Put the link, or a QR code of it, inside a handwritten card.
- Make it private. Add an optional PIN, perhaps a date only the two of you would know.
- Make it a game. If you're celebrating with family or friends (a 25th or 40th, say), turn on the leaderboard and send the same link to everyone.
Price, and what it isn't
Creating the puzzle and previewing it in your browser is free, so you can try different photos and piece counts first. You pay only when you publish the link: €3.99 for one puzzle, €8.99 for three, or Plus at €14.99 a year for ten. Your partner doesn't need an account or an app.
It is digital only: nothing is printed or posted. If you'd rather have a physical boxed puzzle to do together at the kitchen table, a printed photo-puzzle service is the better choice, and honestly a lovely one. (We're also not puzzlify.io, the chess site, or Puzzlit, Puzzly or Puzzify.)
If it sounds like your kind of thing, you can make an anniversary puzzle from your photo here.
Other low-key anniversary ideas (no Puzzlify needed)
- Recreate the first date. Same restaurant, same order, or the closest thing if it has closed.
- A list of small things. Write down a number of things you love about them that matches the years together.
- A printed photo, one per year, in a simple frame or a small album you add to every anniversary.
- A letter to open in five years. Seal it, date it, put it somewhere you'll both forget about.
- Cook something from the trip or city where you met and put on the music from back then.
Whatever you choose, the thing people remember is that you remembered: the bench, the bad selfie, the tiny flat. A small gesture that shows that usually beats an expensive one that doesn't.
Puzzlify team. Try a free preview at https://puzzlify.app/en/puzzle-maker/.