14 February, and the week of small days leading up to it

A Valentine's page you can send in three minutes

The problem with Valentine's Day is not affection, it is logistics. The flowers are marked up, the restaurants are booked, and whatever you order online arrives on the fifteenth. A page has none of those failure modes: you make it the night before, or the morning of, and it arrives the instant you send it.

What makes it land is specificity. A page that says "I love you" is a greeting card. A page that says "the night you fell asleep on the last bus and I did not wake you until the stop after ours" is a gift, because nobody else could have made it.

What to write

Use these as they are, or as a running start. Every template also has a draft-it-for-me button if the words will not come.

  • When you have been together a while

    Four years in and my favourite part of the day is still the ten minutes before either of us has said anything useful. Happy Valentine’s Day.
  • When it is early and you do not want to overdo it

    I did not want to make a whole thing of this, and then I made a whole thing of this. I like you a great deal. That is the entire message.
  • When you are apart

    Two cities, one time zone, and I have still not found anyone who laughs at the things you laugh at. Happy Valentine’s Day. Next year, same room.

Works for: A partner · A husband or wife · Someone you are about to ask

Questions people actually ask

When should I send it on Valentine's Day?

Morning. A page that lands at 8am gets read properly and then re-read through the day, whereas one sent at 11pm competes with sleep. Nothing stops you building it on the thirteenth and sending the link the next morning.

Can I send it if we have only been dating a few weeks?

Yes, and the trick is length. Three photos and four honest lines reads as thoughtful. Fifteen photos and a timeline of your relationship, six weeks in, reads as a lot.