Your wedding day is one of the most special days of your entire life, and you’re going to want to be able to relive and remember it 10 days after, 10 months after, 10 years after, and when your children and grandchildren are getting married. Yet, no matter how good your memory is, as the years pass, your recollection of this exciting and joyful period of your life will naturally fade. So as you plan your wedding day, here are 11 ideas to help you remember your wedding day.
1)Keep a journal of the period from your engagement to your wedding day, and even of your honeymoon.
Pick up a journal like this “Bride-to-Be Book,” and start recording all the big and little things you experience as you plan your wedding, including your impressions, thoughts about the significance, feelings, and of course the fun things you and your partner do to celebrate your special engagement period.
2) Choose to make wedding photography one of the highest priorities of your wedding planning.
New York photographer Richie Schwartz wrote about his experience evacuating his home before the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. As he loaded his car, he looked around him and took stock of his neighbors. He noticed that they all seemed to be loading the same things in their cars. Not Xbox consoles or computers, nor pretty lamps or fancy blenders. Instead, he found that he and his neighbors were all filling their vehicles with their wedding albums and family portraits, which they removed from their walls, frames and all. Find the full article here.
Your pictures are your memories, making photography the ultimate treasure. No worldly possession can replace your memories, and so as each year goes by, your wedding photography becomes ever more valuable. So as much as possible, focus on quality and service when evaluating and selecting your professional wedding photographer, because as we all know, your wedding is one event that doesn’t have a do-over.
3) Collect the records of the first dance songs that your parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents danced to at their weddings.
Put the records out at your wedding reception and allow guests to sign the records. Then mount each record in a shadow box and hang them in your home.
4) Ask wedding guests to write notes to you to be opened in future years.
Place a nicely printed card on each plate inviting your guests to write a note to you to be opened between 1 and 10 years or more in the future. (So one table might have a 1-year note, another table has a 2-year note, etc.) Leave pens and envelopes on the table, and have a family member or maid of honor or best man collect the sealed notes at the end of the wedding reception. Then, on each wedding anniversary, that person delivers to you the notes for that year, which you open to relive your wedding day memories!
5) Write your own wedding vows and have them printed on cloth like a tapestry.
A number of companies, including Five Dot Design, can print your wedding vows on fabric. Use the fabric as a backdrop at your wedding ceremony or for a photobooth at your reception. Be sure to have your professional wedding photographer also capture some bride & groom portraits in front of it! Then, after the wedding, hang the fabric in your home on a decorative curtain rod.
6) Hang engagement & wedding photography in your home.
Your engagement & wedding photography won’t bring back memories of your special day if all they do is sit on the hard drive of your computer. Instead, decorate your home by hanging wall portraits from your wedding in prominent areas of your home that you spend a lot of time in, such as your family room or living room.
In addition to creating the physical artwork, some wedding photographers can drag and drop your favorite wedding photographs onto a photo of your home to help you visualize size, layout, and frame possibilities before they exist, so that you can see what you like the best prior to ordering and printing. See more ideas for hanging photography in your home here.
7) Carve your initials into a rustic wood slab, and use it as a base for floral centerpieces.
Get your rustic wood slab here. Carve your initials and anything else you desire, like a heart or your wedding year, into the slab. Lean it against your floral centerpieces or use it as a base for your centerpieces. Make sure you bring it home at the end of your reception. Follow these steps to preserve your flowers, and then place your dried flowers, vase, and rustic wood slab on your kitchen table.
8) Use the table runner from your wedding reception in your dining room.
Getting table runners for your wedding reception? Don’t just rent. Buy at least one, and keep it to adorn the dining room table or buffet in your home.
9) Place an album of your engagement photography and/or wedding photography on your coffee table.
If you have young children, you can also sit your professional photo album on a small desk easel, and place the easel and album on a chest or bookshelf. Instead of doing a traditional album of engagement portraits, ask your professional wedding photographer about a guest sign-in album, which has extra white space so that family & friends can write their best wishes around the photographs at your wedding reception. For your wedding album, ask your photographer to include the lyrics of your first dance song or even your vows if you wrote your own.
10) Use the & Block from Your Wedding Reception in Your First Family Portrait Session.
Using an & wood block to decorate your sweetheart or gift or seating card table at your reception? Save the block, and with your first child, use it to decorate the nursery AND as a prop in your first family portrait session!
11) Pass On Your Wedding Dress, But Not in the Way You’re Imagining.
Save your wedding dress and hire a seamstress to make a purse for your daughter or granddaughter as a gift on her wedding day.
Use these 10 ideas to make a collection of family heirlooms to last the ages, as each can and should be handed down, generation after generation. Congratulations on your engagement!
And next, get gorgeous wedding photography worth a king & queen's ransom.
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