The Wedding: Our Wedding Scrapbook

Greetings readers!

I have a long awaited treat for you today - my wedding scrapbook! Finally, right? I'm really happy with how it turned out and I think it will definitely be a wonderful keepsake for the years to come.

Before I dive in and share it with you, I'd like to explain how I did it. I ordered nine pounds of pictures! I had collected over 1,000 photos of our wedding and wanted each one of them printed. If something happened to the digital originals, I wanted a tangible copy. After all, it was a very special day that I'd like to share with my children someday. I didn't want to risk them accidentally getting lost in a computer crash or the like.

So...how do you sort 1,000+ pictures and condense them into an organized scrapbook? Ha! That was a major task in-and-of itself. I separated my pictures into the following categories:

• First Look
• The Ceremony
• Family Pictures
• The Reception: Food and Drink
• The Reception: Wedding Cake and Cutting
• The Reception: Decor
• The Reception: The Getaway
• The Reception: People
• The Reception: Dances

Now then, I certainly did not stuff all 1,000+ pictures in my wedding scrapbook. After organizing my pictures into their respective categories, I weeded out my favorite and best pictures I wanted in my album. With the leftover pictures that didn't make the cut, I placed them in the picture envelopes from Shutterfly that they came in, labeled them and placed them in a photo box for storage.

My photo box

When I made the wedding Smash Book, I went back to my photo box and dug out the pictures I wanted to use for it.

I do have some tips for anyone wanting to tackle a similar project of their own:

• The color scheme has already been chosen for you: your wedding colors!
• Clip your coupons, head to your local craft store and splurge on a paper pack that has your wedding colors in it to save time hunting down coordinating papers. I used the Mosaic Memories Paper Pad by Recollections because it had not only my colors, but a country theme as well. 
• Organize your scrapbook chronologically. By doing so, it will walk those looking at the scrapbook through your BIG day as it happened. 
• Also, work on your scrapbook chronologically. Start with your intro page, first look, then ceremony, etc. Why? Because you may have more pictures from one category than the next. You may have three pages of first look and only one of ceremony. Odd numbers can throw off your flow so plan accordingly.
• If you aren't a big scrapbooker OR have a TON of pictures, consider intermingling photo sleeves like these into your scrapbook. You'll see them sprinkled in my scrapbook. 
• Lastly, invest in a scrapbook storage box in addition to the photo box. My mother-in-law gifted this one to me for Christmas and I love it. At the bottom of this post, I'll share with you what all my storage box contains because more than just your scrapbook will fit!

Without further adieu, I'd like to present you with my completed scrapbook. You will see it from the first page to the last page. I hope it inspires you!

Almost ALL of the journaling in my scrapbook is from my previous wedding series on this blog!

Woosh! That was a lot of pictures to upload. Seriously, my eyes are hurting right now. However, I've got to show you the goodies in my scrapbook storage box. 

 

What's inside:

- Scrapbook (duh...)

- Wedding cards collected from my showers, the actual wedding and from the mail

-Activity book from the wedding

-Newspaper announcement

-My sash from my bachelorette party 

- Day-of schedule

- Wedding color swatches

- Smash Book journal

And yes, I labeled my storage box with a labeler. Don't judge me! So, there you have it! A completed wedding scrapbook safely stored with all keepsake memorabilia. 

If it seems overwhelming, just take it one step at a time and do it at your own pace. I'm so glad I took the time and effort to create this keepsake for my family. It'll be worth it. Promise!

Until next time!

Miranda