Composing A Lifetime Of Memories: Crafting The Perfect Wedding Scrapbook

A wedding scrapbook is a creative way to preserve memories of your special day. It can be almost as stressful to create as the big day itself, but it's worth it! Whether you're a seasoned scrapbooker or a newbie, the process can be daunting, so here are some ideas to get you started.

Decide on a colour scheme. Using your wedding colours adds a personal touch, and you can include textured items like stickers or small flowers. If your wedding had a seasonal theme, you could incorporate this, too, to help transport you back to your wedding day every time you open your scrapbook.

The first page of your scrapbook is important as it introduces the best moments of your special day. You could cut out a heart shape from some stock paper and use this as a frame for a central wedding photo. You could also use a heart-shaped puncher to create a border.

You could also include cards and letters from guests, seating cards and table settings, and screenshots of your wedding website. If you wrote your own vows, include them, too, along with any love letters you exchanged.

Don't forget to include some journaling and details about the day. You could also leave some pages free at the back to fill in for future anniversaries.

Most importantly, have fun and make your scrapbook your own!

Quotes about love and marriage

• "Where there is love there is life." – Mahatma Gandhi
• "Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage." – Lao Tzu
• "Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction." – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• "Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses." – Ann Landers
• "There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage." – Martin Luther
• "Love is like a friendship caught on fire." – Jeremy Taylor
• "Love is not about staring at each other, but staring off in the same direction." – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• "Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part." – Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli's Mandolin
• "Love is a friendship set to music." – Joseph Campbell
• "Love is like a beautiful flower which I may not touch, but whose fragrance makes the garden a place of delight just the same." – Helen Keller
• "Love is a joint experience between two persons—but the fact that it is a joint experience does not mean that it is a similar experience to the two people involved." – Carson McCullers, Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories
• "Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs." – William Shakespeare
• "Love is not love/Which alters when it alteration finds,/Or bends with the remover to remove./O no! It is an ever-fixed mark/That looks on tempests and is never shaken." – William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 116"
• "Love is passion, obsession, someone you can't live without." – William Parrish
• "Love is totally nonsensical. But we have to keep doing it or else we're lost and love is dead, and humanity should just pack it in. Because love is the best thing we do." – How I Met Your Mother

You could also include quotes from movies, such as:

• "When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible." – When Harry Met Sally
• "You are my greatest adventure." – Up
• "I vow to fiercely love you in all your forms, now and forever. I promise to never forget that this is a once-in-a-lifetime love, and to always know in the deepest part of my soul that no matter what challenges might carry us apart, we will always find our way back to each other." – The Vow
• "The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds." – The Notebook
• "I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life." – Rita Rudner

The design process of your centrepieces

Ode to the Centrepiece

The centrepieces at your wedding reception are likely to have been a labour of love, requiring careful thought and creativity. Why not dedicate a whole page or double-page spread to the design process behind them? You could include pressed flowers, ribbons, menus, place cards, and any other decorative elements you used.

Showcase the Details

If you want to go into more detail, you could create a whole scrapbook section dedicated to the centrepiece design. You could include:

• Photos of each table, ideally with your paper table numbers, images of each group of family members or friends, and images of the table decor.
• Close-up photos of the centrepieces themselves, including any flowers, candles, or other decorations you used.
• Sketches or photos of the design process, from initial ideas to the final product.
• Notes on where you sourced the materials and any challenges you faced in bringing your vision to life.

Tell a Story

Your centrepieces will have been an important part of the atmosphere and aesthetic of your wedding reception. To really showcase them in your scrapbook, try to tell a story with your design. For example, you could include:

• A brief written description of the centrepiece design process, from initial ideas to execution.
• Quotes about love and marriage from you and your spouse, or passages from your favourite books, to add a personal touch.
• Photos of you and your spouse creating the centrepieces, or sourcing materials for them.
• Close-up photos of any unique or personalised elements of the centrepieces.

Focus on Colour

If your centrepieces featured a particular colour scheme, you could use this as a unifying element for your scrapbook pages. For example, you could use coloured card, paper, or stickers to echo the colours of your centrepieces. You could also include photos of other coloured elements from your wedding, such as bridesmaid dresses, flowers, or decorations, to showcase how the colours all worked together.

Go Three-Dimensional

To add a tactile element to your scrapbook, try incorporating three-dimensional details that echo your centrepiece design. For example, you could include:

• Dried flowers or other natural elements used in your centrepieces.
• Ribbons or fabric used to decorate the tables.
• Small decorative items such as candles, favours, or place card holders.
• Layers of coloured or textured paper to add depth to the pages.

Remember, your wedding scrapbook is a chance to relive all the special moments and decisions that went into your big day. Have fun with the process and let your creativity flow!

Honeymoon mementos

Photos

The most obvious memento is, of course, photographs. You can include these in your scrapbook in a variety of ways. Print out your favourite shots and stick them in, or, if you're feeling creative, try making a collage of several photos on one page. If you have a lot of photos, you could create a separate honeymoon photo album to go with your scrapbook. This could be a simple DIY project, or you could use a service like Mixbook Photo Co. or Artifact Uprising to create a stylish, printed photo book.

Keepsakes

As well as photos, you can include physical keepsakes and souvenirs in your scrapbook. Ticket stubs, pressed flowers, menus, place cards, and other mementos can be glued in to add a tactile element to your scrapbook. If you're including three-dimensional objects, make sure to choose a scrapbook with thick pages and plastic pockets to keep everything safe.

Journal Entries

If you kept a travel journal during your honeymoon, you could include some of your entries in your scrapbook. Alternatively, you could write a summary of your trip, or paste in portions of text cut out from guidebooks, maps, or other printed materials.

Quotes and Poems

Adding quotes or poems about love and marriage is a great way to elevate the design of your scrapbook. You could also include song lyrics that are meaningful to you and your partner.

Colour Scheme

Choose a colour scheme that reflects your honeymoon destination. For example, if you're honeymooning on a tropical island, you could use shades of blue and green, with pops of bright colour to reflect the vibrant local culture. If you're heading to a snowy destination, you might opt for a cool-toned palette of whites, greys, and blues.

Map It Out

Include a map of your honeymoon destination, marking the places you visited with colourful pins or stickers. If you're feeling creative, you could even hand-draw a map of your trip, marking the key places you visited.

Before and After

If you have space, it's a nice idea to include some 'before' photos, such as screenshots of your honeymoon planning or photos of your packed luggage. You could also leave some pages at the end of your scrapbook to document your return home and the end of your trip.

Wedding cards and stationery

If you have a lot of wedding cards, you could group them by friends and family on several scrapbook pages. You could also include a special section to display love notes or tuck them into decorative envelopes on a page to be opened as you flip through the book.

If you have any leftover envelopes, labels, and other paper goods, you can incorporate them into your scrapbooking pages. You can also use leftover ribbons and bows to line the edges of pages, frame photos, and decorate the cover of the book.

If you have any seating cards, table settings, or place cards, you can create a page for "the bride side" and one for "the groom side". You can also include sketches of your seating chart and photos of guests heading to the reception.

Photos of the bridal party getting ready

Capturing the bridal party getting ready is an important part of any wedding scrapbook. Here are some ideas for photos to include in this section:

The Bridal Suite

Photos of the bridal suite can help set the scene and capture the atmosphere as the bridal party gets ready. Include shots of the room itself, as well as any special details, such as a bottle of champagne or the bridal party's matching robes.

The Bridal Party's Outfits

Photograph the bridal party in their coordinating getting-ready outfits or robes. If possible, wait until everyone's hair and makeup are done so they feel more comfortable in front of the camera.

The Bride's Accessories

Arrange the bride's accessories, such as jewellery, shoes, and bouquet, for aesthetically pleasing photos. You can also capture details such as embroidered lyrics inside the wedding dress or other sentimental touches.

Gifts and Cards

If the bride and groom exchanged gifts or letters on the morning of the wedding, capture the moment they open them. You can also include photos of any gifts given to the bridesmaids, as well as cards and well-wishes from family and friends.

Candid Moments

In addition to posed photos, instruct your photographer to capture plenty of candid shots of the bridal party getting ready. This could include snapshots of the bridal party doing each other's hair and makeup, or simply enjoying a glass of champagne together.

The Finishing Touches

Photograph the bride putting on the finishing touches, such as putting on her jewellery or veil. You can also capture the moment the bridesmaids see the bride's complete look for the first time.

Frequently asked questions