This month I am happy to cross off another project from my big list: Create a printed family photo book for our first ten years of marriage.
I have been debating for years how to best organize our family memories. I have photo albums from the first two years of our marriage, and a photo album/scrapbook for our wedding. I have family emails that serve as our written journal (which haven’t been printed since 2005, but they are saved on the computer–that’s a project for another day). I also update our family blog regularly with photos of family events and activities. My children love to get on the computer and look back through family photos and videos, but I wanted to have a book that they could hold in their hands to look at.
Last summer I was inspired by a book that my sister-in-law Eliza had created. She used an online publishing company (like Shutterfly or My Publisher) to create a hardbound printed book of their family photos for the first ten years of their marriage. It looked great, and I realized that format was just what I was looking for.
So in January I started going back through our photos and organizing them into a photobook. My plan was to complete the book before Baby#4 arrived in April, but a large belly and swollen feet eventually made it too difficult to sit and work at my computer, so the project got put on hold. With the motivation of a coupon for half off photo books at Shutterfly, I finally finished the book in July!
My book covers the first ten years our marriage. Since I already have a wedding scrapbook and photo albums from the first years of our marriage, I didn’t bother to overlap. Our engagement photo on the front cover, my favorite wedding photo for the inside title page, and a two-page spread covering 2002-2004.
After that each year got a two-page spread. That forced me to limit myself and just pick the very best photos and memories of the year. The years that we travelled to Utah and Disneyworld for family vacations got an extra two-page spread.
At the end of the book, each child got one page to show their growth over the years.
I am really happy with how the book turned out, and we have all enjoyed looking at it. There were lots of choices for page layouts, so each page is varied and interesting. This book will be a family treasure for us, and I have a few years before I need to make the next one!