preserving your wedding memories.
I have (almost - one day left) been married for a year; it is amazing how quickly time flies! It feels like just a month ago Mike and I were engulfed the crazy whirlwind that is your wedding day. We've had the most joyous, blessed first year as a married couple and I wish I had the words to express how grateful I am to walk through life with my best friend each and every day. But enough about my anniversary recap - let's talk about how to display your wedding mementos in your home as decor! (Also, stay tuned for my one year marriage recap and wedding details blog posts, coming soon!)
Your wedding day is this wonderful, joy-filled, beautiful day that feels like you spend years planning leading up to it and in a blink of an eye, it's over and you're left with boxes (and boxes and boxes) of leftover decor and just memories of the best day of your life. I've come up with five different ways I'm preserving memories from our wedding and turning them into functional decor pieces that can be displayed in our home.
1. shadowbox full of the small details from your wedding day.
Save your small wedding details! Some of my favorite details are the smallest items (that I likely agonized over the most!). This shadowbox is from Hobby Lobby and it actually matches my others (Michael's) perfectly. Tip: Hobby Lobby runs 50% off sales every other week, wait until this is $30. I filled mine with our wedding program, cake topper, invitation suite, save the date, my garter and hair piece, our notes to each other on our wedding day, the possibilities are endless! Now that I have mine on the wall, I think I'll even add Mike's bowtie and pocket square he wore on our special day. I love having all of these details in one place that I can look at every single day.
2. embroidered hoop replication of your bridal bouquet.
I am obsessed with this piece, completely obsessed. I *just received it and immediately rushed to take pictures to share with all of my friends. This is an item that I will truly treasure for many, many years to come, even after my memory of our day begins to fade. Hayden from Hoops and Needles and I worked together to create this stunning hoop ($65). She has created wonderful customized items for both Gabrielle and Jessica and she did not disappoint with mine. I sent her photos of my bridal bouquet and she took care of the rest! Check her Etsy out, her prices are very affordable and her workmanship cannot be beat.
3. watercolor drawing of wedding ring set.
Again, another Etsy shop that truly wowed me with her attention to detail and artistry. Chelsea with TheChelseaCollect created this beautiful watercolor drawing of my wedding set. I've lusted over watercolor paintings I've seen floating around Instagram and just couldn't justify the outrageous prices. Mine is a 5x7 canvas for only $33, now that is a price I will gladly pay!
4. first dance lyrics over a wedding photo.
I actually created this myself in Adobe Illustrator, if you aren't as handy with graphic design, there are lots of Etsy shops that will do it for you! I took one of my favorite wedding photos, laid the lyrics to our first dance song (Forever Like That- Ben Rector) and I was good to go! This is an 8x11 photo I had printed on Snapfish and put in one of my favorite brands of frames from Michael's. Tip: These frames go on sale all the time, they're currently on sale and will be on a huge sale over Black Friday, don't pay full price.
5. bridal Bouquet preserved in shadow box.
This last item is another shadow box (surprise). I hung my bouquet upside down to dry after our wedding with full intention to somehow preserve it, but no definite vision on I was going to do so. I ended up buying a shadow box, again from Michael's, and the idea was born. Because I did not do this immediately, a lot of my flowers were unable to be used. It is doable if you've waited, but I really would advise to do this as quickly after your wedding as possible in order to maximize on the number of flowers that are still usable! I chose to use a photo in the background to fill up the extra space I had due to a lot of my bouquet not being usable, you may not need this! All I did was take the back off the shadowbox and flip it upside down, so the glass was facedown on the table. I then cut the stems and arranged the flowers and lace how I wanted, held the picture to the back of the box and repositioned that back of the box in its place - super simple! I really love how this turned out and it took very little time + minimal materials!
How are you preserving your precious wedding memories? Do you have a great post-wedding memento - please share it with me! Post a photo on Instagram using the hashtag #3LH.
xoxolauren