I did it! I finished the challenge in time! Check out the challenge at Young House Love, Bower Power, Hi Sugarplum, and The Great Indoors, too. My post title gives mine away: I designed a wedding marriage memory book inspired by this one:
I originally pinned it from Carrie at DreamGreenDIY. She got hers for two bucks at a thrift store, lucky her! As soon as I saw it I pinned it for future reference and then forgot about it. Until last week, while I was browsing my DIY Pinterest board for this week’s project and thought – hey, this would be perfect! I get to do the project and still keep my Wedding Wednesday schedule. Since Carrie had included a lot of shots of the book, I shamelessly copied it used it as an inspiration.
I designed mine in Pages, using the wedding invitation date banner and the guide to Paris as an inspiration. It was still missing something, so after taking another look at Carrie’s book I added the grayish “frame” to all pages. Other than that, I simply created several types of pages, and only filled one side of each sheet of paper with details; the other side is empty so that we can tape pictures and other random clippings. The types of pages I created are:
- The year we got married: this one is meant to fill out details of daily stuff regarding this year – what’s been in the news lately, who won several sports awards, what tv shows/movies we liked, etc.
- The day of our wedding: the where, the when, how many guests, how the ceremony and reception went, and the best/worst/funniest moments.
- The honeymoon: where we went, when, where we stayed, which places we liked the most, etc.
- A page for each wedding anniversary, up until the tenth one: besides listing the number, I decided to do something fun and add the corresponding “traditional” anniversary gift materials. For example, it says {one:} paper, {two: cotton}, etc. Then I’ve added space to fill out how we’ve celebrated that anniversary in particular, as well as the highlights of the previous year. The months start in September and end in August instead of the traditional Jan-Dec because of our wedding date. I’ve also included a few lines to write what we’ve learned in the last year, and what we’d like to do in the next one.
- Two pages, one for the first five years, another for years six through ten: these are meant as a summary of the previous five and have space to fill out what the best investment was, the worst, best vacation, etc.
- A home improvement page: to keep track of our biggest home-related projects year by year.
- A cooking/recipe page: to write down the recipes we’ve been cooking the most each year, as well as any new ones we’ve tried and especially liked.
- We moved (times three): there’s space to write down the new and old address, reason for the move, price, and other random stuff.
- Our travels (one per year): similar to the honeymoon page.
Obviously, you can customize all these pages. I just went with this because I think it’s what fits us best. We both love to cook and work on home improvement projects together, so those two pages make sense to us; plus we try to go on one vacation per year, which is why I added 10 pages for trips. And I don’t think we’ll move more than three times in the next ten years! Plus, the inside cover has our wedding date, and the back has our names – clearly that’s meant to be changed if you want to use it. (And like I already mentioned, the overlay years and the way the months are set up are made to fit our wedding date). So I’ve put together a free download of the PDF file for you to browse, and the .pages file (English and Spanish) for anyone who wants to make their own. I hope you guys like it!
I already printed ours and had it bound, so that’s one less thing on our to-do list. The cover is linen-like, in black, (they only had three options available, really) but it’s a bit boring for my tastes so I might try to do something with some spare fabric I have (or even with burlap when it arrives!). I’ll keep you posted, but in the meantime, here are a few pictures.
P.S.: I used a variety of fonts, all of them available for free: Skia, CMU Bright, Helvetica Neue Ultra Light (was already installed), Traveling Typewriter, Fanwood, Quaver Serif, Raleway Thin, Aubrey, Oil Can, Ostrich Sans Black, Goudy Bookletter 1911. Yep, apparently I’m a font addict. You should install these if you want to modify the .pages file, otherwise the app will substitute the fonts I use for other ones and things will get wonky.
This is SUCH a cool idea! I wish I had thought of it! You did a beautiful job with the design. Did you get the book bounded locally or did you order from online??
Thanks! I’m glad you liked it. I just went to a nearby paper supply/print shop to get it bounded, since my boyfriend printed it at work. They didn’t have a ton of options but this one was nice enough (it cost me 10 euros). Plus they told me they can add more pages if I ever need to, which is nice (since it isn’t glued or anything, it’s just inserted into a metallic guide of sorts).
Love this! Super cute idea! I love the layout and the colours/fonts you chose. It’s definitely something that you will enjoy looking through for many years to come!
Yup, that’s the idea! I always love browsing through photo albums so hopefully this will be something similar.
Wow! Very nice!
Thanks John! I’m oddly proud of the book, haha.
Good job, looks great!!
Thanks Violeta!
Wow! Your book is SOOO beautiful…I am so pleased that my book was able to inspire you =) Thanks for the shoutout!!
Thanks! Your book was a great inspiration, I never would have thought of anything like this otherwise!
That is SO cool! I love it! What a great place to store all of your memories together!
Thanks Ashley!
This turned out so good! Wish this old married lady would have thought of these things earlier!
That’s so sweet Michelle!
What a great idea! I’m getting married this year, and you’ve definitely inspired me to make something like this for us!
Thanks Catharine! I’m glad you liked it.
This is so cool – Wish we had something like this!
Thanks Crystal!
So cute, and a great gift idea for newlyweds! Thanks for linking up with the Winter Pinterest Challenge!
Erin
Thanks Erin, I’m glad you liked it! The challenge was fun!
Psst… I featured you on my Pinterest Challenge round-up today!
http://tatumgreatindoors.blogspot.com/2012/03/wrapping-up-winter-pinterest-challenge.html
Erin @ The Great Indoors
Thanks for the heads up Erin!
Hi, I love this idea, is there any possibility the spanish version is available as a .pdf. I can’t download .pages. Thanks
Hi Tina,
Sure! It’s available in my Spanish blog here.
I love your book! We are getting ready to celebrate your 1st anniversary, and I think this is perfect! Is there any way to get a PDF without the year in the background?
Hi Kristen! Sure, I’ll upload it tomorrow morning for ya
Here you go!
You are fantastic! Thank you so much! I’m so excited to start this tradition with my husband!
Aw, thanks Kristen! I’m glad you like it, and I hope you and your husband enjoy the tradition
This is fantastic! I’m so happy that I came across your blog! I had put together an anniversary memory book but I felt something was missing and this helped me bring it together! I cannot wait for my husband to see this on our anniversary next month! Thank you!
I also wanted to know what kind of paper was yours printed on? Thank you!
Just thick white paper! I’m glad you like it, I hope your husband enjoys it too.
Thank you!!!! BTW love your blog!