Half-heartedly ‘Liking’ a picture on Facebook just isn’t the same as getting a copy of said photo and putting it in a frame, is it? Flicking through a gallery on social media doesn’t compare to sitting shoulder to shoulder, flicking through the photos you’ve just picked up from Supasnaps, laughing at the memories you froze in time. The ultimate personalised wedding gifts were thoughtful albums, stuffed with special photos and keepsakes from the big day.
We might have moved on from film cameras, but we still want to cherish our special memories. Sometimes printed photos were bad, too - remember those stickers that told you that perhaps that blurry photo of nanna dancing with the wedding band might be a little over-exposed? Our beloved digital SLRs and our selfie-tastic phones might be easier to use and far more convenient, but the way we store our pics can lead to loss, confusion and even the dreaded accidental deletion! It’s a shame that so many of our favourite moments are consigned to the depths of Dropbox, never to be clicked on again. Let’s change that.
I say we all start making more out of our memories. Let’s stop idly clicking ‘Like’ and start creating scrapbooks and photo albums and pinboards again!
To help you get your thinking caps sparkling again, here are some top ideas to turn your digital deluge of snaps into memorable gifts and cherished keepsakes that’ll last a lifetime.
Memory Box
On their wedding day, happy couples are always busy flitting from person to person, clinking glasses and catching up with family members and old friends. The day goes by so quickly and before they know it, it’s time to leave the dancefloor and head to bed.
Help them remember their day in its full, sparkling glory by collecting some trinkets from the day - things like delicate flakes of confetti, the wedding breakfast menu and a petal from the bridal bouquet, or a decoration from the cake. Then, when you get home, decorate a little trinket box with printed photos of their day and fill it with the lovely items you collected.
Voila! One of the most personal and unique personalised wedding gifts ever - a little time capsule that’ll take them back to their happy day whenever they lift up the lid.
Découpage
The art of découpage was especially popular in Victorian times, when young ladies would decorate their dressing room screens with pictures and illustrations they liked, torn from the pages of books and magazines.
Now, découpage is the secret weapon of interior designers everywhere. It can turn even the dreariest side table or simplest ring binder into a work of art using your favourite wedding photos! Not sure how to do it? This tutorial will tell you all you need to know. Now get cuttin’ and stickin’!
Frame Wall
Your best photos deserve to be gazed at every day. Release them from their external hard-drive prison and use an online printing service or your local print shop to make them real, in any size you like.
Then, it’s just a case of finding the right frames to suit your personality and your home’s unique décor. Idea: Why not print a photo extra large, then cut it into sections so you can hang it using more than one frame! It looks really striking and can turn a landscape photograph of the wedding party into a real feature piece.
Kitchen Corkboard
Corkboards aren’t just for university halls and for pinning school trip letters to, you know. You can use corkboards really creatively throughout your home, painting them all kinds of colours and theming them with the memories you’d like to display.
Why not have a corkboard that’s covered in all your gig ticket stubs to remember all the musical times you had? Or one that shows off all the best films you’ve ever been to see together, again, with the tickets to prove it? Or maybe you could pin up photos of the people you’ve met while you were travelling along with pictures of the places you’d still love to visit?
Hang your board somewhere where you’ll see it every day and get that warm fuzzy feeling of nostalgia every time you pass by.
A Unique Gift
Whether you’re looking for personalised wedding gifts ready for wedding season, or you’re trying to find the ideal present for a special birthday, anniversary or even a christening, The Occasional Reporter specialises in a line of beautifully bespoke gifts that’ll definitely tug on some heartstrings.
These newspaper front pages use your photos and special memories to create totally unique stories that you can keep forever. They can be funny, cute or simply sentimental. It’s entirely up to you. The best thing is - it’s not digital. It’s a real keepsake to hang on your wall.
You might love looking through your Instagram feed at holiday snaps and wedding portraits, but spare a thought for your memories. Don’t you think sometimes they’d rather have more time and attention spent on them?
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