Your wedding day, its months in the planning and then it’s gone in the blink of an eye so as well as lots of happy memories, what items should you hang onto after your special day to act as precious keepsakes in the years to come? Take a look at some of our suggestions.
- Photographs - these are the most obvious of items but why not consider having a wedding website? Not only is this a great way to communicate information to your guests but you can also invite your guests to add their own photos of your big day so you have some more informal pictures as well. And won’t your guests just love doing this! A wedding website is also a great location to keep images of some special moments of your journey along the way such as choosing the dress, selecting the flowers or even photos of your honeymoon
- Wedding website – there are so many practical advantages to having an online presence but a wedding website can actually become a great archive for you and your guests. Map and record your entire wedding journey with images and blogs and why stop at the big day? Add your thanks to your wedding guests and share photos of your honeymoon, a wedding website can become the ultimate souvenir record of your marriage
- Flowers – a nice touch if you choose fresh flowers for the bridal bouquet is to have the arrangement dried and pressed, this can then be mounted and framed and makes a beautiful wall decoration. There are plenty of flower preservation experts available online - make sure you choose one with a same day collection service so that the flowers are at their best before they are dried, with the sharpest colours. Other options include preserving the arrangement in a shadow box or even converting the petals into jewellery, the most personal of wedding souvenirs
- Wedding cake – there is a tradition which many couples still adhere to of keeping and eating the first tier of the wedding cake a year to the day of the wedding, as a first anniversary ritual. This probably dates from the time when wedding cakes were almost always a fruit cake which will keep and mature over a long period of time. If you are opting for sponge instead then you will need to ask someone to freeze the top tier as soon as possible after the wedding and don’t forget to tell your venue staff not to cut it
- Wedding favours – personalise the favours with the date of the marriage and your names. If you want to choose something that is edible then opt for long-lasting food like a preserve or conserve or a sugarcraft item. Favours are very popular keepsakes amongst wedding guests
- Invitations – keeping a card or paper invitation is something special and many of the guests will choose to do this along with an Order of Service and their place setting, that’s the advantage of using traditional wedding stationery rather than relying on e-invitations
- Wedding guest book – a wedding guest book continues to be just such an enduringly popular memento of the big day, the opportunity to not only retain all of the signatures of your guests but they have room to write a comment too – uniquely personal, a wedding guest book is something you will treasure forever
- Wedding dress – trash the dress photoshoots are all the rage at the moment but keeping your wedding dress offers so many possibilities at a later date. Some brides will shorten or customise the dress and then dye it, turning it into a completely new garment. It is tradition to make a christening gown for the first born baby from the fabric of the dress or just keep it and store it for the wedding of another family member many years down the line. If you do decide to keep the dress, then it needs specialist storage in acid-free tissue if you are going to fold it flat or should hang in a garment bag – not plastic as this traps moisture which can lead to mould and mildew over time
- Marriage vows – many couples now write their own personalised vows or choose a small poem or reading, it can be special to keep these. Ask a calligrapher to write them out in beautiful script for you to read on the day and then keep for always afterwards
- Cards - keep your wedding stationery plus all the cards you are given alongside wedding presents from the guests, they are great to look back on in the years to come
- Jewellery - many brides will plan to wear significant jewellery that they have been given by another female family member. If you are wearing jewellery that you have chosen yourself on the big day, it can be nice to set it aside as one day, you may want to gift it to another lady in the family like your own daughter for their special occasion, and it will be made all the more poignant because you wore it on your wedding day
It’s not just the bride and groom who may want to keep souvenirs of the big day, this is a popular idea amongst guests as well which is why some brides will choose personalised non-edible wedding favours to decorate the tables at the reception.
Most items at a wedding are chosen for a particular reason and often because they have special significance. Start your own tradition and retain carefully chosen keepsakes and souvenirs which will not only bring back fond memories but also start a tradition as they could be items that can be handed to other brides in the family at a later date. They will be especially significant because you chose them for your big day.
