One year ago, Alex and I got married!

So, it’s time to create some traditions!

Wedding Album

As a Christmas gift to Alex, I custom-made this wedding album from Artifact Uprising. While I often create my client albums from WHCC (the quality is honestly much better), I wanted to try something a little new and different for my creative, artsy soul. I splurged on this bad boy, but the quality is still super lovely!

Our wedding photographs were printed on 10” X 10” ultrathick cardstock paper, with lay-flat binding and custom foil stamping marking our date on the binding.

We have our linen wedding album, next to our bed on a side table for easy perusal anytime we wish to glance back nostalgically at these memories from our lil New York backyard wedding. We also have our vows printed and framed in our home, but I would like to find a way to incorporate it into the album. 

Creating an Anniversary Tradition Letter

Recap Letter

Along with looking over these memories in our album every year on our wedding anniversary, we also have decided to write a letter together on all that has happened in the year.

This letter includes:

• What happened during our year of marriage and our favorite memories
• Our peaks and pits – blessings and challenges from the year
• Our dreams, hopes and wishes for the next year are
• The predictions of our life for the following year
• Our “Favorites” – a stat rundown of our current favorite films, books, foods, shows, nightly routines, habits, and hobbies

As Alex and I have seen over the years, we are continuously changing. While he will be the first to admit that I have changed the most – I mean, obviously, I did meet him at 20 years old – I have loved observing and documenting the ever-evolving and growing interests, beliefs and perspectives of our young selves over the years. 

With time, memories fade.

There is so much that Alex and I have forgotten from 5 years ago at the beginning of our journey together. Luckily, I have countless journals with all the details (including ALL the quotes conversations from our courtship days), but I don’t ever look back and read my journals. The 40+ journals are in a trunk back home with my mother in California, and the few times I do go out west to see her, I have limited time to look through and read all of them. It’s exhausting thinking about it.

A simple 1-2 page recap letter makes this easy and manageable to look back on these early years. 

Letters to our Future Selves

I love the idea of having a collection of anniversary letters. Letters that together we will write year after year to weave our personal story of our marriage and life together.

When I was 18 and newly graduated from high school, I enthusiastically asked my two friends from middle school if we could write future letters to ourselves and bury them in a box, along with a few prized possessions, in their backyard. 10 years later, we are slowly inching our way to 2022, and in a few short years, we will meet and open this box and reread these words. Knowing that I have this to look forward to brings an extra dose of joy and pleasure to my life! Just like this buried box from high school, I can’t wait to start this new tradition with my husband. 

I am a huge lover of words. Long letters and genuine words mean more to me than any act of love and looking back on these letters will be something Alex and I will cherish over the years, as we grow older. 

Print Your Own Photo Album

I print my photo books and albums with Artifact Uprising. You can find all their beautiful custom embossed albums here!

This post and album is not at all sponsored. I just purchased it and love it so much!