How to Create a "Story Of Us" Presentation.

   I recently read an article in a Magazine, about a Canadian company that offers to compile an 80 page hardcover book of your story and includes 50 glossy photos of your wedding along with quotes from the bride and groom into a "Story of Us" book.

   As a bride to be, I was both interested and excited until I saw the cost. Fees start at $3000.00. I loved their idea; however, it was beyond my financial reach.

   Being a "do it yourselfer" I decided to see if I could make my own storybook using photos of all of our years together...

   I began with photos of our respective homes when we first met and told a brief story of our first meeting. Of course, in my case the story of "us" includes far more than just my fiancee and myself. We are a blended family, so I also included photos of our children.

   There are family photos showing how we have grown over the years and become a family in every sense of the word, despite the fact that we don´t all share genetics.

   When my oldest step-daughter had her children, they too became part of our story, and their pictures would have to be included as well.

   I ended up with a twenty-six page book! Each photo has a short commentary to accompany it as well. And of course, there will be many pages that I plan to add over the years as we celebrate anniversaries, as our other children marry and have children.

How Did I Do It
   The process is fairly simple, if you have a working knowledge of computers, a good quality printer and a scanner to go along with it.You will also need a desktop publishing program to create your storybook. I used Microsoft Publisher^TM because I find it to be very user-friendly!

So Here is how I created my Book

1. Choose your photos. Start with photos from when you first met; try to tell your story of how you met in a few short lines. Include a few from each year, choosing the ones that show some of your most important moments together, fun moments, important people in your lives together etc.
   
   
2. Scan all of the photos. It helps to make a list as you go along, noting each year and the title for each photo as you saved it. This way, when you reach the stage of compiling pages, you can refer to your list and check them off as you go.
   
   
3. Start compiling your pages. Import your photos, size and place to your liking and add a little commentary with each one - just letting people know who is in the photo, when it was, what was happening and so on.
   
   
4. Print your pages! Choose a special paper, perhaps a parchment or and ivory, just to give it a little nicer look than plain white paper. Set your printer options to the best quality available and print each page.
   
   
5. Visit your local copy shop. Have each of your pages laminated to protect the hard work you have put into them!
   
   
6. Put your storybook together. I used a photo album and replaced the photo pages with the pages I had created.
   
   

   You may also want to create a "cover" for your storybook.Choose a title, a recent photo of the two of you, or perhaps the first photo of the two of you as well as a recent one. You can have this page laminated as well and attach to the front cover of the book you use.

   Set the book out at your reception for your guests to enjoy! Another fun addition goes hand in hand with a "kissing game" that I found on the net. The game suggests having trivia questions asked about the bride and/or groom and the guest must get the correct answer for the bride and groom to kiss. You can use questions that your guests would have found the answers to throughout your storybook.That way, if they don´t get the answer, they have no excuse!!

   Another alternative to your storybook could be to start with photos of each the bride and groom from infants through childhood, leading all the way up to when you met and on through to the present.

   It may seem like a lot of work now, but it will definitely be worth it in the end! I figure that my book ended up costing me approximately $60.00 including the cost of laminating, paper, ink and photo album. Also, because I used a photo album loose leaf style, I will be able to continue to add to the book for as long as I like.

   I think that this is a wonderful way to share the history of your relationship with all of your family and friends. It serves not only as a fantastic memoir of the beginning, but one that you can continue to update into your future.

   Article courtesy of:
   Tina L.Vale
   Bride-to-be! (July 2, 2005)