Putting together an album all about a couple’s love story can be a great way to scrapbook your family history. Start with a couple that is close to you, like your parents. This is a great way to document their love story and save it for generations to come.
A marriage is definitely not the beginning. Do some digging, and you will end up with a scrapbook album that will be a favorite among your family members and your posterity. Start with the very beginning: how they met.
If you don’t have any pictures to document this part of the story, try re-creating them. If your parents are still alive, and live close, go back to the place where it all started, and take pictures of them there. Or, you could take pictures of the place, event, or location itself. Then, gather all the details you know about the day they met. Interview your parents to get as much information as possible. Include things like their first impressions of each other, or what they were wearing.
Next, move on to the details of their courtship. Include things like how long they dated, or how long it took from the time they met until their first date. Try to find out things like what kind of dates they went on. Ask things like, how long it was from the time they started dating until they got engaged. Include any pictures they might have of the time period before they were married.
Ask about the engagement. How did he propose? Did he ask her parents first? What was the ring like? Was there even a ring at all?
Last, scrapbook the wedding photos. This is typically the event where a couple has the most photos. Try to get them to tell the story of their wedding. Ask about the details. Many times the older photos will be in black and white, so ask about their colors, if they had bridesmaids, what was said at the ceremony.
Include one or two family photos at the end of the album. Do not make the album about the kids, but make it all about the couple and why they fell in love. If your parents are still living, give this album to them as a gift, with the hope that they will return it to you some day when they do pass on.
You can also create smaller albums for relatives that have already passed on. You can create an album that is about all of the love stories in the family. Include the stories and photos of marriages, and courtships. Dedicate a page to each couple and their story. This album would be a great gift for someone for Valentine’s Day.
When scrapbooking your family history, the possibilities are endless. Get creative as you can, and let your photos and journaling do the talking. Use embellishments and papers with a love theme. This will be an album to remember.
Meredith Ethington is the author of this blog. To learn more about Meredith, and her history with Scrapbooking and Genealogy, go here.
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