The team behind Illustries, creators of beautiful, personalised wedding albums and books, give their tips for ensuring the memories of your special day are captured forever
The celebration may seem to pass by in a flash, but wedding memories last a lifetime. Founded by a designer and a writer, Illustries is a British company that is passionate about helping couples to create memories – offering beautiful personalised and bespoke books that capture the moments that went into saying ‘I do’. Here are their tips for ensuring you create a wedding album that will be treasured and enjoyed for years to come.
Add your signature
Having a ‘signature’ that sums up your day is a great way of making sure the memories come flooding back every time you open your wedding album and guest book. It’s a good idea to tailor the books you create to match the colours and themes chosen for your day – this ensures they are truly unique and reflect the style and personality of your celebration.
Plan ahead for special photos
Plan ahead for the album! Your wedding is all about you and the people who have come together to share your day. Think about the ‘big ticket’ moments that are going to be important to you – those few minutes with the person giving you away, that glass of fizz with your bridesmaids or best man as you’re getting ready, the first time you hold hands as a married couple. Brief your photographer – and your nearest and dearest – so that people are aware of the points in the day that need to be immortalised on film. Of course, there will be plenty of photo moments that can’t be planned for – but it’s the combination of planned and unplanned that makes for a great wedding album.
Appoint a memory keeper
In the madness of the wedding day, it’s all too easy for mementos to get left behind or swept away in the clean up. We always remind our clients to save speech notes, little messages and even gift cards and tags. They can be a brilliant way of bringing back the atmosphere of your wedding. You won’t have time on the day, so appoint a ‘memory keeper’ to pick up anything that looks interesting. It’s also a good idea to keep a little of everything you’ve chosen as part of your theme – a handful of confetti, a little ribbon, and so on. And don’t forget invitations and orders of service so you have pristine copies for posterity.
Get people involved
Get friends and family involved, be it helping out with the practical preparations or giving their creative input on decorations and readings. And make sure they get involved in your guest book too – you want a message from everyone. It’s a good idea to put someone in charge of your guest book so they can keep it circulating for the early part of the celebration. We advise clients to put the book into safekeeping once the party really gets going so that it doesn’t get damaged or (because even the best-behaved friends may be led astray once in a while) decorated with cartoons, lipstick kisses and smiley faces.
Set the photos free
Opting for a digital package with your photographer is a great way of ensuring images are saved for posterity and gives you lots of flexibility in the memories you create, but don’t get to your first anniversary with only a USB stick to show for the best party of your life. At Illustries, we can help you create a truly individual album. Alongside photos, you can choose to add vows, quotes, extracts from speeches, the cake recipe, menu and a whole host of other things that made your day unique. Whatever you choose to do with your photos, just make sure you bring them to life. We all love looking through our parents’ and grandparents’ wedding photos, and nothing beats the tactile experience of flicking through the true story of one special day, captured forever in a beautiful album.
For more information about the range of personalised books, journals and albums from Illustries visit illustries.com
