What to do with your wedding photos

You’re back from your honeymoon and the link to your wedding photos arrives in your inbox. You immediately click the link and text it to your spouse, your mom, and your best friend. You carefully select your favorites and start sharing on your socials. You get a weekend full of likes and comments on Instagram. Wow, that was an amazing wedding. You looked gorgeous! Now what?

Having access to your full gallery of photos is amazing. You will find yourself opening the photos every now and then for a few weeks, but eventually, the wedding starts to fade as you move into a new phase as a married couple, building a home together, work, traveling, starting a family. Your wedding day was one of the most important days of your life. After the last glass of champagne is poured, the rice is tossed or sparklers dimmed, your wedding photos will spark fading memories and bring you right back to those special, intimate moments that matter most to you. So what do you do with your wedding photos?

Purchase prints from your photographer

We can’t say this enough. Buy prints from your photographer. Not only are they better quality, but your photographer will edit and retouch your photos to perfection. You mom is going to buy that giant portrait of you for her fireplace mantle. Of course, you’ll probably want some of the posed portraits of you as a couple, the glamorous ones where you look like you belong on the cover of a romance novel. You’re going to display these in your home, so you want them to be as perfect as your wedding day.

Print photos that spark joy

Marie Kondo those wedding photos. Choose some of the more casual photos to print as well – the ones where you are laughing or dancing, or those intimate moments your wedding photographer captured without you even knowing. These are the memories you want to keep, the moments you’ll treasure. I guarantee those are the ones you will keep on display as your style changes, you redecorate, and children’s portraits replace the giant wedding photo in your living room. I chose a series of casual wedding photos in black and white that still hang together in our home after all these many years.

Select prints to gift

Your closest friends spent a lot of time and money to be a part of your big day. Your girls had their hair and makeup professionally done and they looked pretty amazing too. Make sure to purchase small prints to gift to your attendants. Select one of you with each of them or a fun group photo and have it framed. Choose the best full family photos to print. Frame them and give them as gifts for Christmas or even Mothers’ of Fathers’ Day. How often does your mom or mother-in-law have all of her children gathered for a family photo? Did your photographer get a family shots of your sister or maid of honor with her husband and kids? Your wedding photos hold memories for your family and friends as well. Gifting them photos of themselves all dressed up and happy is a wonderful way to show them how much you appreciate and love them.

Make holiday cards

Why not? Choose one of your wedding or even your engagement photos to make into holiday cards. Let everyone know you are celebrating the holidays as a newly married couple. Those friends and family members who couldn’t attend your wedding will love seeing you in your wedding finery.

Make an ornament

Speaking of the holidays, you’ll definitely want one of those “first” Christmas, Hanukkah, or whatever holiday ornaments to mark the special occasions as a newly married couple. You’ll want to celebrate your newlywed status as long as you can, and that first year will be packed full of “firsts” that you will want to commemorate. Sites like Snapfish and Zazzle make it super easy to select an ornament style and upload your wedding photos. If you’re crafty, head to your local Michael’s for supplies and create your own special ornament for your tree or holiday display.

Create a keepsake book

The days of the gold-embossed, leather-bound wedding album are (thankfully) far behind us. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t build your own memory book full of your favorite photos. Some photographers deliver a magazine-style publication chronicling your big day. Others will help you select your favorites to create a bound volume. If not, there are lots of online sources like Mixbook or Shutterfly where you can simply upload your photos to a template, or jump on Canva and create a book that takes you from engagement through your honeymoon. You’ll find yourself turning those pages more than you think, and you’ll have a tangible, treasured keepsake to revisit year after year and to share with your children and grandchildren some day.