Five years of the phrases "someday soon" and "when I have a little more time" and "if only x,y,z would happen, then..." came crashing to a halt this past weekend. I finally did it. Our wedding photos are no longer being stored in a large unorganized photo box with the simple label "Teresa and Jay * September 1, 2007".
Instead, with the help of the gorgeous Project Life Core Kit- Olive Edition, I am beyond ecstatic to be paging through these photos in an actual album. I watched with so much joy as my oldest daughter turned the pages excitedly pointing to family members and friends and exclaiming "Mommy, you look like a princess"!
The whole process was simple and much easier than I imagined (which of course is the entire philosophy behind Project Life, but as primarily a digi-girl, this was new territory for me!). And I have to say, I loved every second of it. I used a combination of page protectors, including Designs A, B, C and D from the Big Variety Pack 1 and Design G. The album is an American Crafts Black Cloth Album.
Last week I started sorting through all 1200 photos from our wedding. I divided the photos into categories: the details (cake, flowers, venue, table settings, etc.), getting ready (bride and groom), bridesmaids, groomsmen, family, ceremony, vows, formal portraits, dinner, reception/dancing and farewell.
Next, I placed one of each of the page protector designs on my table and started arranging the photos from each category that I wanted to include in the album into the designs. I was amazed at how easy this process was with the different options. I didn't limit myself to a particular number of photos or pages, just included the photos that meant the most to me. It took several 2-3 hour blocks of time after the girls went to bed at night or during nap/quiet time on the weekend to categorize the photos and select those to go in the page protectors.
When the Olive Edition arrived on my doorstep at 10 a.m. this past Saturday morning, I couldn't wait to dive into the box. While I've seen many photos of Olive online, they didn't prepare me for how stunning Olive is in person. The colors are amazing and the details are perfection. I took out each set of matching cards and cut the deck in two to lay out all of the designs on my table.
And then I set to work! I began putting each set of photos into the page protectors and choosing coordinating cards. I was less focused on making sure the pages on the left and right matched perfectly and more focused on the individual pages. I plan to also include the
Olive Month Dividers to correspond with the sections of the album.
I included cards with space for writing and some with only designs. I haven't written in the album yet, but now that my new printer has recently arrived, I'll be set to start journaling soon! To be honest though, even if I never add journaling, I would be absolutely thrilled to simply have the album as it stands now. Seriously, thrilled.
By Monday evening I had finished putting together 70 single-sided pages of our wedding album. I don't plan to share all of them here today (maybe in a video?), but I've included some of my favorites below and wanted to share just how quickly this project came together- easily and beautifully thanks to Project Life and
Olive!
I hope this project will inspire some of you who've also been holding onto those precious wedding photos just waiting for the "right time" to create an album. I know I'm not alone in putting this off for years...right? So let's change that! If anyone has created/creates a wedding album or pages using Project Life, please leave a link in the comments. I'd love to see them.
Happy Valentine's Day!
If you find yourself being drawn to Olive too for your next project, you might want to stop by
Becky's blog today for all the details on this awesome sale >>>
