How to Use Photographs for Invites, Decor and More
Making memories from start to finish
By Natalie Tsang
September 7, 2011
It can take months to get your wedding photos from your photographer. Make sure you get a due date as part of your contract. Instead of receiving all your photographs at the end, make wedding photography a part of your experience from start to finish.
Photography comes from the Greek words light and writing. Use photography to not only tell the story of your wedding, but also of yourselves and your courtship. Photographs of you and your fiancé can be incorporated in save-the-dates cards and invites, and used for reception décor. You can channel your inner supermodel and have the room filled with glamorous or adorable engagement photos. Or, sprinkle the guest book table with baby photos or early images from your relationship.
During the wedding, your guests will marvel at your wedding gown and how ravishing you look. But touching images of you trampling around Europe in jeans, or your younger version in a graduation cap and gown, will remind guests of “the real you.”
Engagement Announcement/Save-the-Date Card
Send a postcard featuring you and your honey in a romantic or irreverent pose. It can be as professional as you want it to be or go the other extreme with a point-and-shoot camera. These are easy to print yourself on photo paper. Attach a peel-and-stick postcard backing. The save-the-date is typically a more casual piece of correspondence. Have fun with it—and save money, too.
Guestbook
Draw guests to the guestbook by designing a table decorated with photos. Baby photos, college grad photos, vacation photos. All these images will delight your guests and give the reception a more personal, emotional feel. Pick an especially special photo of you and your now-husband, frame it, and display it on the table. Or, put several photos in large frames and have your guests sign the actual glass of the frame with colorful sharpies.
A Photo Booth
You can rent a photo booth or rig up your own. Include some props, markers, and scissors. Your wedding favor can include a few peel-and-stick postcard backings and some postage so your guests can send a letter to their future selves recounting what a great time they had at your wedding.
Tables
Consider themed reception tables organized around memorable moments of your relationship, marked with different photographs from your relationship. For example, one table can display a photograph of the restaurant of your first date, another can showcase photos from Christmas family gatherings. If you’re really a photo-fanatic, you can model your tables after famous photographers from Ansel Adams, he liked landscapes, to Ed Ruscha, famous for his pop art book Twentysix Gasoline Stations, to Annie Leibovitz, photographer of the stars.
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