>There are so many reasons to scrapbook your first year of marriage. It’s a wonderful way to share with new friends how you met, what your interests were, where you lived and what you did.
>If you choose to have children, they love to know what life was like prior to their entrance into the world. It can be a lot of fun to share with your children these photos of mom and dad right after they got married.
>Every marriage has times of question. “Did I marry the right person?” “Can we really make this marriage work?” and “What did I see in this person?” Having your first year of marriage scrapbooked often helps you answer those questions, which over the years may have lost their answers.
>Here are several ideas of pages to create for this first year of marriage scrapbook:
>1. A few photos of the wedding itself. Include a few photos of the ceremony, a few photos of the reception and a few photos of those people who stood up for you at your wedding; the bridesmaids and ushers.
>2. Any trips or vacations you took that first year. What and where are the places the two of you together enjoyed traveling to?
>3. Any day trips you took. Did you two enjoy boating on weekends? Did you enjoy skiing in the winter? Do you both play softball/baseball? Did you go to sports games? How did the two of you spend your time off together?
>4. Did you have any pets? Include a few photos of the pets you had/have.
>5. Where did you start off living? Take some photos of your first home together. Take photos of both the outside of the house and the inside of the house.
>6. Who were your friends? As we get older and move away, sometimes friendships change. Take photos of those who were your friends during this first year together.
>7. Do you two have a favorite song? Include the lyrics from that song. Do you have a favorite CD? Consider putting the CD cover in the scrapbook.
>8. If you have a favorite television show or movie, see if you can print a page off the internet that shows this move or television show.
>9. Do you two have a favorite restaurant? Do they have a take out menu you can have to put into your scrapbook? I actually loved a very small sandwich stand. I could eat there 7 days a week. They did not have a menu, so we drove there and took a photo of the outside of the business. The sandwich stand did eventually go out of business and I loved that I had the photo of the building.
>Scrapbooking is telling a story, both through photos and also through words. Both of you should journal in the scrapbook. Both of you should help tell the story of this first year of life together as a married couple.
Audrey Okaneko
