When I look back I have made a lifetime of creating and keeping memories. I have multiple “treasure” boxes of keepsakes that have been collected over the years, right through from school reports to flight tickets from many amazing holidays. I even have a pile of photo ID cards from studying and work places! When I really think about it, this could be why I was so sure I wanted a career in hospitality – I love creating memories, not just for myself but for those around me. I really believe in the “wow” factor, no matter the budget or occasion and weddings, birthdays or family occasions are all excellent platforms for making great memories.
The wonderful thing about making memories, especially on your wedding day, is that you are in control of planning the WOW and then deciding how you will make or keep the memory alive for the future. I have discovered in recent years than in some parts of my life I am a bit of a traditionalist and in other parts not, so when it came to thinking about planning our wedding, both my husband and I thought really long and hard about how we could have a bit of something old and a bit of something new to create memories with on our big day. To give you a little bit of inspiration for creating your own wedding day memories I thought I would share a few of ours.
A symbol of love 
We had a personalised monogram designed that formed the basis of our stationery suite, from invites to menus, right through to stickers for sealing the invitation envelopes. I love how the letters of each of our first names is entwined as a symbolic gesture of the coming together as we move forward in life as a married couple.
For me, one of the most special places that this monogram was used with our initials was in the pre wedding gift I have to my husband – a beautiful set of personalised cufflinks to wear on our special day.
We are family
Weddings not 
only bring a couple together, the family come together too. It was special for us to acknowledge this and we decided to have a canvas designed to display at our wedding that showed where each of us had come from; while recognising a few very special people in our lives who have also been wonderful role models of a long lasting marriage – our parents & grandparents.
We found photos of each of them on their wedding day to include on the canvas that was hanging above our guest book table at the venue and is now proudly displayed on our wall at home
Something old and something new
I was really stuck when I initially started to think about my bridal jewellery until my mum showed me a beautiful set of pearls that she had that belonged to my late grandmother. I fell in love with the necklace straight away and on the day it was so nice to feel like I had a little something with me to remember my grandmother by.
To go with the necklace I has a pearl bracelet and set of earrings custom designed that helped to bring the something old and something new together. I love wearing this set out for special occasions now and hope that one day my daughter will have the chance to wear the set at her own wedding or special event.
Welcome to the team
My husband is from Auckland and during my speech at our wedding I presented him with a Crusaders rugby jersey to really welcome him to my hometown; where we have subsequently moved back to. Needless to say it made for a great talking point as the night went on and has created a few good social memories since our wedding day!
Photo booth fun
Our photo booth was a real hit and best off all it created memories for us and our guests. Each personalised photo strip printed twice – one for the guest to keep and the other to stick in our guest book with a message for us.
The best part of this interactive experience was the CD of photos we received afterwards of the guests having a great time in the photo booth – I don’t think I had ever laughed as hard as I did looking at these brilliant moments!
The never ending story
Photos really do paint a thousand words and our photobook is one of my favourite wedding day keepsakes. A good photographer is worth their weight in gold and every time I look through our photobook it is like being back there on the day – I can still feel the anticipation tingling through my body as I waited proudly with my father to walk down the aisle to my husband.
Our photobook tells a story from the beginning to the end of the day and we have included our personalised vows in the design so each time we look through our photos we are reminded of the commitment we made to each other.
Our photo book is A4 coffee table size and we each gave our parents an A5 version as a thank you for their contribution to the day, so they too can relive the memories of such a special occasion.
365 days later
The memories didn’t just stop after the wedding as I had a few stickers and invitation covers left so used them to keep the theme going with my husband’s first anniversary gift. The first year is the paper anniversary so I put together twelve months of date cards so he could open one at the start of each month and find out what our special date was for that month.
He loved receiving this gift as much as I enjoyed making it as there was always the anticipation to open a new envelope on the first of each month and as time went on it was like a surprise of both of us as I had forgotten what each date card was!
Needless to say that after our wedding day a few years back we now have another box in our house with all of our wedding treasures and memories that I love getting out each anniversary. Sipping on Champagne with my husband and looking at all the little details that contributed to such an incredible day and started off a lifetime of new memories keeps my heart feeling full.
