The best part about planning my wedding was the fun and challenge of finding the best deals. Like putting together a puzzle, it forced me to find inexpensive ways to fit all the pieces together. And I was successful. Though I’m sure things could have been a little better with a few more thousand dollars, I’m much happier that one day didn’t leave me several months or years in debt. One of the ways that I saved was by making my own photo album. Instead of buying it from our photographer, which would have cost a couple thousand dollars, I went online and found several companies that do it for you for a lot less.

1) MyPublisher.com. I ordered a book filled with my engagement photos from them, and I was happy with the results. I left the book on our sign-in table for people to view.

2) KodakGallery also has a variety of photo books, including one by Martha Stewart.

3) With prices starting at $12.95 for a soft cover photo book, Blurb is pretty inexpensive and offers professional looking books for a variety of purposes.

4) Martha Stewart also has a line with Shutterfly. I recently ordered brag books from them, which were small, cute and portable–great for family members to take with them to “brag” about you to others.

5) Picaboo allows you to share your photo book online with friends and family. Like the others listed here, they offer a variety of wedding theme backgrounds. I like that there is a lot of room for text on there, too. One couple used it as an engagement album and wrote about how the groom proposed.

Even though my wedding’s over, I still love drooling over gorgeous, glamorous wedding books. I compiled a few favorites for you:

1) Here are some stunning photos and ideas from famous wedding coordinator Jo Gartin of Love, Luck and Angels. I adored her book “Weddings: An Inspiring Guide for the Stylish Bride” so much that I wanted to buy it as a keepsake.

2) Colin Cowie is extraordinary! And his book “Colin Cowie’s Extraordinary Weddings: From a Glimmer of an Idea to a Legendary Event” is no exception. Here is a stunning photo from his fabulous book taken from Brides.com.

Although I haven’t gotten our “professional” photos yet, I do have some shots from my husband’s cousin, who is an aspiring photographer. Her pictures are photo journalistic and I love them.

Today’s Real Wedding was submitted by photographer Critsey Rowe.  The simple and elegant wedding of Amy, a neonatal ICU nurse, to Aaron, a North Carolina highway patrol officer, took place at the Little Church on the Lane in North Carolina. The event planner was Ivy Robinson (”Whose Wedding is it Anyway?”).

What is Amy & Aaron’s advice to engaged couples? “Don’t worry about every single detail, because the day goes by so fast that you are not going to be focused on the details but on your new spouse.”

Amy & Aaron

March 2008

To submit a wedding for the Real Weddings feature, send photos and an event description to blog@weddingpaperdivas.com.

What will you do with all of your wedding keepsakes? You know the programs you spend all night making, the invitations you lovingly chose, and the place cards you hand wrote? Well if you’re like me, you want to save those as a treasured reminder of the wedding and everything that went into your big day. One option is to create a shadowbox which includes your wedding picture and anything else you want to display. Another idea that is pretty simple is to keep everything in a photo box. Beau-coup has one that is modern and elegant.

One thing I might do is store all of our wedding memorabilia in a scrapbook, labeling everything with place cards. You can handwrite different descriptions on each card with funny stories about how you used or created each item. Here are a few from Wedding Paper Divas that would beautifully decorate any wedding scrapbook.