Inspiration / 3 min readThe Union in Frame journal
A year on: prints, the album and your first anniversary
Words by Union in Frame
The gallery arrives, you look through it twice, and then life carries on. This is a plan for the year that follows: back up the files, choose a few prints for the wall and for family, finish the album you set aside, and mark your first anniversary.
Download everything before the link expires
Many studios host an online gallery for a set period before archiving it, and a download link in an email is easy to lose. Check your delivery email, or ask your photographer, for the expiry date and put it in your calendar with a reminder a fortnight before.
Download the full-resolution files, and the whole gallery rather than favourites only. Then keep them in two places: a drive at home and a cloud account, or two drives in different houses. One copy is a hope, not a plan.
Choose a few prints for the wall
You do not need to print everything. Three or four photographs you walk past every day will do more than a hundred in a folder. Pick one wide view of the room, one of the two of you, and one that makes you laugh.
If your gallery has its own print shop, order prints and framed pieces before the link expires. Otherwise, use a photographic lab rather than a supermarket kiosk; the colour is usually closer to what you saw on screen. Measure the wall before choosing a size, because prints often look smaller once they are hung.
Gifts for parents and the people who helped
Parents do not always ask for photographs, yet often want them most. A small framed print, or a short book of twenty or thirty images, is something they can keep out. Choose the pictures they are in, and the pictures of the people they love.
Think too about the friend who did a reading, or grandparents who travelled a long way. A single print in the post, with a handwritten note, costs little and is a kind way to say thank you. Do it in the first few months, while the day is still fresh.
Finish the album you put off
If you postponed the album, this is the point to decide. It is easy to wait for a quieter moment that never quite arrives. Give yourselves a deadline, such as the first anniversary, and treat the choosing as an evening together, not a chore.
Start with the photographs you keep returning to, then add the ones that carry the story: arriving, the vows, the speeches, the dancing. Aim for a book you will open, not a complete record. If your photographer designs albums, send your favourites and let them handle the layout.
Mark the anniversary with the photographs
The first anniversary is a natural point to return to the pictures. Go back to the venue if it is open to visitors, or cook the wedding meal at home. Look through the full gallery together, not just the favourites; you will notice things you missed.
If you would like new photographs, book a short session. An hour somewhere that matters to you, in ordinary clothes, gives you a picture of the two of you a year on. Done each year, those pictures become a record of the marriage, not only the wedding.
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