Anniversary Memory Book

Valentine's Day also happens to be our wedding anniversary.  Since this year is our thirtieth anniversay we decided to go out for dinner to an Indian restaurant with all the kids and some friends to celebrate.  After dinner we all came home and had some champagne and cupcakes (which you can see pictures of here).  It was a lovely evening and I can't think of a better way to spend our anniversary than being with family and friends eating yummy food. 

I have been working on an anniversary memory book in secret over the past month and now that I have given it to hubby, I can share it with you.   I made him a scrapbook with a page for each year we were married containing a brief description of what we did, where we went, and how old the children were, along with some photos from each year.  

First page from our thirtieth anniversary book.

Fortunately I had done the first twenty years we were married on our twentieth anniversary so I only had to do the next ten years.  

First page from our twentieth anniversary book (the wedding invitation was taped to the inside of the cover).

These just happened to be very busy years, though, so there was lots to remember.  There were emails flying off to all the kids peppering them with questions about what year they had done this or that and how old they were when such and such happened.  I think I got most of the facts right, which is good as my memory for the details is not going to get any better than it is now.  I kept a little book with me at all times for a few weeks in which I would jot things down as I remembered them.  When I finally had all the details right, I wrote up each year in a little text box and then printed them off.

One of the pages from the twentieth anniversary book (which might account for why I look so young).

Then Kate helped me decide on the photos.  This was no small feat since half the photos were in actual photographs and half were on discs.  We did some rapid sorting and then I colour photocopied all the photographs and printed off the ones that we wanted from the CDs.    I cropped the pictures and played with the arrangement so they would fit on a page.

Detail of one of the pages from the thirtieth anniversary book.

I used some scrap-booking paper to add a bit of colour to each page.  I had far less time to make the book this time so I just did my best to get all the information in, some representative photos from each event in that year, and a fairly even number of photos of each person in the family.  

It is a fair amount of work to do, but so worth it to remember the main events of each year.  I was shocked how much I had forgotten when I re-read the twentieth anniversary book.  If  you have weak memories like we do then this is a great present to make for a significant anniversary.

There are plenty more pages in the thirtieth anniversary book so I will be adding to it for our fortieth - or maybe I should start doing it every five years so it isn't such a strain to remember everything.

at the Indian restaurant

 Happy anniversary love.  I'm looking forward to the next thirty years!

Linked to Inspiration Friday at At the Picket Fence