A creative idea with pictures and a step by step tutorial!
Destination wedding photo thank you cards that are unique and personalized are hard to find. If you want to send out a one-of-a-kind and thoughtful gift that truly expresses your gratitude, look no further.
This unique, out of the box idea I’m about to share is easy to make, high quality, surprisingly affordable – and will blow your guests away! Instead of traditional wedding photo thank you cards, you can send them a mini travel photo book that tells a story of your wedding vacation – through pictures. This is something so creative and thoughtful that your guests have surely never received anything like it before!
It’s a fantastic way to show how much you appreciate that they went the extra mile (or thousand miles) to attend your big day. And because it’ll capture memories of everyone having fun on their trip, they’ll treasure it forever. When I sent these in the mail, every one of my guests were wowed and thanked me for the “thank you cards”. Now, when was the last time you heard that?
Want to recreate this idea? Keep reading for step-by-step instructions.
How to:
You can recreate this idea with an easy to use and affordable program like MyPublisher.com
First ask all your friends/family to send you any pictures they took with their own cameras throughout the wedding weekend. Candid shots are always the best ones! Just don’t tell them what you’re doing or you’ll ruin the surprise!
You’ll be using their pics along with your photographer’s shots to create your thank you booklet.
With photos in hand, just start filling each page of your booklet with images that chronicle the weekend. If you had a welcome reception, start with those shots followed by any other events throughout the weekend and ending with the ceremony and reception.
For an extra special touch, add captions or one-liners thanking your guests for something different on each page. Let the pictures on the page inspire you.
For example, thanks…
“…for the memories”
“…for all the laughter” next to a picture that captured a hilarious moment.
“…for being there on our most special moment” next to a pic of your ceremony vows.
“…for your unconditional support”
You’ll be creating one photobook and printing out as many copies as you need.
The booklet has 20 pages and each page can hold up to 12 pictures so there is plenty of room to put at least one picture of each guest.
The front inside cover is blank so use this space to write a handwritten personalized note to each guest.
Important tips:
- Don’t forget to include pictures of even one single person or you could end up hurting someone’s feelings.
- Remember that this is not your personal album – this is your guest’s “thank you cards” so fill it up with pictures of them having fun and keep pics of the happy bride & groom to a minimum.
- Put short captions on each page. Each page can start with “Thanks for {fill in the blank}”.
Step by Step Tutorial:
- Download MyPublisher.com for FREE.
- After downloading the program, start working on the layout of your book immediately or save your work and continue another day. You don’t have to pay a penny until you’re completely finished and ready to checkout.
- Save all the pictures you want to use in a folder on your computer’s hard drive.
- You have two options when you first start building your photobook.
- You can do it the super easy way and let my publisher auto build it for you.
- Or you can build your own book page by page which is also incredibly simple to do. Here’s a step by step tutorial of how I did mine so you can see how easy it is.
- Choose your book size. The one in this example is a small pocketbook (5.75″x7.75″). The cost per book is $9.99 for 20 pages. You can add more pages for .49 cents each. They also sell a smaller book (2.75″ x 3.5″) for $2.49 each. The great thing is that mypublisher.com has awesome promotions all the time, so you can buy these anywhere from 50-75% off and pay less than $1.00 for each one.
- Select a book style. If you’re going for the destination theme (like I did) choose the “travel” style.
- Pick your book cover. I chose a paperback because they’re more affordable to buy and mail to your guests, but they look just as stunning as hardcover.
- Open the folder where you saved your images, and simply start dragging & dropping all the photos you want to use onto the bottom half of the screen
- Now, the fun part begins. Just click on the button that says “make book” and type whatever text you want on the cover…
- Now, drag and drop your first pic from the top of the screen (from your folder).
- Click the “preview” button to make sure it looks just the way you want it to print.
- Now, click on the “make book” button again to continue building the rest of the pages.
- Choose how many pics you want on the page by clicking on the “page type” drop-down menu. You can also choose a “page layout” from a drop-down menu.
- The next step will be to drag & drop pictures and preview just like you did for the cover. Repeat this step for all your pages.
Why send these photo books instead of traditional cards?
When you have a destination wedding or even a hometown ceremony with many out of town guests, it’s so important that you express your gratitude in a way that feels personal and special.
Your friends and family put a lot of effort into attending your big day. They spent their money, used up their vacation time, and traveled the distance.
The best way to show your appreciation is by sending them something they can remember it by. These photo thank you books will show that you put just as much effort into thanking them as they put into attending your special day.
What makes these wedding photo thank you cards special?
I keep referring to them as wedding photo thank you cards when in fact, they’re really mini travel photobooks or albums.
I came up with this idea after my very own destination wedding. Photo thank you cards were pretty much the only idea I found online and I wanted something more meaningful. This is not an idea you’ll find in bridal magazines or all over the web. It is unique and you can be sure that none of your guests have ever received a wedding thank you like this. Ever.
Now that you’ve discovered this unique, affordable, personalized idea, why would you send traditional and boring wedding thank you cards people will just throw to the side?
I hope you enjoy making these as much as I did. Have fun!
Destination Wedding Packages in Hawaii
