Whether it be your wedding or a small session, you shouldn’t let your photos just sit on a flash drive or computer. Or even on your phone! I think it is so important to print and share your photos. Line your walls or fill albums. Here are some fun ways to use your photos as well as some ideas on how to look back on your wedding day in your home.

Gallery Wall

This is a popular and easy way to display some of your favorite photos from your wedding or session. My brother gifted us canvas prints he created himself but let us choose the photos! We did a mix of bridal part, individual, and couple shots from our day. Our friends also gifted us a couple metal prints which I loved so I printed a couple photos from our honeymoon to match. Don’t be afraid to mix materials!

The only thing I would change would be to have had one from our engagement session and just one from our honeymoon. That way it was a whole season of celebrations. So maybe I will eventually switch out one of the honeymoon metal prints for our e-sesh!

Focal Point

For any gallery wall, I recommend starting with one main focal piece and then building from there. I prefer the different sizes, shapes, and spacing on a gallery wall but you can also print photos, put them in the same size frame, and make the gallery wall super uniform. Just depends on your style. For our wall, we used a sign my parents had made that was out at our reception. Again, I am all about mixing materials!

Small Prints

Want to keep it simple? Print smaller photos for frames or to put in photo displays. For our name cards, we really wanted animal holders. So my mom bought a bunch of small animal figurines and spray painted them. She made special ones for Lex and I. Lex had a lion and I had a dinosaur. We loved them so much we kept them and have them sitting on a shelf in our library. They are perfect to display photos! We currently have sibling photos printed but I am sure we will swap photos out over the years.

Shadow Box

My sister made this for me after our wedding! She used one of the photos our photographer took of us. She pulled elements from our day like the gold stones we used in the candle holders, one of the animal name card holders. Lex had made boutonnieres out of little bottle of alcohol so she spray painted them in our center piece colors. The sunflowers were the flowers I had my bridesmaids hold, and the other flowers and string lights were from our reception. Such a fun way to remember our wedding day!

Bouquet Embroidery

I stumbled upon Tegan a few months before our one year anniversary and fell in love with her shop Muted Rose Embroidery. She takes photos of bouquets and turns them into these incredible works of art. I knew I didn’t want to save the bouquet itself, its popular to preserve the flowers in a shadow box. But since my sister had already made me one, I knew I didn’t want another. Cannot recommend her enough! If this is something you want created, just note it will take several weeks. But totally worth the wait.

Wedding Plate

My best friend gifted us this beautiful hand painted wedding plate in our colors. I absolutely love it and have never seen anything like it! She ordered it from the shop Silver Lake Lodge. Its the perfect addition to our gallery wall.

Albums

If you aren’t looking to add a bunch of art to your walls, one of my favorite options is an album! I have them as an add on but I am not your wedding photographer, you should be able to work with your photographer to create one. And this isn’t just for weddings. Albums are great for any session or even trip you take! I recently took all of my albums I made from grade school and high school and have mulling over the idea of reprinting them. These books are just sooo beautiful and take up way less space than the insert a photo into the album options we had when we were younger!

I love ordering small square prints from my shop! We used these print sizes for our bridal party display at our reception. My Dad had built me a PVC pipe frame for a wedding show I did a few years ago and I repurposed it for our wedding. When I print these small square prints I usually add them to the magnet board in my office. Super easy to switch them out as I print more.

Name Signs

I made this sign for Lex on our first Christmas together. But if you aren’t interested in making your own name sign, there are SO MANY incredible artists on Etsy who would love to do it for you. Whatever your style might be.

Mixtiles

I recently ordered a bunch of our travel photos from Mixtiles for my office. They were a pretty inexpensive option for getting many photos printed at once. I also liked that they came with stickies on the back that are supposed to be durable so you can move these around a bunch. Since my office is a work in progress, these were a perfect way to get art up on the walls without putting nails in. The first photo is a mock up I did and the second is the final project!

Your Details

One of the big things we tried to do at our wedding was have decor or details we could possibly use again or recycle. I am not about this one time use kind of stuff. So we got ourselves and our bridal party fun glasses they could use at our reception as well as in their home. We took the dinosaurs my mom used on the dessert table and have them displayed in our library.

ThirtyOne

One of my 2019 brides, Nina, is the QUEEN of coming up with fun ways to print or use her wedding photos. I just love all the different ways she has them displayed in or home. And I know I have seen a bunch more creative things you can do in her shop. Check out her ThirtyOne shop or reach out to her if you are looking to create photo displays, key chains, or bags like you see here.

Pressed Flowers

Another one of my brides just sent me this photo of pressed flowers she created! A couple are from her bouquet and a couple are just flowers she wanted to use. I told her 1) that I loved the way the double glass looked and that 2) this was such a cool way to preserve your bouquet! Our couples are the coolest and most creative people.

Portraits Made from Photos

There are so many options on Etsy to choose from. Depending on the style you want, you can find an artists that matches that! Just find a photo you wanted create into a painting or illustration and reach out!

Photo Display Boxes

If you want to have some photos out on a shelf or your coffee table for friends and family to go through, buying a glass box is a great option. Its inviting because you see there are prints through the glass. Its also a gorgeous option to keep them safe!

Instax Frame

Whether you used an Intax camera or printed your photos on an Intax printer, you can display them on these beautiful wooden frames. The photos just clip in so they are super easy to switch out!

Picture Ledge

If you don’t want to commit to hanging up frames or prints on wall, another option is picture ledges. See what I am talking about here. You can put a couple ledges up and put what size, orientation, and color of prints in frames or out on the ledge. This is a great option for anyone who likes to to update photos frequently. Now you don’t have to worry about keeping the same sizing and orientation of the photos moving forward or having to refill wall holes and repaint.