DIY Decor: Celebrate the Journey Wall Art

We just celebrated our 10th Anniversary in September 2011.  It was an exciting milestone... we went on an incredible cruise to the Caribbean and I scheduled a photo shoot with Cayla from C. Noelle Photography.  Hurricane Irene nixed our plans a bit.  We got stuck in Florida for four extra days at the end of our trip and had to reschedule the photo shoot for a few weeks later.  During that time, I was trying to think of a fun thing to do in the photos.  Something that was us.  I saw cute ideas on pinterest but they felt forced and unoriginal.  Then it hit me!!  Our fifth anniversary and the "5" candle that I surprised Adam with in our dessert.  It was perfect.  We would document our anniversary milestones in candle form every five years.  So off we went to our photo shoot with our "10" candle and Crumb's cupcake in hand.  Here are a few of the beautiful photos Cayla took that afternoon.

And this is the project that was spawned from all of this: a time capsule-esque marriage timeline documenting our journey through sixty years.  I love that this shows we are in it for the long haul.  Ruth 1:16-17 comes to mind when I look at this as do my Great Aunt Myra and Uncle Arnold who celebrated 60 years in 2011.  Every five years a new photo will be added.

To make this, I purchased a collage frame from a craft store.  This particular one was marketed as a school frame (ie: for K-12 school pictures).  It worked well because the wedding photo was the largest and all the anniversary photos would be the same size.  I selected a wedding photo to place in the large opening and had wallet sized photos made of our 5th and 10th anniversary photos.  For the other openings, I used my scrapbook paper and adhesive letters/numbers to create the other squares with 15th, 20th, 25th/etc.  I used the Romance paper color palate from Creative Memories and mixed up the designs for each square.  It turned out exactly as I hoped!  :)

This would be a cute addition to a bridal shower or wedding gift!!  We have a few weddings coming up and I will definitely be making this again!