30th Anniversary Memory Book

Today is my parents 30th wedding anniversary! What an amazing milestone. They met in high school. Back in Virginia, my Dad attended the all-boys military school on one street and my Mom attended the all-girls Catholic high school around the corner. They met at a joint school function and have been together ever since.

My parents are so incredibly difficult to buy things for. If they ever need anything, they buy it themselves. If you ask them what they want....it's always ''nothing..I don't need anything.'' This being their 30th anniversary, I wanted to think of something really, really special for them.

We had done plenty of photo books for them, gift cards to their favorite places, gifts for each, planned a date night for them, etc. It had to be different this year. Then I thought of the idea of doing a memory/tribute book. I would get pictures of them from the last 40 or so years they've known each other and combine it with well wishes/memories from all of their friends and family! I ran the idea across my siblings and husband and everyone thought it was perfect. I started working on this in June!

First, I hijacked my parents' email accounts and got all of their good friends, family members and old friends' email addresses. Then, I went through both of their Facebook accounts and found really old friends and pulled their emails off their pages to make sure they were also included. I knew this part would take the longest so I emailed everyone first. I drafted an email to let everyone know that in a few months, my parents would be celebrating their 30th. I told them about my surprise idea and asked that everyone send me a favorite memory of them, a well wish for their anniversary or just a nice sentiment to be included in the book (and any old pictures they might have of them with either/both of my parents.) I also let everyone know that it wouldn't be a success without all of their help. We needed as much input as possible to make the book work. I attached a picture from my parents wedding day and a recent picture of the two of them to show everyone how much (or how little!) they have changed. :)

I had to send several email reminders about the project, ha, but - the emails started pouring in from people. I got emails from all of their siblings, their parents, their old high school friends, friends from their first jobs in Virginia, cousins, their coworkers, my in-laws, some of my siblings and I's friends and their parents, and friends of theirs from over 20 years ago when we first moved to Texas!!! It was absolutely amazing. So, so, so cool. I loved reading through all of the fun memories that people sent in and all of the tremendously kind things that everyone had to say about the two of them.

Next up, finding old pictures! I knew my parents had plenty! My sister and I spent about 5 hours one night at their house perusing through all of their old pictures. It was so much fun to go through all of that with her. We ended up finding over 140 pictures we wanted to use for the book. Pictures of them dating, pictures from their wedding, pictures of all 4 of us being born, growing up, family gatherings and pictures of all of the major life events/funny stories that have happened over the years. My sweet husband, then scanned all of them (and the ones that people mailed me!) onto the computer for me and I got to work.

Over the next month or so, all of my spare time was dedicated to working on their book. The little time I did get to myself during the day, ha, was just for their book! I added in all the pictures (in date order!) to tell their love story, then I started to sprinkle in all of the well wishes and memories from friends and family. It was absolutely perfect. Some days I would stay up until 1 or 2am just because I was so excited about everything and loved making this for them. I finally finished and placed the order with Shutterfly. (Love that site!) It ended up being FIFTY pages long!!!

This weekend, after we celebrated their anniversary dinner with my family, we gave them the book. It was so much fun watching them go through the book. They literally took TWO HOURS going through it. Laughing at old pictures, old stories, reminiscing, crying together and falling in love all over. I loved it. We tried to record them going through it and the camera actually ran out of memory....then ran out of battery...twice! HA!

Here are a few pictures of them enjoying it together. I love you both so much, Mom and Dad. Glad that we could give you such a precious gift to enjoy over the next 30 years together! We love you!!!!! :)

Ha, love my Mom's face....  :)

We kept hearing "Oh my God, how did you get in touch with that person?!?!!?" or "Holy crap, how did you get them to write something?!?!" :)

They both said over and over that this is the best gift that they have ever received. I'm so happy...it sure was a labor of love!! :)

Happy 30th Anniversary, guys!!!! And thank you SO MUCH to everyone that contributed to the book and made it everything it was!!