Back when my big sis got hitched in April, I gave y’all the play–by–play details (and then some).  It was such a wonderful time, and we loved being a part of it, so I thought one last revisit to the big event was in order, but this time with a little twist.  A post-wedding gift idea twist.  As anyone who’s recently gone through a wedding knows, the first question you get once you’re home from the honeymoon is, “Do you have pictures?  Can I see?  Oh come on–I’m just dying to see the photos of your big day!  What do you mean it’s going to take your photographer months to get them to you?!  I want to see them NOW.  NOW damn it!”  Okay, so maybe people aren’t quite that pushy, but you get the idea.

So, with my own knowledge of recently being married and having to deal with all those obnoxious sweet, caring, and curious friends and coworkers (love you!), I knew just the thing to get my sister.  Of course, I can’t take any credit for this idea whatsoever.  Nope, none.  See, soon after our own wedding, one of the Mr’s closest friends sent us a photo album that she had put together from her shots of our big day.  It was a 7″x7″ hardcover book that she had made on Blurb, and it was the perfect size–so easy to throw in my purse and take with us–to show to coworkers, family, friends, etc.  And since, true to form, wedding photographers (ours included) took a while before getting our pictures to us, it was doubly nice that we had such a professional album to show around so soon after the wedding.  (Oh, and it may have helped that the Mr.’s friend is one of the BEST photographers out there, with a long list of celebrity clients.  But the idea’s still good even for amateur photogs like myself.)

So first thing–I downloaded Blurb’s Booksmart tool and got started (although, if you’re wary of downloading programs, they have an online tool to make books as well) . . .

Why Blurb?  Like I said, the Mr.’s friend is in the upper echelons of professional photography and that’s the program she chose, so why reinvent the wheel, right?  The research, in this instance, was done for me.  Plus, I may or may not have liked saying the company’s name.  Out loud.  To myself.  Sometimes in a frog-like voice.

Anyways, the program was super easy to use and had a TON of layouts to choose from, which was a nice change from programs like Snapfish or Kodak.  My only problem was that I didn’t have enough pictures of the actual big day–being the Maid of Honor necessitated me not having a camera during the ceremony.  But luckily, I put a call out to all my sister’s friends and they totally delivered–so thank you Punkie, Alisa, Jenn, and Shona for all the great pics!  Then, it was just a matter of laying out the book, reviewing it, and ordering.  Voila!

Once I placed the order, the book arrived in a only a few days and it came out awesome.  My only regret was that I should have added more pages–sorry Doodles!

So there it is–a great gift idea for a recent bride (and don’t worry–I gave this to my sis a looooong time ago, so no surprise ruined here :); I just forgot to post about it).  I even loved it so much that I ordered another copy for myself!  The Blurb books start at $10.95 (softcover), but this version started at $20.95 (hardcover with dust jacket).  But I managed to find myself a coupon (by checking sites like these), so even though I added extra pages, it was still totally reasonable.

Consider yourself Blurbed.