The Most Important Post-Wedding To Do: Print Your Photos
Why you should print your photos: Tangible memories beyond your phone screen
You may or may not have grown up in the same era I did, so let me take you back to my childhood for a minute where it was common to print your photos. In the mid-1990s, my Nana and Papa lived on Wood Avenue in Sumner, Washington in a little green two-bedroom home. When you entered through the front door (which we never did ha-ha!) the little living room featured a cozy couch, beautifully crocheted blanket and something you’ll almost never find now… a coffee table that housed an endless number of photo albums.
As a kid, my cousins, brother and I would spend countless hours flipping through the photos of our family’s history. Photos from before my grandparents met, all the way through birthdays, Christmases and recent kindergarten graduations. It was so much fun to look back at people who supported our families and relive memories together.
We don’t see that much anymore. Most of our photos live on our phones, laptops or floating in “the cloud”, leaving the idea of printing photographs a little old fashioned. We snap countless pictures on our smartphones, but when was the last time you sat and scrolled through your camera roll? Sure, we post a few on social media, but even that is getting pretty scarce. The rest of those thousands of photos are just sitting in limbo, waiting for the elusive “someday” when we’ll organize and MAYBE consider printing a few.
Nostalgia aside, it’s important to print your photos for many more reasons than just decorating your home. Printing photos, whether it’s your wedding day, newborn photos or a mommy and me session you’ve dreamed of, helps you to preserve, celebrate and interact with your memories in a way your screen just can’t replicate.
Memories that Stand the Test of Time
Ok, yes. There are some pretty cool apps, devices and technology that allow us to view more and more of our memories in short amounts of time. You can buy an aura frame that allows you to upload your photos from anywhere (yes, including while you’re on vacation in Cabo). Apple has a “memories” feature on their devices that show you various photos in your camera roll from over the years. And of course, Facebook has their memories feature, showing us what we posted today over the lifetime of our account.
Even with all this, there’s something irreplaceable about holding a photo or printed album in your hand, feeling the texture and weight of the paper or book, and knowing that this memory isn’t just a bunch of gigabytes on a hard drive. When you print your photos through a reputable printer like Mpix.com or your local photographer, your photos are printed on 100-year archival papers. While this sounds like mumbo-jumbo to most of us, it means your photos will have a lifespan that far exceeds the latest phone model or social media platform.
I’m willing to bet, the computer, tablet or smartphone you’re reading this on is “out of date” (unless you bought it today) and the manufacturer has already released the “next best thing”. My photography career began when Apple was barely breaking into the phone market (Everyone had Blackberry Phones) and now we’re on like iPhone 17. In case you’re like me and not a math genius, that’s more than one new phone release every 12 months.
Then there’s the whole “file transfer” thing. How many times have you upgraded your phone and lost access to certain pictures or scrambled to backup files before they’re lost forever? Technology, while normally a wonderful thing, fails more often than we’d like. I’ve had hard drives crash, files get corrupted, and seen software become obsolete. Don’t remember the floppy disk? I do and we could only put a few files on them before we had to get a new one.
When you print your photos, you’re ensuring that the memories are there for the long haul. Your favorite family vacation pic or wedding portrait won’t suddenly disappear because of a software glitch. And you’ll be able to watch your grandkids thumb through memories in your living room too. Printed photos aren’t just for the dinosaurs, they’re for anyone who wants to be remembered by future generations.
Print Your Photos to Create Personalized Artwork with Emotion
I’m willing to bet when you think of Art, your brain immediately goes to famous artists like Monet and Picasso. It can be hard to equate your cell phone photos with the likes of these incredible painters, but art is truly subjective. It’s common to think of painting, sculptures or photographers of the past as artists, and maybe you even have your favorite artists’ work hanging in your home. It doesn’t stop there though; your art can be a highly personalized portrait of you.
Picture walking into your home to be greeted by your favorite wedding portrait, the one where your husband took you by surprise and dipped you back for a kiss. You thought you were going to fall, but he had you safe and secure in his arms through the whole thing. Because you chose to print your photos, this moment greets you every time you walk in the door, bringing a smile to your face even on the days where your boss was a total jerk, causing you to cry the entire car ride home.
Whether it’s the above scenario or a beautiful gallery wall along your staircase to your children’s bedrooms, personalized art is so much more than just a showcase item. It gives you the warm fuzzies every time you pass by and your guests ooh and awe over the cute photo of your pup on your wedding day. It’s a visible reminder of your favorite moments and favorite people. One that will bring around an invitation to be more intentional about reflecting on your memories.
The Best Resources to Print Your Photos
As professional photographers, we’ve tried and tested many different ways to print our own memories. Some instances have been huge successes, while others left us researching new products. Below we’re going to cover all of our favorite resources to print your photos.
Your Gallery Shop
After years of watching clients download their precious memories from our gallery system and hearing back months or years later that they’d lost the files without printing anything, we decided to invest in a gallery system that allows clients to print right there. With our gallery shop system, you’re able to order the most common home artwork products right from your couch. The best part? If you’re working on an iPad or mobile device, you can use our augmented reality feature to see what the image would look like on your own wall.
Whether you’re looking for heirloom quality albums, or a simple print for Nana, your gallery shop has plenty of beautiful options. Plus, our lab’s 100-year archival paper will make sure those memories last for several generations. We offer an entire walkthrough on our blog with all the available options in your gallery shop, so be sure to check it out!
Artifact Uprising – Our favorite Consumer Lab
I found Artifact Uprising several years ago and fell in love with their beautiful “everyday” prints. These small prints are done on a beautiful matte paper with an eggshell texture that allows them to withstand fingerprints and serve as fun note cards when you’re sending a batch of Thank Yous to wedding guests. I used them at several wedding shows with our information hand stamped on the back.
This consumer lab offers everything from photo prints to beautiful frames that will help showcase your images on a gallery wall or make an incredible gift option for your mom.
Mpix.com – Unique Gifts & Budget Friendly
Mpix.com is the consumer end “sister-lab” of our long-time professional print lab choice (and the one we still order 90% of our custom designed albums from). If you’re looking to mass print your photos (think 4×6 prints for a slip in album) this is the lab I would recommend using. They still offer archival papers and use the same color process as our professional labs.
Mpix.com is also my #1 recommendation if you’re looking for a unique photo gift, like a puzzle of your favorite image or sets of playing cards for your groomsmen. Speaking of groomsmen, if yours were the wild type like ours were, consider snagging a set of coasters for each of them highlighting your wedding day shenanigans. The coasters are sure to bring smiles and laughs in their man caves.
Photo Printing Deadlines
First off, there really isn’t a deadline for printing your photos. You can go back years and begin printing through a service like Chatbooks to create family yearbook memories. And if you’re a client of mine who’s misplaced or lost your gallery access link, you’re always welcome to reach out to us. We keep gallery links handy for a minimum of 12 months from delivery, and our archives are still full of years’ worth of photos.
No matter how long it’s been or how big a project you’re facing, print your photos so you can pass on the tangible memories before they’re lost forever to advancing technology.
Markie + Jake are a husband-and-wife photography + videography team based in Western Washington. They love to travel the country with their four children, photographing families and couples who love to have fun and believe that every day is an adventure. Markie offers planning and photo organization services to busy moms who just want to pass their memories to their children and grandchildren.
For more marriage + motherhood tips, follow us on Instagram (@markiejonesphotographyllc) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/mjpllc), or visit our website at [www.markiejonesweddings.com](https://www.markiejonesweddings.com).
