This journal page is tied with only one other page as my favorite in my book. I absolutely love it. Perhaps I love it because it took hours to make, or because it’s my favorite wedding photograph, or maybe it’s because it reminds me of my wedding day. The entire day was amazing. I slept like a rock the night before, and I woke up refreshed and ready to go. There was never a moment I questioned what we were about to do. The only cold feet I got was thinking about all those people looking at me, waiting for me to screw up the most important words I would ever say, my wedding vows. I spent the day with my bridesmaids and family members. My parents prepared an amazing spread of brunch foods, with my favorite brunch beverage, mimosas. I was pampered all day long. I had my hair and makeup done, people brought me food and drinks, and before I knew it we were on our way to the venue. I climbed into my giant dress, had pictures taken, and was whisked away to the bridal room to wait for my cue. Suddenly, I was standing at the door with my Dad, about to walk down the aisle. I couldn’t have asked for a better moment. Before I knew it I was making my way to the altar, I grabbed my fiancé’s hand, and prepared myself to make him my husband. I would’ve been fine. I wouldn’t have cried, I think I could’ve made it without a single tear. However, as soon as I looked at Nick his lip began quivering like nobody’s business, and I lost it. I dolphin squeaked, stuttered, and hiccupped through my vows, but I didn’t mess them up. We were husband and wife. Things moved quickly. One minute we were saying I do, the next minute we were taking more pictures. We did a few group shots, and moved onto our husband and wife pictures. We sat on the front porch swing, ignored everything for a moment, and enjoyed each other’s company. I have no idea what I was looking at. Maybe someone was walking across the street, maybe the breeze was blowing the trees, but I love that I was looking away, and I love that Nick is looking at me. This is the perfect moment. The moment when we had a chance to sit down, spend a minute together as husband and wife. This picture is framed in my house as well as held in my visual journal. I know this will be something I cherish forever, look back at, reflect on, and share with our future human babies. It is one of my favorites because that moment is one of my favorites. SUPPLIES

Visual journal

Rubber cement

Scissors

India ink

Book pages

Printed photograph

Calligraphy pen

HOW TO

This may look like a simple page, but it was complicated. I knew I wanted a page that incorporated this photograph, and I wanted to remember various aspects of our wedding, but not take away from the picture. I finally decided to incorporate our wedding date and a few lyrics from our first dance song.

I loved the way the brown colored book pages looked in my invitation page, so I decided to do the same in this page. I ripped the pages up and glued them down to fill up the background. I thought about making a tape or mod podge transfer of this image, but in the end I decided to leave it as is. I positioned it so that we are on the right page, but the picture overlaps to the left page, and I glued it down.

I kept the picture as is, which meant it looked like I just slapped it down, and was done with it. I wanted to break it out of the rectangle shape, so I decided to add scribbles around it. Sharpie was too thick and not black enough to blend in with the rich blacks in the picture. My final option was India ink. I used a calligraphy pen to get thin lines, and I scribbled away. I did have issues with the ink, and went through a few picture mess-ups. It kept bleeding into the edge, and interfering with the image. I kept dripping the ink as I moved across the picture. Even with this final image, I still had a few drops on it, but I let it go, and left it slightly imperfect. I made the scribbles very dense around the image, and slowly spread them out.

I also used the calligraphy pen to write out the song lyrics. I wrote them on a separate sheet of paper, ripped them out, and then glued them down. Because the pen sometimes dripped too much, or created inconsistent lines, I had to write it over and over. Because I did it on a separate sheet of paper it allowed me to select the best looking pieces. I placed the lyrics around the page, and ended with the final line of the song and our wedding date in the corner.

CHALLENGE:

Create a page that uses your favorite picture. It does not have to be a picture of you; it can be anyone or anything, as long as it’s your all time favorite. Think about how you can keep focus on the image while still incorporating other materials into the page. Try to break the image out of the rectangular photograph shape.