Wedding Memorial Display

For the wedding, I wanted to have a memorial for members of our families that have passed away.  I thought it would be nice, since Justin and I have lost family members that were very significant influences in our lives.

I knew I wanted my display to include photos and some kind of quote or wording. I wanted non-family members to understand who these people were as well. I dig this display that I found on Pinterest…

I like the quote and the antique-ness of this set up, although I didn’t wanted to replicate this exactly.

Luckily, I found this antique window at The Antique Market…

and I thought it would be perfect for my memorial display.

Before I got crafty, I needed to get some photos of the family members we wanted to include.  Justin’s mom and my aunt Marianna got me some pretty awesome photos.  Look at this plethora I had to choose from…

I narrowed it down to the few I wanted to use and scanned them into my computer.  I did some quick editing and reprinted them in black and white.  I like the antique feel of black and white.

I also decided to leave a small white border around each of the photos. It made them feel a little more vintage to me.

From there, I just arranged the photos on the window until I found something that felt right.

Don’t worry. That huge bare spot on the top window pane is where I planned to write my quote.  Speaking of the quote…

I decided to just free-hand it, instead of doing any tracing.  Once the quote was in place, it still felt a bit bare to me, so I added a few leafy branches to the mix…

I think it turned out pretty well.

If you’re wondering where it went at the wedding, it was hung from one side of the tent above an old wine barrel…

 

It made me especially happy, when family members told me they loved that we included this little display.

Pet Memorial

It is still rough at our house without our Zack-man roaming around.  I am not going to get all sappy and make myself cry though.  I am trying my best to know that Zack had a great life, and I hope that he is happy wherever he is now.  I did, however, want to make some kind of memorial for him.  I wanted to have something in our house to honor him.

For Zack, we opted for a group cremation with his remains spread on a farm here in Florida.  We did have the option of taking his remains home with us, but we were a little eerie on the idea.  I thought the farm was a nice alternative, so that’s where he is now.  We did decide to get a paw print mold made for us.  We used a great company, ironically named “Paw Prints“.  Everyone at Paw Prints was so helpful, and I am so grateful to have found a company with such amazing employees.

Here are the molds that we received…

Included with the paw print molds were a couple of nice notes and some other sympathy gifts.  The paper with the heart on it pictured below can actually be planted, and a tree will grow in its place.  I love that I have all of these little things to remember Zack by.

Since I wanted a memorial for Zack, I thought including one of these paw prints molds would be perfect.  I also wanted to include his dogs tags and a couple of my favorite photos of him.

I figured, the best way to put all of these things together would be in a shadow box.  I picked up the one below at Target.

Then, I printed some of my favorite photos of Zack.  Justin and I narrowed it down to two. We ended up going with the top middle two photos.  I just love his happy little face.

I popped the backing out of the shadow box and began organizing the photos, one of the paw print molds and Zack’s tag until I found an arrangement I liked…

I secured the photos with some pearl head pins.

For the tags and paw print mold, I used my hot glue gun.  I figured it was an adhesive that is easily peeled off, that way it wont be a permanent placement if I want to change things up.

Here is the finished product…

We hung the shadow box in our bedroom, so I get to see it first thing, every morning.

I’m unsure if it will live here forever. I think it may be a bit small for this wall.

The last thing I wanted to share is a gift from my sister, Jessica.  I received this bracelet in the mail from her recently…

I swear sisters have some unspoken connection.  The week I received this, I had been scouring Etsy for a piece of jewelry that I could remember Zack by.  This is exactly what I was looking for.

The inside says “You smiled with your eyes, laughed with your tail and loved with your heart”.

I love it so much.  I wear it everyday.

Thanks for reading.  I hope you all get to experience having an amazing pet like Zack.  If you want to read more about his life click here.