How to Convert your Wedding Photographs into a Slideshow

So you’ve just had your wedding and created some wonderful memories with family and friends sharing your special day with you, topped off by a romantic honeymoon. Now what? Well I’m guessing those memories have resulted in a large amount of photos to sift through and some choices need to be made how to preserve and share these memories.

Traditionally couples would frame one or two photo and the best of the rest would end up in an album, or alternatively the photographer would present the bride and groom with an album with the official photographs. These days, whilst couples still incorporate the framed photos and albums, many are also taking advantage of the digital platform and creating their own wedding slideshows easily from their own home.

Why Would I Convert my Wedding Photographs into a slideshow?
Anyone who has ever owned a digital camera will know how easy it is for pictures to accumulate. As well your official photographer’s wedding photos, you will have a legion of family and friends who will want to share photos with you from your wedding that they have taken themselves.

When these images are just kept on your hardrive or burned to a dvd as storage, it can be easy to be overwhelmed by them, which is why preserving them in a slideshow format can be a fun way organize and share your wedding memories.


What do I Need to create my own Wedding Slideshow at Home?
Step 1: Preparation: Your wedding photos in a digital format.
The first thing you will need to create your slideshow is your wedding photos in digital format. Most couples will already have access to this. If you only have hard copies of your images you will either need access to a scanner, or you will need to head to a print/photo processing store to convert them onto a dvd for you. You will also need any other media handy that you want to incorporate into your slideshow such as videos and music.

Step 2: Creation: Slideshow Software
The next step is to find software that caters to slideshow making. We like using PhotoStage Slideshow as although it has advanced capabilities and can incorporate videos, audio and images, the interface is easy to navigate and you can be up and running within minutes of installation.

Try to maintain some structure with your slideshow as this will help it to flow smoothly. Work out an introduction, middle and end. The introduction could be photographs of the bridal party arriving at the wedding followed by ceremony shots. This could lead into images of the wedding reception and end on photographs of the bride and groom leaving the venue.

Remember, when creating a slideshow, the background music is just as important as the images that you have chosen to include. Try to incorporate songs with meaning, such as the song played as you had your first wedding dance song, on your first date, or another song with sentimental meaning.

Step 3: Share:
Now that you have created your wedding slideshow you of course want to share it with family and friends. I like the idea of including a slideshow on a dvd along with your thank-you cards. You could also create several different variations of slideshows to send to different groups of people.

To thank your bridesmaids for their taking a special role in your wedding, you could create a ‘bridesmaid slideshow’ of images that highlight the important wedding ‘bridesmaid’ milestones that they shared with you leading up to the wedding, as well as images from the day itself.

Wedding slideshows are a fun way to preserve and share memories. The potential slideshow variations are endless limited just by your imagination!

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Find out more about PhotoStage Slideshow.

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Bring Touching Memories to a Wedding Reception

Wedding receptions are a great chance for the wedding guests to learn a little more about the bride and groom. One touching way to achieve this is to have a video or slides played to show the wedding couple as kids and highlighting important moments in their life, first birthdays, graduations, formals and photos of the couple early in the relationship to the current day.

Have the best man, parents or maid of honour narrate this and it is sure to bring a few tears to the crowd. The reception venue may be equipped with all equipment needed or you may need to hire it independently. Inquire with the venue first to see if they allow this.

Wedding Video Booth

Set up a wedding video booth so that your guests can come and leave messages. All you need is an area that is out the way of the general reception traffic. Designate a person to control the camera. You can have the MC announce when the wedding booth is open for messages.

If you have a large guest list, the MC can keep things running smoothly by announcing which table can go to the booth. You could also set this up in the limbo time that happens before the bride and groom arrives at the reception.

The Bridezilla Chant

Are you a Bridezilla? Come on, it’s okay to admit it here. Well if you are a Bridezilla, you may as well learnt the chant!

Do I Have to Feed The Band?

This is one of the questions that many couples planning a wedding are unsure about. Should you feed the band? Well firstly you must remember that a fed band is a happy band. Their energy levels will be up and you will basically get a better performance if they don’t have to deal with rumbling stomachs. You do not need to order the official wedding meal as if you have a band, photographer and videographer to feed that could end up costing hundreds of dollars just for their meals. However, you could ask the caterer if they could prepare some food for the vendors. Perhaps they could cater to the vendors after the guests have eaten, as there will likely be leftover food anyway that would just go to waste. This is especially true for buffet style catering as there is generally always more food ordered than will actually be consumed by guests.

Wedding Video Messages

It is the personal touches that make a wedding special. An emerging idea at some wedding is for a video message to be presented during the receptions. The video will be a compilation of messages from people who are important to the bridal couple. It may also include messages from family and friends who live overseas and
are unable to come to the wedding.

The responsibility of the video should fall on someone who is part of the bridal party of another close friend. Have a word with them months in advance asking them if they would be willing to help putting together such a video. They would need basic video editing skills and a camera.