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Every once in a while I find myself at a party and someone whips out a scrapbook that they've spent hours and hours making, and I'm always taken aback by how awesome it looks… and how I really don't want to do that much work. It looks amazing and lovingly crafted, but you don't have to be a scrapbooking junkie to get a customized album for your wedding photos. (Oh, and find out how you can get 20% off!)
We teamed up with our partners at Mixbook to give some of our Real Offbeat Wedding couples (like Trisha and Matthew above!) the opportunity to take their photos and make a Mixbook online. We then collected the results for some interactive photo book porn. Aw yeah.
The software on the Mixbook website is easy to use and doesn't require a download of any kind, so anyone can go in and start playing around without any commitment. You can either choose one of Mixbook's pre-made templates or use your own designed layouts if you're fancy like that. The templates range from rustic garden to retro and glam. The customization tools allow you to resize, rotate, chop up, layer, and anything else you want to do to your photos in the layout. Then you can add in theme-specific borders, images, and text. Plus, the tools are really easy for a design newbie to handle. Check out this video demo to see what kinds of tools they have for lots of fiddling fun:
Once you complete your Mixbook online, you can order it up (prices start at just $6.99!) and the archival-quality book is sent in the mail! They ship internationally too.
Here is a sweet little ensemble of Trisha and Matthew's first look. They were able to add in the background, tweak the photo sizes, add drop shadows, and of course add in the copy.
Jessica and Jake also took advantage of the sweet deal and made a Mixbook based on their retro 1950s wedding. On this page they actually wrote out their vows next to the photos! GUH — love this. Adding in the text is great for other elements, too. You could list out your favorite parts of your program, best contributions to your guest book, or the mini-bios of your wedding party.
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Here is what Jessica had to say about her experience:
I just wanted to send over a quick thank you for the epic Mixbook! We just received it in the mail, and it is FABULOUS. The quality is excellent, and it's such a cool keepsake. We will definitely be ordering from them again. Thank you! – Jessica
Krista and Rob had a super colorful wedding that looks perfect against this sleek black theme. Their nighttime photos blend in seamlessly. Check it out:
Oh you want to see MOAR Mixbooks?! Here is Laura and Steve's classy and retro Mixbook:
Mary and Charles had a roller derby tiki wedding and their Mixbook ROCKS the the beach-y theme! The layout of their photo booth photos is especially awesome.
If this is getting your creative juices flowing, grab your file o' photos and head on over to Mixbook to try it out. There's no obligation to buy what you create, but based on what I'm seeing here, the results may be tempting. Click here to starting making your own Mixbook.
About the Author: Catherine Clark
Catherine Clark loiters at her local library, makes art, watches movies en masse, plays video and tabletop games, poorly cooks healthy things, cuddles with her feline fur babies, and blogs at BijouxandBits.com.
I just got my mixbook! It’s our guestbook and it turned out AWESOME! They have special templates for guestbooks. The printing was go great, the FH wants to order another one just to save a clean copy – it’s that good.
I’m so glad you made this comment! I have been batting around a bunch of guest book and guest book alternative ideas, then read this post, and your comment, and it was such an “aha” moment! I spent the weekend sort of mushing together most of my previous ideas into the making of a Mixbook Guest Book. I can’t wait for it to arrive!
I think I am going to use mixbook to design some budget friendly invitations!
We used Mixbook for our wedding albums for mother of the bride/mother of the groom. Hubs liked the result so much he said he wanted the same one instead of the special one was in the process of designing with Photoshop templates to be printed at WHCC. They’re always running specials so you can easily get 20-30% off.