Wedding Keepsakes

Last weekend when I was just starting to think about working on our basement, I found myself in a state of overwhelm. I didn't know where to start! Yep, it even happens to organized people. I grabbed one shoe box sized plastic bin containing the cards given to us for our wedding...almost 19 years ago. I figured it was clearly time to look at them again. 

The bin above wasn't packed full. Although the cards did take up a majority of the space! In addition to cards I found some fake and dried flowers. I believe the flower below was my husband's boutonniere!  

Unfortunately, the flower was so dried out it was leaving remnants all over the box! I decided to toss both sets of flowers. I now have a picture of the dried boutonniere which I think is better. :)

I suppose you are wondering what I decided to keep. I primarily kept cards that were from very close relatives, our parents, siblings and close friends. There were also some really nice cards written with us in mind. One was even from a coworker of ours that was so sweet and insightful from a man that was younger than us. We haven't been in contact with him for years, but I had to keep the card! I did let go of cards from people we are no longer in contact with, those that were from friends of our parents and those that were simply signed with a name. If we are going to keep any we want to keep those that have those most meaning when we look at them again. 

I know have just about a two inch stack of cards. For now I have them in the same plastic container, which is more space then necessary. I'm pondering other options and open to ideas!

As far as other wedding keepsakes, we have our wedding album of pictures. Everything else is long gone. Years ago, I let go of napkins with our names printed on them, the extra invitations and programs and other paraphernalia from the day. Just last year, I let go of my wedding dress. I gave it away to the Angel Gown Program. I have absolutely no regrets. I guess I did keep a few buttons, a piece of lace and silk fabric from the gown, which is just as good for me since I have the picture of me wearing the gown in our album.  I should probably make a point of putting those in our wedding album so everything is in one place. I guess those cards may fit in there, too!

There are cards already IN the album. I will need to explore those later!

What wedding keepsakes do you have? Do you have any you feel you should let go of? Do you still have a lot of keepsakes? If so, how do you store them and make them meaningful at the same time?