An engagement lasts a year and produces almost nothing to keep. Collect a page from everyone who is glad about it — how they found out, what they love about the two of them, what they know about being married.
Start an engagement book See how it worksThe proposal is photographed to death and then the whole year goes into logistics. By the time anything is made, it is a wedding album — and the wedding album is about one day, not about the year two families spent getting used to each other.
An engagement book catches that year while it is happening. Each person writes a page: how they heard, what they thought, the story about one of them from long before the other existed. Both sets of friends contribute to the same book, which is often the first thing the two circles do together.
It also takes pressure off the wedding itself. The people who will not make the guest list — the coworker, the college roommate three states away, the great-aunt who cannot travel — all get to say something, and nobody has to be seated.
Unlike most occasions, there is no fixed date forcing this — pick one anyway.
Both their names, a photo, the engagement date, and a deadline — the engagement party or the shower are natural ones.
Two friend groups and two families, one link. Contributors open it and go, with no coordination between the circles.
Stories, photos and advice arrive and are arranged into finished pages. You review each before it is included.
Order the hardcover for the party, or hold the project open through the engagement and print closer to the wedding.
It is the one moment when two separate histories are about to become one, and nobody usually writes any of it down.
Two friend groups who barely know each other contribute to the same place, without anyone having to introduce them.
Married friends and relatives, asked directly and privately, give better advice than anyone gives in a toast.
Anyone with the link can contribute, so people who will not be at the wedding still get to say something.
Scans and phone pictures of prints are corrected on upload, so childhood and university photos of both of them sit well together.
The layout engine builds each page, so planning a wedding does not also mean making a scrapbook.
A 10-inch square matte hardcover about the engagement itself, which the wedding album will never cover.
Ask for the specific thing. “Congratulations” fills a page with nothing.
Nothing is owed until you order a book, and gifts from contributors apply straight to the print cost.
Create the project, invite everyone, and gather photos and stories for free. You only pay if you print.
A 10-inch square matte hardcover with matte interior pages, plus shipping. Extra pages are $1.25 each.
Friends and family can chip in toward printing — each $1.25 covers one page of the finished book.
It covers different ground. A wedding guest book is signed on the day by the people in the room. This collects the engagement — how people found out, what they think of the two of them together, advice about marriage — from anyone, months in advance.
Either at the engagement party, or closer to the wedding with the whole engagement collected. The project stays open until you close it, so you can also print a PDF for the party and a hardcover later.
Most often a maid of honor, a best man, a sibling or a parent, as a gift to the couple. It also works as something the couple makes themselves and shares as the engagement goes on.
Yes, and that is one of the better reasons to do it. Anyone with the link can add a page whether or not they are on the guest list.
A hardcover is $34.95 for the first 20 pages, then $1.25 for each page after that, plus shipping. Thirty contributors comes to about $47.45. The PDF is free.
Yes — additional copies of the same book can be ordered, which is usual when both sides want one.
Other occasions people build books for.
Start the project, send the link to both sides, and give them something the wedding album will never cover.
Start an engagement book