Wedding Shrine?
July 23, 2009 · Posted in around the house, decor, home tour, mojito maven, newlywed life by mojito maven
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Over the past year I have purchased frames of varying sizes and shapes. Originally I planned on using these frames to make a photo collage of our wedding photos. However, after I mentioned this idea to some of my friends and co-workers most said that it was tacky and showed a lack of personal humility. Most suggested buying one photo from our big day instead. We were torn. We still wanted to display our beautiful wedding photos, but we also did not want it to seem like a shrine to Mr. and Mrs. Mojito.
So, fellow bloggers, what do you think? Is it tacky to have a large display of wedding photos? If you were to walk into someone’s home that has a wall filled with memories from their special day would you think it was overkill?
I’d love to know what you think.
Here was our solution to this conundrum:
We mixed some of our wedding photos with our family’s wedding photos. The remaining empty frames will eventually be filled with photos from our day-to-day life.
We have a wall gallery about that size and probably 25% of the shots are from our wedding, but the others are from vacations, everyday life, and our dog. There was a time the wedding was about 50% of those shots but we’ve weaned them down over time. I do not think it’s tacky or ‘lacking humility’ at all to display gorge pro pics of your wedding day. It’s your wall, decorate how you want!
In my opinion, if they find it tacky, then thats their problem and they don’t need to come over my house. I don’t decorate my house for other people, I decorate it for those who live in it. Given that my husband and I are the only ones that live in it right now, the majority of the photos are going to be of us. We paid big bucks for our wedding photograher and got some FANTASTIC photos. It makes us happy looking at them so I’m going to hang them up, as many as I want.
It blows my mind that people find it tacky that people to display photos of themselves, in their own home. Would it be better that I hang photos of my friends that would find it tacky if I hung photos of myself? What is the world coming to that we would base decisions on how to decorate our house off of what they think?
Sorry, this rant is certainly not targeted at you, I’ve just heard of this concept before and it catches me off guard and astounds me every time.
Do 50% wedding if you want. Eventually it will be 100% kids! :)
I think it looks great. If I were visiting, I would be totally interested in those pictures! I think I agree with the other Julia (hi!) and Tina - over time you’ll probably replace some with new pictures, but not because your wedding pictures are tacky!
You will need to save some space for pictures of Oliver, your future dog son. PS–I wanted to name our dog Pancake, and my then-boyfriend-now-husband vetoed it and mocks me about it to this day. I’m so happy someone is using the awesome name!
We just finally hung up pictures in our hallway and they are all wedding pics. We hung up one big picture of the two of us, and the rest is of us and our bridal party and families. We hired a great photographer and we love our wedding photos, I say hang up what you like. If you ever get sick of them you can always change the pics later.
I have a wedding “shrine” in my hallway and love it. :) We love those photos and couldn’t decide on just one so we got as many as we wanted and hung them all on the wall. Now that we’ve had baby photos taken and more family photos are coming in October, we’ll add those, too. I love that our wedding photos are also of our parents and our best friends. The most important people– and canines– in our lives are on that wall.
I think that if you and your husband want a wedding shrine, then you should have one. I wouldn’t worry about what your friends think because this is ‘your’ style and not theirs. I have a few friends who have several photos from their wedding up around the house and I still enjoy stopping by and looking at all of them. This is your new family and you want to show them off. I am sure over time you will work in kids, parents, friends and other important things to you. I would just go with your gut.
Eh, my husband and I have a few photos of ourselves/our wedding day up but mostly we want to be surrounded by photos of people we don’t see every day– our siblings, our parents, our grandparents, cousins, etc. I think it’s much more interesting when a home is filled with photos of loved ones and not just photos of the home’s inhabitants. I think we all come out of wedding planning a bit obsessed with our wedding, but there’s so much more to capture on film (or er, on a memory card)…
I think its totally fine if you are a newlywed to have a wall like this with mostly wedding photos. Once you have more time together, you can always swap some of the photos out for more recent snaps. And with the gallery already set up - it makes it a lot easier to do that without making it a major project. (Thus, I have zero photos of our life on my walls b/c I can’t figure out how to display them).
On the other hand, if a couple is married 10 + years and the only photos they have up in their house of themselves is a wall of wedding, I’d find that to be a little much. Its natural to have more of those photos since you had a pro photographer capturing it but it shouldn’t be a shrine to the wedding forever.
At least thats my take on it. Pls note I’m also against the giant wedding photo over the bed/couch. haha
I think that having an overabundance of wedding photos in anyone’s home is a little tacky, but that’s just me. I agree with Mrslimestone — I think you can get away with it as a newlywed, but after that… I love your solution, though. It lets you show off your photos while sharing the “limelight” a little.
I have been wondering the same thing myself. We’ve been married a month now and based on the photos our photographer blogged we could very easily have a wedding shrine. And like a prior commenter said, we paid big bucks for these pictures, are we just going to hide them away somewhere?
Based on the size of the space, I think we’ll have something like what you have and for now, start with approximately, 50% wedding pics, mixed in with family, friends and dogs.
It will continue to evolve over time, but right now, the wedding is and was a huge part of our life together!
What about picking wedding pictures that don’t just focus on you two? Maybe a shot of just your maid of honor? Or your parents? I’m sure you had people you love, and would want on the wall. Also, our photographer had some great shots of the surrounding gardens.
I think your wall looks beautiful! We just moved and have been planning to do the same in our house. I don’t think it’s tacky at all - I mean, how much of your time and money did you spend making the *perfect* wedding day for yourself? I think it’s great to be reminded of the day, and of the love that you have for your husband and family.
Plus, I love going over to other people’s houses and looking at their wedding/family photos - I never think they’re tacky.
I think a mixture of wedding pics and other is good. I also like the idea of having the group of wedding photos in a more private space, such in a master bedroom. To me, the wedding is such a special time between the two of you that I like the idea of having the largest grouping of photos for you to share on a daily basis.
it’s YOUR house, so you should have what YOU like to look at on your walls. anyone who tells you otherwise (unless, of course, you specifically asked) should be presented with an etiquette book for the next gift giving occasion. that said, there’s a time to have a bunch of wedding pics displayed, and a time to put them away. i had 3 framed pics from the wedding on display (2 hung, 1 sitting out) for the first 3-4 years. now i just have 1 out (hung). first of all, we’ve just done SO MUCH in the last 6 years that it seems crazy to focus on old pics. second, i’m not a huge fan of photos of people on walls; i prefer art on the walls and people photos tucked around and in scrapbooks. that, of course, is a personal preference.
I have a niche on my stair landing that I call my wedding shrine — it has pictures of my wedding, my family weddings, my friends wedding, my IL’s wedding, my parents, etc. It’s a shelf, so I also have the invitations, placecards, dried bouquets. Emily Post says that personal pix should be kept out of public areas — so as long as I keep people off the stairs, no problem.
I don’t think its tacky at all! I say that you invested a lot in those pictures of your wedding day, so why not display as many as you want? Its your house…I do like the idea of mixing in other pictures from other big events in your life. I LOVE the look of a gallery wall and it looks like yours is off to a good start! I don’t know WHY I haven’t been keeping up with what you guys write on EAD living!
Lyndsey’s most recent blog post: Missing the boat…
