Time capsules have become something of a trend lately. They’re a wonderful way to preserve memories of the ceremony and they also give you a great way to keep artifacts from your relationship before your marriage.
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This is a fun way to create a highly personalized memento from one of the most special days of your life. It’s a treasure that you and your spouse can revisit again and again throughout your lives together. It might even become a family heirloom.
Here are some of our suggestions for keepsakes to place in your wedding time capsule.
Items from Your Ceremony
People tend to put a lot of thought into their wedding ceremonies. They pick out special items with personal meaning. Here are some of the items from your wedding day you may want to preserve as a type of wedding memorial.
1. Wedding photos
Most people keep their wedding photos in dedicated albums. They may also frame portraits to hang up. But a wedding time capsule is also a great place to store photographs.
You may have behind-the-scenes photos of a bride getting married or informal snapshots from late in the reception. Some people give their guests disposable cameras to capture moments from the reception. These would be a great addition to a time capsule. You can also include photos from your honeymoon.
2. Wedding invitation and program
People put a lot of thought and effort into designing wedding invitations and programs. Preserving these will honor the time you invested in this process.
The program, in particular, will also remind you about the details of your ceremony.
3. Guest book
Wedding guest books are always fun to revisit after your ceremony. It’s lovely to see the well-wishes left for you by friends and family members. Over time, you might forget about this artifact.
Keeping it in your time capsule allows you to revisit it years in the future.
4. Wedding cake topper
Some people use wedding cake toppers passed down from their parents—it’s a family heirloom of sorts. Other couples may pick unique toppers that pay tribute to their relationship or a shared hobby. Either way, these are excellent additions to a wedding time capsule.
5. Wedding flowers
Many brides save flowers from their bouquets or centerpieces. You can dry them out or preserve them between the pages of a book for an old-fashioned memento of your wedding then add them to your time capsule.
A groom’s boutonniere can be similarly preserved for the future.
6. Engagement and wedding announcements
Many couples (or their parents) announce their engagement and wedding in the newspaper. They’re usually accompanied by photos of the couple and a brief background of their relationship.
These newspaper clippings are fun to revisit. They won’t just remind you of your relationship, but of your families as well.
7. A list of songs from your reception
Lots of couples request certain songs be played at their wedding reception. These may be songs that have personal significance to them, including a song to which they share their first dance. Make a list of notable songs so you can listen to them while going through your time capsule.
Items from Your Life Before Marriage
When people begin dating their eventual spouse, they often have an inkling that this will be a special relationship. As a result, they may begin collecting special items from their courtship. Here are some items you could keep in your wedding time capsule.
8. Ticket stubs
Many couples love to attend movies or concerts. If you kept ticket stubs from your dates, slip them in an envelope to be preserved in your time capsule.
9. Love notes
Very few couples send each other long love letters anymore. But they may scribble silly proclamations on post-it notes or grocery lists. Save some special ones in your time capsule.
10. Greeting cards
When couples do take the time to write words of love, it’s often on a card. Birthday cards, anniversary cards, and Valentine’s cards are all worth holding onto and rereading in the future.
11. Mix CD
Throughout your relationship, you’ve likely developed an affinity for certain songs. These may be songs that remind you of key moments in your relationship.
Make yourself a mix CD, or just make a list of these songs and jot down what they mean to you if you’re worried about technology becoming obsolete.
12. Restaurant menus and coasters
If you and your partner are foodies, save some menus or coasters from your favorite restaurants or special meals out. They’ll help you remember some warm, happy times in your relationship.
13. Pictures
Many people date for several years before tying the knot. If you and your partner have been together for some time, you likely have pictures from throughout your relationship. Print those out and keep them to look at later.
14. Items with personal significance
Most people have activities or locations individual to their relationship. Do you have a beach you love to go to? Get a vial of beach sand for your wedding time capsule. Did you meet at a book club? Include a copy of the book in the box. Think of things that carry a unique significance to you and your partner.
Wedding Time Capsule Questions to Ask
Before you seal up your time capsule, there’s a fun exercise you can do. You and your spouse can answer some questions about your wedding. You can also speculate on what your future together might hold. Here are some questions you and your partner can answer on your own. When you open up the time capsule in the future, you can see how your answers compare.
15. “Where will we be living ten years from now?”
If you and your partner have big dreams of leaving your current town and living somewhere exciting, you can speculate about possible future destinations.
16. “How will we celebrate our tenth anniversary?”
Many people choose to open their wedding time capsules on a particular anniversary in the future. Ten years is long enough that you will be pleasantly surprised to rediscover your answers in the time capsule.
17. “What will our future kids be like?”
Of course, not everyone who gets married chooses to have kids. But if you and your partner plan to procreate, you can imagine what your future child will be like.
Who will they look like? What features will they have? What will their personality traits be? What skills and talents will they possess? It will be fun to imagine this kind of thing now, and interesting to see how reality stacks up against imagination.
You may find that you laugh at yourself over just how different parenthood is from your expectations.
18. “What kind of vacations will we take?”
By the time you’re putting your wedding time capsule together, you likely will have already gone on your honeymoon.
This is a great time to start thinking about future adventures you might take together. It’s easy to plan on taking lots of trips but not follow through. Writing your hopes down may help subconsciously drive you to manifest them in the future.
19. “Where will we be in our careers?”
By the time you get married, you’re likely beginning to get established in your career. At the very least, you’re probably well underway in your education or job training. This is a good time to plan the future trajectory of your career.
When you revisit this question down the line, you can make sure you’re on track. You may also find that over the years, your ambitions or even your career choice has changed substantially!
20. “What are some of our favorite wedding memories?”
Weddings are intense. You spend months or even years planning for this special day, and then it’s over in a snap. It’s hard to remember details of the wedding a few weeks later, much less several years.
Write these memories down in detail while they’re fresh in your mind and include them in your wedding time capsule. You may completely rediscover forgotten moments when you open your capsule in the future.
21. “What relationship bucket list items will we have checked off?”
A lot of couples set a series of goals and tasks to achieve. They can be a blend of silly and serious. If you and your partner have discussed certain things you’d like to accomplish together, list the ones you think you can accomplish here.
In the future, you can reminisce about how you completed those items. Additionally, you may be reminded of the goals or dreams you had forgotten about.
Preserve Your Wedding and Relationship Mementos in a Time Capsule
Unlike the time capsules of your youth, a wedding time capsule isn’t something you bury in your backyard. You can tuck it away in your closet, or display it like a decorative memory jar.
It’s important not to lose track of where you put it because the real fun is opening it five or ten years in the future to revisit your wedding treasures.
Before you put your mementos in your box, make sure you have the a good container. Read our guide on how to make a time capsule container for step-by-step instructions.