Who prints photos anymore? Clearly very few people, judging from the meager selection of photo albums at stationary stores these days. I actually can't remember the last time I printed a photograph, but growing up, I loved putting together albums. Curating images was as satisfying as making a mix tape.

Now that I'm printing wedding photos for my mother and in-laws, I've been hard pressed to an album that fits the occasion. Here are a few contenders that I like for their use of texture and pattern:

Red Otter, from Etsy

Red Otter, from Etsy

Watermark Bindery, from Etsy

Rag and Bone Bindery

As I start to put together my own wedding album, I couldn't help but return to pictures of my parents' wedding day back in Guyana, South America. While I have hundreds of digital images to comb through, their day is captured in a handful of printed pictures, the colors faded, the quality perfectly imperfect. 

They've been divorced for over twenty years, which makes these images even more mysterious. What were they thinking? Who are these people gazing at each other, garlanded with marigolds? How did life draw them so far from this moment in time? I have some theories, but at the end of the day, it's not for me to know.

My mother and grandmother, who passed in 1984.

I am endeared to everything in this image - the sweetness of the spread of presents and the excitement in my mother's smile.