I heard about the coolest thing today. It’s called a wedding time capsule. I knew about the tradition of saving a piece of the wedding cake to eat on your 1 year anniversary, but this is something that really caught my attention.
Wedding time capsules are one of the wedding trends that’s really revving up brides today is the addition of a time capsule to the wedding prep proceedings. Yes, the wedding time capsule is a growing trend — to the point where you can buy a pre-made kit from many web sites. But you don’t need to do that. It’s always better to make your own. They are far more special that way.
In kit form, your wedding time capsule takes the form of an attractive tin, in which you place various mementos such as photos and videos as well as predictions for the future; then, you seal it all up with some festive stickers, to help discourage premature peeking. You decide ahead of time how long you’ll wait until you open it again, like on your 10th anniversary? 25th anniversary? And then you write a stern directive to yourself on the tin to help you keep to the agreement.
Although most people equate a “time capsule” with something you bury in the ground, burying your wedding time capsule isn’t a great idea. Not only does that subject the contents to extreme temperature variations, but with the US Census recently reporting that the average American moves every five years, chances of you leaving behind a buried capsule before the hoped-for anniversary rolls around are high indeed. Instead, keep yours out of the elements and somewhere relatively kind — avoid damp attics, but a climate-controlled closet would be just perfect.
For those of you who like to make your own, like me, mostly because some of us just like to do things our own way, and a wedding time capsule is no exception.
A great way to do that is to get close friends and family members in on the fun. Have them scribble up some predictions for your marriage and life or perhaps marital advice. Take advantage of a pre-wedding party to snap photos of your intimates, and tuck the photos into the capsule. If you really want to motivate people to get involved, hold some kind of drawing for participants, such as a wedding raffle and give away a box of fine cigars, a bottle of bubbly or even an afternoon at a spa or a nice bottle of perfume.
Besides pictures and videos, here are some other things you will want to include in your wedding time capsule ….
- A newspaper from the day of your wedding
- A fashion magazine. Always fun to look back at those
- A copy of your wedding guest registry
- A nicely printed copy of your wedding vows
- A sealed love letter from you to your spouse and from your spouse to you.
- A list of things you want to have done in the time between now and the time you open the time capsule.
And don’t forget when you are adding in photos also include them of your friends and family, especially your parents. They won’t be around forever and having those memories to look back on one day will be a great thing to have.
While you’re at … why not let others in on the action? There are number of ways to go about it. One is to compose a list of predictions for everyone to guess at — the whole experience is similar to filling out a junior high slam book, and just as fun. For example, ask participants to predict:
- How many children you’ll have,
- what kind of household robots you’ll have,
- how many career changes you’ve gone through,
- what major nation we’re closest to, and which one we’re mad at,
- what animal is the trendiest pet,
… and so on.
Another is to ask your wedding party and close friends to compose short letters to you. Give them each envelopes, and instruct them to tell you on the outside when it’s time to open the envelope. Some will simply say “fifth anniversary,” “10th anniversary,” or “when your first child is born.” Others will get more creative — and you’ll probably find it’s terrific fun to stretch out the time capsule concept in this inventive, unpredictable way.