Iโ€™m Stephanie, a wedding + lifestyle photographer based in Colorado Springs, Colorado and Warrenton, Virginia. Whether Iโ€™m by the mountains of Colorado or Virginia, my soul feels at home, surrounded by rural living and the raw beauty of nature. I genuinely love what I do, and feel so passionate to share the enthusiasm and joy of these celebrations with you!

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April 29, 2020

The Adventure Memory Box Tradition

The Adventure Box Tradition

I’m excited to share one of my FAVORITE traditions Alex and I started on our first dating anniversary. I hope this inspires YOU to carry on this meaningful tradition too. As you must guess, photography plays a huge part in my life! But I think this idea can be special to anyone who appreciates a special documented memory. ๐Ÿ™‚ Just in the first year of our relationship, we had experienced so many fun documented adventures together. So I came up with the idea of the adventure memory box tradition!

What is an Adventure Memory Box?

I bought a wooden storage box, the size of a shoebox, from a craft store. Because I had wood-burning tools, I decided to get a little creative with the outside of the box. But you can paint yours to make it special if you desire to personalize it … Rather than trying to figure out how to use a wood-burning tool. Haha! You can paint your names, a special quote, or even just labeling it as the “Adventure Memory Box!”

As for the inside of the box, I would advise not to cram it with knick-knack momentos. Keep it simple and fill it with photographs, so there’s plenty of room to contribute over the years. ๐Ÿ™‚ When I first gifted the box to Alex, I stuffed it with cookies. But I can say without a doubt that those cookies didn’t stay there for very long! HA!

What is the Tradition?

Every Christmas, I print out our FAVORITE memories from the year. I would advise being very selective with these printed memories. Like, don’t include ten photographs from one trip. You can always include some favorite highlighted memories written on the back of one photograph. ๐Ÿ™‚ 

On a 2×3 sticky label, I include the date and a sentence about the photo/memory, and stick on the back of the picture. The photographs are then stuffed inside an envelope with a ribbon around it and placed in Alexโ€™s Christmas stocking. And on Christmas Day, we spend some time going through the photos and contribute them to our โ€œAdventure Box.โ€ 

This tradition has been a beautiful gift that we look forward to contributing once a year. When we pull out our box, we also take the time to look back through the previous years. This is a fun tradition because we have photos going back to our first date!!! Those gitty butterflies instantly come back seeing memories like that!!! ๐Ÿ™‚ Check out our Adventure Memory Box tradition below!!!

The Adventure Box Tradition
The Adventure Box Tradition
The Adventure Box Tradition

For anyone who didn’t know, we also included our special Adventure Box in our wedding to collect cards! ๐Ÿ™‚

The Adventure Box Tradition
Photo Credit: Annamarie Akins

I hope this inspires you to start your very own Adventure Memory Box tradition as well!!! ๐Ÿ™‚

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