9 Wedding Keepsake Ideas to Make the Day Unforgettable

More than likely, you’ll spend weeks, months, or even years planning your wedding day. After all that time leading up to the day, it’ll be gone in a mere 24 hours. 


With everything there is to do on your wedding day, from getting ready, to having your ceremony, to dancing the night away with your guests, you’ll find that those 24 hours are some of the quickest in your life. 


Yet, your wedding day is one of the most important days of your life. So we’ve come up with 9 wedding keepsake ideas to make sure you never forget it. 

What is a wedding keepsake?



Wedding keepsakes are a little bit different than the traditional gift exchange between a bride and groom. While we still love that part of a wedding day, the keepsakes are separate. 


It involves finding ways to preserve parts or elements of the day so you can keep them forever and reminisce about one of the most spectacular milestones in your life. 

Personalized wedding napkin linens, one of the best wedding keepsake ideas

There are many ways to create wedding keepsakes, too. You can create them after the wedding is over. Or you can find ways to incorporate them into your wedding decor. There’s no one right way to do it. Ultimately, you just want to have wedding mementos that you can cherish forever. 

What to do with your wedding keepsakes?

One of the biggest questions we get when it comes to choosing wedding keepsake ideas is what do you do with it after the day is over? 


After all, it’s not like you can just wear your bridal dress day after day afterward. (Well… you can - we won’t judge!)


Here are our favorite ways to use your wedding keepsakes: 

Put everything together in a wedding keepsake box

The best thing you can do with your mementos is to keep everything in a wedding keepsake box. It’ll keep each piece protected and preserved with time. Plus, it’s exciting to open up the memory box and reminisce over each item as you pull them out one by one. 


We suggest finding a personalized wedding keepsake box so you can add your names or initials and the date to it. That extra touch will add so much sentimental value to the entire box. 

Wedding keepsake boxes with locally-sourced ribbon from Lake Como

Save it for a rainy day

Once you’ve collected all of your memorabilia, then you can put your wedding keepsake box away for the time being. 


Then, you and your spouse can pull it out whenever you want or need to throughout your marriage. Because every marriage goes through its ups and downs, there may be times when reminiscing on your wedding day will be extra important. 


You can also pull it out for special anniversaries. Maybe it’s your first anniversary, or maybe you save it for your 10th anniversary. The choice is yours - but having these wedding keepsake ideas will surely bring all the memories back of such a magnificent day! 

9 Wedding Keepsake Ideas for the Bride and Groom

Without further ado, let’s get to our top 9 wedding keepsake ideas for the bride and groom! 

1. Memorialize your vows

Not only are your vows the centerpiece of your wedding day, but these heartfelt words are also the foundation of your entire marriage. You’ll reflect on them as the years go by. But, as it often happens, you tend to forget exactly what you said to one another the further removed from the wedding you are. 


That’s why one of our absolute favorite wedding keepsake ideas for the bride and groom is to memorialize your vows. There are a few ways to do that, but ultimately, the key is to have the ability to go back to remind yourselves what you promised to one another. 

Use personalized vow booklets

You may spend days or even weeks crafting the perfect words for one another before the wedding day. But once you have those words, you can use personalized vow booklets to preserve them. 


Carefully write your vow in a handbound booklet. Then, bind the booklet together with silk ribbon in one of the main colors of your wedding color palette. Add an extra touch by having them calligraphed with your names or initials and the date of the wedding. 

Beautiful personalized vow booklet, one of the best wedding keepsake ideas, hand tied with locally-sourced ribbon from Lake Como

Turn your vows into artwork

If you’d rather display your vows so you can see them every day instead of only when you pull out your wedding keepsake box, then consider turning your vows into artwork. 


For extra sentimental value, handwrite your wedding vows to one another on separate pieces of paper. Then, have those framed so you can display them wherever you can see them regularly. 

2. Preserve your bouquet

Including flowers is one of the best ways to bring a wedding to life. It adds a gentle energy that’s unmatched by any sort of faux alternative. 


But too often, we see couples just tossing out their flowers once the day is over. Rather than doing that, we suggest preserving your bouquet. Your bouquet can be professionally preserved and then transformed into a stunning display either in a shadow box or even a glass dome. Either one of those can be displayed as a gorgeous table piece. 

A preserved bouquet with a calligraphed ribbon, one of the best wedding keepsake ideas

Add a calligraphed ribbon

As an extra touch, add a calligraphed silk ribbon to your bouquet. Choose a ribbon in one of the colors of your wedding color palette. Then, personalize it with either part of your vows, a special quote, the wedding date, or your names or initials. 

3. Preserve a piece of your wedding dress or accessories

As we said before, the likelihood of you wearing your wedding dress day after day once the wedding is over is slim. And in the past, many people loved preserving their whole dress with the hopes their future children would want to wear it. 


In recent years, many have moved away from doing that because they know styles will change and they don’t want to put that expectation on their future children. 


But that doesn’t mean you can’t still save a piece of it as a wedding keepsake. Someone who is a professional at preserving wedding dresses may be able to help you delicately cut a piece of it so you can save it in your wedding keepsake box. For an added touch, consider having it personalized with your embroidered monogram and date. 


Your dress isn’t the only part of your attire that you can save, either. You can tuck your veil or even your shoes into a wedding keepsake box. You may want to add special jewelry, hair pieces, or tiaras, too. 


For grooms, consider preserving your bowtie or pocket square. 


No matter what you decide to preserve of your wedding outfits, be sure to place everything in an acid-free container. You may also want to add silica desiccant packets to the box to keep the humidity under control. 

4. Keep your wedding invitation

Your wedding invitations are the first piece of the entire day your guests will see. They set the tone for the remainder of the event. 


So why not use our guide on how to make amazing wedding invitations, and then save one suite to cherish forever? 


Frame your wedding invitation and use it as artwork in your home or add it to the wedding keepsake box. Or you can create a custom-designed shadow box to display the entire invitation suite, including any additional details like silk ribbons to enclose the full suite. This gives you the full effect of the entire invitation! 

Wedding invitation suite, one of the best wedding keepsake ideas

5. Exchange sentimental love letters

Yes, your vows are important. But they are typically recited in front of all of your guests. You may have specific words that are more private and intimate for your spouse. 


If that’s the case, consider writing them down in love letters and exchanging them on the wedding day. Then, you can add them to your wedding keepsake box to revisit at a later time. 


In your letters, you can write about your excitement for the day and for the remainder of your marriage. You can write about the hopes, dreams, and goals you have for your marriage. No matter what you decide to say, choosing to cherish those letters will surely bring you and your spouse so much joy long after the wedding day is over. 

6. Commission a wedding venue blueprint or illustration

Your wedding venue is the backdrop of the entire event. And as we know, time has a funny way of changing things - even when we never expected it. For example, 10 years after your wedding, your wedding venue may look different than it did the day you got married. 


You can immortalize your venue by commissioning a blueprint of it or a beautifully drawn illustration. Then, you can either delicately roll it up and keep it in your wedding memory box. Or you can have it framed and use it as artwork in your home. 

7. Create a customized map of your wedding destination

Next on our list of wedding keepsake ideas, this one is especially great if you’re planning a destination wedding. 


Since the destination will be the special backdrop to your wedding day, having it turned into a wedding keepsake will be even more sentimental. 


Commission an artist to create a customized map of the city in which you’re getting married. Then you can frame it and use it as artwork in your home.

8. Cherish a special bottle of wine or a local favor

If you and your spouse are serving wine at your wedding reception, then you may want to keep a special bottle as a keepsake. You can bring it out to enjoy on your first anniversary when you indulge in another slice of your wedding cake. Or you can preserve it forever as a special memento for the day. 


Depending on where you get married, the location of your wedding may have another unique favor that you can include as a wedding keepsake. For example, Rivo Gin is wildly popular in Lake Como where it’s distilled. The Amalfi Coast is known for its limoncello liqueur. And of course, destinations like Mexico are famous for tequila. 


Find something special to your destination. Then save it as another wedding keepsake!

Local gin from Lake Como as a wedding keepsake idea

9. Personalize your linens

And last (but certainly not least) on our list of wedding keepsake ideas is personalized linens. Having that extra touch such as embroidered linen napkins for your wedding reception, and then saving them in your memento box, is a unique, sentimental element of your day.


Knowing that the linen napkin, once elegantly folded as a part of your reception design, sat on your lap, while you sat next to your new spouse and enjoyed the company of your closest friends and family will make it all the more special. 

Personalized wedding linens, used as the perfect wedding keepsake idea

Of course, we can help you with the personalization of your table linens so you can preserve and cherish them long after the prosecco bubbles of your wedding day are gone. 

Leave a comment

All comments are moderated before being published