Wedding Greeting Card Mat

Several years ago, I ran across a box that contained many of the cards that were sent or given to my parents when they were married in 1941. As you can imagine, they are charming reminders of a by-gone era, and I hated to throw them away. So with my mother's permission, I absconded with the box and decided to use the cards to create a customized mat to frame one of my favorite pictures from their wedding.

There were too many cards to use all of them, so I tried to choose ones that were unique, unusually charming, or that had been given by special family members or friends. For example, one of my father's neighbors was President Heber J. Grant, prophet and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the time. He sealed my parents for time and eternity in the Salt Lake City Temple, so his card is a lovely treasure.

Using a plain white mat as a template, I put the cards together like a chaotic puzzle, making straight lines along the inner and outer edges but overlapping the cards inside the mat so that there were no gaps and the most interesting greetings, signatures, and illustrations were visible. (I apologize for the poor quality of these pictures. This hangs in our family cabin, and the only camera I had available was the one on my ancient flip phone. I hope what you see at least conveys the essence of the idea.)

After I had the cards arranged, I carefully stuck them in place using acid free mounting squares.

All of my parents' wedding pictures were in black and white, but I think I would have opted to go black and white anyway because I liked the way it looked with the faded/muted feel of the vintage cards:

 I chose a simple black frame and put it all together:

Think how well this idea could adapt for other special photographs. You could frame birthday pictures with birthday cards, baby pictures with cards that came with shower gifts, or school pictures with a collage of  spelling tests, math assignments, and art projects. My mother had exquisite handwriting, and I was thinking how fun it would be to frame a picture of her using excerpts from copies of letters she wrote to my father while he was serving as a missionary. Use your imagination and then share what you create!