I have the same problem and have "kind of" targeted this year to get them organized. I'm not ready to scan or digitalize, but am ready to prioritize and downsize. I agonized over the many photos I also inherited upon the death of my mother--SHE had boxes from her aunts and cousins who died before--I had gone through a few with her in the last years of her life and so was able to identify some of her friends and relatives, but there are still gobs of old-time photos of folks I don't know and there is now no one alive who knows or cares--my mother did not even know all of them. Still there is some kind of emotional pull that someone someday may want to see that photo taken in World War II or whatever. What's helping me is that I can't imagine my kids would experience it so differently, and I expect they too would just feel the burden passed on--that vague what do I do with these? thing that nags you because "photos" are special and harder to throw away. So far my plan is to save and label, and frame, our closest relatives, make 2 or 3 albums of "my" relatives, particularly with my brother and I as children with them--as these would be the ones that mean the most to me and might be amusing to my kids. That way, they would not inherit boxes! I still have years of our own nuclear family photos in boxes and again, I hope to mainly "albumize" just a few shots of each event and thin out the rest to keep some photo box storage; occasionally someone wants a photo for a project.

Take along several sets of freshly charged batteries. At least one or two weeks before the wedding, go out to a park with a flower garden and practice shooting. Take pics in as many different kinds of lighting situations as you can. Practive! Practice! Practice! After all, its a digtal camera. The only cost for experimentation is charging the batteries. It costs nothing to toss away the practive shots. Its an outdoor weeding - be prepared for a range of sky conditions from bright sun to dark clouds. Give some thought to the background before which you will pose the bride and groom (and others). Will the bride and groom be leaving in their own car, or be driven by someone else? Get into position just before the happy couple enters their carriage and record this moment - It happens only once and will not be posed. Take shots of the vehicle departing. These are good pics to end the photo album. After the ceremony, arrange to pose the wedding crew (clergyman, bridesmaids, and flower children) on the spot where the wedding took place. Do many pairs and group shots. The bad shots can be tosssed, but a missed shot can not be recovered after the event, so make many exposures. Must-have grab shots: o cutting the cake o Bride and groom feeding each other cake o Dance shots. o Bride and groom with friends at the reception. o The gift table o Sample shots of the couple opening gifts (if done). Some couples do not open the gifts anymore to avoid embarrasement, but do send thankyou acknowlegements to each giver. o parents of the bride and groom

Great idea. Especially since she won't have to deal with putting the pictures together. I am just finishing our wedding album and I couldn't decide upon how to arrange a page until I saw the pictures I had available. Now for your idea. You need picture taking advice from my friends to get some hilarious shots. Examples of pictures we have include extreme close-ups of faces, a fire hydrant, the bartender, the cake plate from after the cake feeding, the groom and his attendants with pantlegs pulled up to show some leg, pictures from inside the bathroom using the mirror for self portraits, and pictures of other people taking a picture.

You might find out what her interests are, hobbies, culture etc. Is she interested in nature, decorating, traveling? Start listing some of these and you will get more than enough ideas to fill a page. Also look at the Memory scrapbooking magazine. That one has a ton of good ideas.