The Onion Slideshow

Mrs. Penguin's recent post "The Penguin Slideshow," reminded me that I never posted about our slideshow.

I seem to have taken on the role of family historian since my 8th grade genealogy project. I carefully stored all my families historic photos, interviewed my fathers great aunts (who have all since passed away) and soaked up as much as I could. When Mr. Onion and I got engaged I started asking his mother questions about their family history and a few weeks before the wedding I asked her if I could go through her photo collection.



Naturally I wanted to share some of this history with our friends and family at the wedding where we would be starting our own chapter of our families history.

We started making the slideshow in Microsoft Photo Story, but with all the time it took to scan the photos, organize them, etc., we found ourselves at my parents house the weekend before the wedding and it still wasn't finished! My mother has an iMac at work, so we decide to use iPhoto to create the slideshow. The music is a Bill Evans piano version of the song my friend sang at the ceremony - "There is no greater love."

Nine months later I finally made the time to upload the video (it was 654MB and literally took me all day), so I hope you enjoy! It's about 12 minutes long, so I don't expect you to watch the entire thing (there is only so much Onion cuteness necessary), but if you're planning on making a slideshow of your own, I hope this is helpful. I, like Mrs. Penguin, gave up at the end, so forgive the abrupt ending.

The video is in chronological order and goes back and forth between my photos and his, ending with photos of us together. We began with my historic family photos, my parents wedding, then Mr. Onion's family photos and his parents wedding, then my childhood photos, and his childhood photos, then photos of us with our family and friends (we included a photo of everyone who attended the wedding -- not an easy task, but easier because there were only 43 guests), and ended with the obligatory couple photos of our courtship and finally finished with our engagement photos.

We played the slideshow on the TV above the bar at the restaurant as people enjoyed their cake. I decided to narrate a little so people would know who people in the photos were. In the end I'm really glad that we took the time to put this together and I think everyone really enjoyed it.






See? Smiles and enjoyment! It was a great way to wind down the reception.

Are you planning on presenting a photo slideshow for your guests? Any reviews of other programs that could be used for those who haven't started this project yet?

If you are married and have done this, did you learn anything about your family history or your fiance's in the process? Anyone as interested in family genealogy as I am?!

Family Connections...Part II

As I mentioned in a previous post, we shared a photo slide show with our guests at the reception and it was very well received. I think our families enjoyed seeing childhood photos of both of us as well as photos of themselves (we had a photo of almost every single guest). After the historic and childhood photos we moved on to photos of us with our friends and family during our courtship and finally some engagement photos. Enjoy!



Best friend, his wife and Mr. Onion



Mr. Onion, Mrs. Onion and dear friend on our first trip to Vermont in 2005



Momma and brother Onion



Mrs. Onion's Parents



Mr. & Mrs. Onion skiing



Mrs. Onion and bridemaid/best friend from college



Mr. Onion goof off at his college graduation with his brother



With the in-laws at Disney in Florida



With Momma Onion at my Litchfield Jazz Festival debut



Mr. & Mrs. Onion goofing off at Disney in Florida



BIL Onion and his girlfriend



Bridesmaid with Mr. Onion



With my bridesmaids at my bridal shower in August

I would highly recommend the photo slide show. It's very personal and a great break in the evening. We didn't have a "dancing hour" per se, so we showed the video while people were eating their cake toward the end of the evening. It was a great diversion. I narrated a bit as we went a long and it made people laugh. Deffinately on my list of "Things we did right!"

Family Connections

One of the best things that we did was put together a slide show of images to share with our guests at our reception. I wish I could share the video with you but we created it on my mother's MAC at her office because I thought that would be quick and easy. I began the project using a PC program called Photo Story on the recommendation of weddingbee readers. I think it was actually more flexible than iPhoto but I simply ran out of time and was home the weekend before the wedding and just HAD to get it done.

My brother and Mr. Onion were best childhood friends and boy scouts together -- this means Mr. Onion and I met when we were 5 and 6 years old! Here are the boys as kids (Mr. Onion on the left, my brother on the right):



We included historic photos from my family and Mr. Onion's family, photos of both of us as children growing up, photos of us with our family and friends during our courtship and finally our engagement photos. I set the slide show to a beautiful solo piano version of "There Is No Greater Love" (which a dear friend sang at our ceremony) performed by Bill Evan. It lasted about 10 minutes and everyone really enjoyed it.

In lew of the slide show itself, I thought I'd share some of the photos with you.

First, Childhood photos of Mrs. Onion:



My first birthday party with my mom



My first ride



When I learned to swim in St. Martin



A bit of mischief in San Fransisco



With my grandmother who I adored



With my mom at my grandmother's house



My favorite photographer of me and my father. This was on a trip to the south of France when I was nine

Next, Childhood photos of Mr. Onion:



Playing spaceship with his big brother



All dressed up for Easter



School Picture -- too cute



He didn't know it then, but he was getting ready for our honeymoon!

Up next -- the last part of the slide show: photos of us with our family and friends during our courtship and a few more engagement photos.

Historic Family Photos...

One of the projects I just decided to take on before the wedding is a slide show to be viewed at our reception. While at home a few weekends ago we took some time and went through old family photos. I had the fun project of scanning all the photos from my family and Mr. Onion's brother will be sending me a disc of scanned images from their family.

I wanted to share some of them with you because I'm so thrilled we have this history to share with our wedding guests, not to mention our children some day! Included in the images are wedding pictures from my parents and grandparents.

Miss Onion's Parents at their wedding:



Miss Onion's Parents cutting their cake:



From left to right: Miss Onion's Aunt, Great Grandpa Onion, Momma Onion, Grandma Onion



Miss Onion's maternal great-grandparents 50th Wedding Anniversary Party:



Miss Onion's paternal grandparents wedding portrait:



Miss Onion's maternal great grandmother and great-great grandfather (adoptive):



Miss Onion's paternal great grandmother:



When we found this picture everyone noticed a strong resemblance between me and my great grandmother. This is my father's father's mother.

And just ONE more because I love it SO much!

My mother and grandmother when my mother was young:



My mother's mother is the only grandparent I had the privilege to know in my lifetime. She was so very dear to me. She moved to our town when my mother had my brother who is two years old than I am, so I saw her everyday of my life -- she went on vacations with us and was just such a presence.

She passed away a week before I graduated from college, but as she was passing I received a very unexpected gift -- a song my grandfather had written for her when they were first married in the late 1930's called "Is It Love You're After?" That inspired me to record an entire record of love songs from the 30's and 40's that I released in August 2005. If you care to hear my grandpa's song or any others to inspire your first dance selections check it out HERE.

OK, back to the picture talk -- My brother offered to make the slide show for us in iMovie, but I'm not sure if we'll have time to get the disc to him. Any recommendations for free PC friendly slide show programs??

Next up -- Mr. Onion's family photos (when I get them back from Brother-in-law Onion.