Vintage Wedding Photos

I would personally like to thank the blogosphere for not posting very much today, because it led to a productive day for me...

• lots of laundry done, folded and put away
• scrubbed down the walls, door & ceiling fan in the office
• cleaned the cobwebs lurking around the ceilings (festive in Halloween, not so much in January)
• scanned the old wedding photos for a forthcoming project
• hung my new cork board (blog post to come)
• hung the battery organizer
• hung the mop/broom organizer
• hung the charger/mount for the new Dust Buster
• hung the magnetic tool strip

Those last four items have been on my To Do list for quite a while now and it feels SO GOOD to get them done. I bought a set of key hooks tonight at Target (just like yours, Amy!) and that will be hung tomorrow. Phew!The old wedding photos are a project that I've had lurking around in my brain for a long time--you could say they're on my Home Decor To Do list and have been there for literally years. I'm hoping to capitalize on my post-Christmas burst of decorating/organizing energy to at least the get the project started!I have in my possession a collection of wedding photos that range from probably the 1920s to the 1950s. Here's the kicker--I don't know who 97% of the people in them are. They are most likely distantly related to me; the photos came from my grandfather and I believe they originally belonged to his mother, so they're relatives of my great-grandparents.
I used them as part of the table decorations at my wedding reception:

Photo copyright Rebecca Montague Photography

Each table had a neat metal tripod centerpiece with flowers and then one of the photos at the bottom, surrounded by votive candles and red rose petals. I loved the vintage touch they added!

These photos are so beautiful that it's a shame to keep them hidden away, but figuring out how to display them has been a challenge. The photos are all still in their original cardboard folders and are glued in tight so they can't be easily removed. Normally I'd use Un-Du to loosen up the old glue but as these are irreplaceable, I don't want to take any chances with the Un-Du leaving stains.
The other problem is that the sizes are strange--not the standard 5x7 or 8x10 that you find in modern photos, so that makes finding suitable frames an issue.
So here's my plan: I scanned all of the photos without removing them from their folders. I'm going to fiddle around with them in Photoshop Elements and see if I can adjust the contrast to best show the details, then adjust the sizes into 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10, then print them onto cardstock.
Once I have the photos all resized, I'll know how many of each size frame I'll need. I'll find the frames at the thrift store and spray paint them all black so they'll be uniform. I may or may not use white mats, it will depend on how inexpensively I can find them to purchase (I don't think I'm up to purchasing a mat cutter to do it myself). I think I'll also hang a black and white wedding photo of my own, but I have to choose one first. I already know where I want to hang them--I have the perfect big empty wall in my hallway upstairs. That means that only my family is going to get to see them regularly, so I have a feeling I may be dragging guests up there to show off my photo wall for a while. Local friends, if you come to my house, be a good sport come upstairs to see my photos, will you?

This project is still miles away from completion, but at least I've taken the first step to getting it off my To Do list and onto my wall! Hopefully I can update you with my progress.