Serendipity, although an underused part of our vocabulary, has been a big part of our life together, often leading to brilliant discoveries. Such is the case of our Anniversary Year Books.
It all started one dark and stormy night (trite yes, but also true), just a couple days before our 10th Anniversary. We had just finished our weekly grocery shopping, and the clerk handed us our receipt. In a syrupy, satisfied tone he noted, “we just started participating in an in-store coupon project—there’s a coupon on the back of your receipt.” James flipped our receipt over to reveal the “Fabulous Deal” that awaited us. Holy smokes! This was it. The big one … the coupon we’ve been waiting for all our life. Surely this was the law of attraction at its finest. It was … it was … a free 8×8 photo book from Shutterfly.com. We had been wanting to make one for several months, but just couldn’t bring ourselves to plunk down the $39.00.
We woke up the next morning eager to finalize our 10th Anniversary plans—a vintage clothes shopping spree in Downtown Sacramento and an evening with friends who shared our Anniversary date. We’d take lots of pictures, of course. Needless to say, our photo book frenzy quickly escalated to an Anniversary photo book frenzy—the creation of an album of our first ten years together. We titled it, “A Decade of Joy.” We spent every spare minute for the next several months compiling and designing it, one “chapter” for each year.
The day the bright orange Shutterfly.com box landed on our doorstep was the start of a magical tradition for us. Every year since, we have made another book, documenting our often serendipitous adventures throughout the year. Although it’s a challenge to fit an entire year’s memories into an 8×8 book, we enjoy the compact and uniform size. We hope one day to have a shelf filled with a set of identically sized Anniversary Year Books.
Epilogue: Each Anniversary morning, we make some tea, light our Anniversary Candle, and browse the pages of the book from the year before. Occasionally, we take a evening, and look through them one at a time. Today, we have a shelf full of such books, each a reminder of where we’ve come from—a chronicle of our growth and shared experiences over the years.
We hope that these books will one day become heirlooms for the next generation—our grandchildren, our grandchildren’s children, and so on down the line.
Caveat Emptor: We are not saying Shutterfly is the best – or the least expensive. As we’ve said, it came to us serendipitously. We’ve stayed with this company mainly because we want our Year Book set to look like a set – each having the same size and feel. What can we say? We have a passion for symmetry. In addition, because Shutterfly offers such a nice collection of embellishments, background and fonts, our photo books are absolutely beautiful.
That said, here’s our Shutterfly review pros and cons:
Pros (as of 2018):
* Professional quality imaging and printing
* High quality paper, softcover, and hardcover
* High quality dust jackets
* Loads of beautiful background “papers” and embellishments
* Allows dozens of images per book
* Shutterfly quickly replaces any defective or unsatisfactory orders
* Books can be reordered anytime
* Once you get the hang of the online program, it is easy to create lovely books
Cons (as of 2018):
* Some of the products were defective (on one set of 6 books the pages fell out)
* Quite pricey, but they have sales often
* It takes a lot of time to learn how to use their online program
* There is minimal technical help (only cumbersome message boards)
* It takes a lot of time and patience to make truly spectacular books
* They make a lot of unannounced changes to their products and our favorite features are often discontinued
Update 2025
Pros (as of 2025):
* Shutterfly has added many elegant options such as leather binding and gilt monograms and edging
* Many layout and design features have been added for more custom control
Cons (as of 2025):
* Shutterfly no longer offers dust jackets
* To receive the once stand paper quality and image printing, you must pay a premium
* The premium paper has an off odor that does not fade over time
* The design program has become cumbersome and frustrating
* When the received products are damaged, the customer is put through all kinds of processes until Shutterfly is finally convinced that it is a Shutterfly error before they will honor their guarantee
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