A Mayfly sound journal can be a great gift for a Bride and Groom if you want to give a personalized wedding gift full of messages and memories of their special day.

In the weeks leading up to my sister and her fiancé’s wedding, I was very unsure about what gift to get them. The traditional presents were flying around my mind; bed linen? Towels? Cutlery? A clock? …A cheeseboard?

All of these seemed so distant; gifts far too mature for me and not something that has my personal stamp. I’ve always made creative and homemade presents so the idea of making a Mayfly for them was perfect. I thought as an extra surprise too, I wouldn’t tell them I was doing it!

It was an incredibly fun day (of course!) and I used the Mayfly app to record messages from all their friends and family. Between meals at the wedding breakfast, I went round the tables and had guests pass my phone around saying their congratulations and well wishes.

I attached each table’s recordings to an illustration within the journal and people also signed the pages, so the Mayfly became a guest book packed with written messages too. This was great for people who were shy to speak; they could sign, jot or draw something, or add anything that they missed out in their audio message.

The app allows you to attach a photo to each recording, which meant that I could take a picture of their friends and family to the sound that had been recorded.

I captured lots of moments throughout the afternoon and evening, including the cutting of the cake, the throwing of the bouquet and the first dance. The time for the speeches arrived and I captured them all, the jokes, the laughter from the guests and the chinking of the glasses in the toasts: the atmosphere getting soaked up and stored in their journal.

The next day before giving them the gift I decorated the pages, painting them with watercolours to add a more personal touch to the journal. I added a title to each page with the Mayfly figure on; so they could easily flick through the book and know which recording was where.

I left some pages empty for them to add their own photos to it and also left some Mayfly illustrations empty of recordings for them to use and play with, on their honeymoon or whatever stage of their new married life they want to mayfly!

It was so simple on the day to collect recordings and sounds and it made for an incredibly personal gift for them. When I gave it to them they loved listening back to the day which must have passed in a blur, seeing the pictures on their phone in the app and turning the pages of the message filled Mayfly, full of well wishes from all their family and friends. They will always have the special memories and voices of their guests, kept within the Mayfly, for them to listen back to, whenever they want.

-Alison Cowling

Making a Mayfly for my Sisters Wedding Gift