For celebrations honoring volunteers or donors, this is one keepsake that has a shelf life long past dessert.  A Tribute Book is a way to honor individuals who have made major contributions to your organization in a warm, journalistic presentation that is both personable,  and educational. We have cover designs that will suit any occasion and purpose for honoring the individual. We tell their story with an emphasis on their community service and their values and philosophies. Our story and custom design will reflect your organization's mission and give ample credit to the sponsor of the keepsake through a gift acknowledgment or ad in the book. Each guest receives a lasting keepsake that will connect deeply with family members, friends and associates. Even guests unfamiliar with your honoree will be absorbed by our 16- to 20-page booklets. Ask us for an estimate for interviews, writing, custom design and printing. Write Ellen at ellen@tribute-stories.com

Flora's 100th birthday book, page 2-3

With all the software tools available now, people are making beautiful family scrapbooks. It's so rewarding to make your own  memory book. Do you ever wish you could make enough for a large family and wide circle of friends? Imagine printing 50, 100 or 200 story booklets, however many you want, as the keepsake at celebrations honoring your loved one.

Now you can print in quantity and at the highest quality with beautiful design and photographs. Plus a professionally written story that will delight everyone, even those that don't know the individual.  Our 16-page  6 inch by 6 inch card-stock booklets or 12-page 8 1/2 inches by 5 1/2 tell the stories of individuals who are celebrating birthdays, a retirement or other milestones in their lives. Like Courtship Stories Wedding Booklets, the Tribute Stories are a personable, meaningful gift for guests at celebrations. Guests have known the individual for years and are hungry for the history, story and photos inside. Click to see Bernice's 70th birthday book, Howard's 75th birthday or Flora's 100th birthday book. Ask us about honoring someone special in your life.  Write ellenATcourtship-stories.com

READ MORE ABOUT TRIBUTE STORIES BOOKS AS FUNDRAISERS FOR ORGANIZATIONS

My dad, who recently passed away, is on the back of this booklet. Guess which one is me?                             

Enclosure

Dear Ellen,

Click to read their story

. . .I told very few people we were doing this because I wanted it to be a total surprise and it was.  Everyone loved them, even Brent's guy friends thought they were awesome, which is saying a lot.  They said "Brent never tells us anything, so now we know the whole story."  I thought letting everyone in on the special story between us was something near and dear to me, and wanted to make sure the most important people in our lives are the ones we shared it with.  Thank you again for your hard work, we appreciated it very much.  

Heather Dawn Warren, Pensacola, Florida

Dear Ellen,

Your interviewing talent made the process very calm and effortless. You knew just how to take us down memory lane to recapture the feelings and emotions we felt as we started our relationship as a couple through falling in love and getting engaged.  Francois and I both had a lot of fun watching        our courtship story come to life, first with the story then with the pictures added in. I don’t think either of is will ever forget how exciting it was the first time we read each other’s comments about the other in the courtship story. Francois and I aren’t really very good about communicating emotional feelings to each other verbally.This story was good for us because it allowed us both to hear things from the other what we’d never heard before. Not only did you do a wonderful job with the story, Vanessa did a great job at touching up photos, making sure that our most favorite photos were edited appropriately to fit the booklet.

We had the courtship stories placed at each table during our reception so our guests could get a chance to see who we are as a couple while they waited for dinner to be served. It was very nice to look out at our  guests and see the expressions on their faces as they read our story. We made rounds to each table after dinner and  received so many compliments on the books. Everyone was so impressed by the idea and wanted to know how we had it done. The people I work with liked it so much that they brought it to work to show off. When I returned to work after our honeymoon I was approached by several people, many of whom I don’t even know, telling me what a wonderful idea the courtship story was and how beautifully written and organized it was. I also had some friends tell me that they cried when they read the story, took it home, showed their daughters and they cried too.

We were extremely impressed with the quality of the story/ booklet and would highly recommend this experience to anyone and everyone! It really is a once in a lifetime experience and it will leave you with something to cherish forever. I can’t wait for the day to come when Francois and I can show the courtship story to our children and  grandchildren.

Sincerely,
Stacey Tort  (Tampa, Florida)

Courtship stories not only gave my husband and I a beautiful and unique favor for our wedding, but provided us with a treasured keepsake of our love story we hope can be read and enjoyed by generations to come. Working with Ellen was really easy and she made us comfortable about sharing all the details of our relationship. I highly recommend courtship stories for anyone looking to provide their guests with an original gift, while giving everyone the opportunity to read about all that unfolded while two hearts made the journey to the glorious moment of "I do!"

We prefer you call us for prices because there are numerous options --  We can be reached at  909-499-3429.

COURTSHIP STORIES WEDDING BOOKS

Please visit the Courtship Stories web site if you haven't already. Our wedding book package includes extensive, separate interviews of the bride and groom where you tell  us the story from the time you met to the proposal. Then you get a 1,650 to 1,850 word story, which we edit together and you get final approval. Then we work on the color and quality of your photos to prepare them for printing. You choose    from an ample selection of 12-page vertical and 16-page square designs. We semi-customize by accommodating your photos, wedding colors and special requests for personal messages. You will receive a digital proof by email and a sample proof by mail before printing. We print your order on 80-pound card stock for durability and ship your order by air or ground.  Call us for price quotes on writing, designing and printing.  888-427-8584 or ellenAT@courtship-stories.com

How many books do we need? We suggest printing one for each guest or one per couple and single guest. They are designed to color coordinate with your table. You can display one at each place setting or place them in an attractive swirl or pretty booklet holder on the table. Ushers can hand them out with the wedding program at the ceremony or place them on the seats. Guests can also pick them up at the place card table in an envelope printed with their name and table assignments. They can be displayed in a pretty basket or distributed at the reception. Very few are left behind so make sure you order enough to send to guests who cannot attend.   

Tanya and David  - David would walk the distance of a city block to see Tanya, his secret crush at Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility. He would drop off papers at her office and ask unnecessary questions just to talk to her. ..

Sharyn and Michael --  For Sharyn, Internet dating was a meat market - until she met Michael, a Jewish vegetarian... 

 Stacey and Francois drifted into their relationship on the sands o f Anna Maria Island and under the sea with SpongeBob SquarePants.  

 

Marilyn and Kevin -- Marilyn braided Kevin's hair on their first date, and, like the three pieces ofhair woven to make rows, three encounters intertwined to bring this couple together.

Enclosure

I've been asked if I've written my own Courtship Story. To write a good Courtship Story, a journalist needs two sides of the story. My husband of six years,  Mark Braunstein, a violin and viola instructor here in Redlands, CA, has not agreed to an interview, nor have I pushed him. So, I haven’t written my Courtship Story, however I have written the Prequel. I spent four years on the ‘Net looking for a husband. I started in the mid-1990s when no one trolled personal ads online. My friends shuddered thinking I would meet an axe murderer at “the other end of the line.” (As if you could reach the end of the Internet, see everything and go back - unless you were offed by an axe murderer.) Well, now everyone meets on the ‘Net, including many of my Courtship couples. Match.com makes the most marriages. (15 million members).

In 1996, this was a new tool for meeting men and an empowering one. I wanted to take charge of my search for a husband.  No longer would I have to depend on meeting men through friends or chance encounters at bars or supermarkets. I approached my search like an employer culling through hundreds of job applicants. I went online for quantity -- the raw numbers that only AOL could generate.

 I believed there was more than one Mr. Right out there, maybe even dozens, in the same way that I suspect that life exists outside our solar system: simple laws of probability. With an online ad, I could cast a net as wide as the country and as long as AOL's membership list. (Only 5 million or 6 million back then, but it would have to do.)

I posted on the now defunct AOL Jewish Singles, the precursor (get it? Pre-CURSOR) to J-Date. The search lasted four years and consumed every waking hour outside my newspaper reporting job. I probably could have cut the time in half without my turtle slow dial up. (click to read more)

Inland Living Magazine - "Sharing Wedding Memories"

Catered -- New York Jewish Week - How I met your mother

Brideworld Magazine

Manolo for the Brides -- Let someone else tell your story

                                                               The Hand Crafted Wedding: Cure for the Common Wedding -- "That's the Story of Love"

 See our new ad with Deborah and Brian's book

New England Gala Weddings - Winter 2007

  Brides.com -  Atlanta: Love stories

  Brides.com - Chicago: Your own love story

Newport Weddings 

Inland Empire Magazine

Blueberry Weddings - How did you meet? How did he propose?

Riverside Press Enterprise - Couples stories are the stuff of family lore

Pittsburgh Wedding   - Sharing your Courtship Story

The Happy Scrappy  From writing about news to writing about twos

Scrapbook Storytelling  -- An interview with Ellen Braunstein

Your Life Your Story 

Guess what! There are other ways to share your Courtship Story and then some with wedding guests. You can have your videographer produce a seven to 15 minute love story for projection on a large screen at the reception. You and your groom are interviewed separately in a place of your choice. It might be where you met. The video can be edited so you alternate telling your story in a running dialogue. The videographer often incorporates music and a montage of photos going back to your childhood. Then the story is transferred to DVD and becomes a keepsake. One of the videographers most widely recognized for video love stories is John Goolsby.

    Matt Wilson , an Atlanta videographer, says that couples often want to start at the beginning with baby and childhood photos. Usually couples send him no more than 100 photos. The quality is not of too much concern because they can be manipulated. For best quality reproduction and organization, couples do well to send their pictures to a videographer on a cd.  By doing this the couple can arrange the pics in the order they want shown on the DVD.  Couples can take their pictures to a camera store and they will put the pictures on a cd. Couples pick their own music for the score. A good videographer won't add cheesy effects like fading hearts. He does slow dissolve fades, allowing each picture to fade in slowly to the next picture.