Inland Empire Magazine (March 2006)

By Jeanne Boyer

Everyone wants to know how couples met, courted and decided to marry. Gossipy versions of these events are circulated at the wedding, but there is another way to share the story.

Ellen Braunstein has launched a business to provide bride-and-groom booklets as wedding favors. The 12 to 16-page, card stock booklets, complete with photos, tell assorted tales of how boy met girl, girl chased boy, boy broke up with girl (mistake) and how the happy couple finally got together after realizing they were meant for each other.

Braunstein, a Redlands resident and former journalist, started Courtship Stories Wedding and Anniversary Keepsakes in 2004.

“People always ask, “How did you meet?” Braunstein says. She finds there is so much more to tell than a sentence or two of explanation, and couples enjoy having a keepsake that chronicles their courtship, down to cold feet and crossed signals.

Braunstein interviews the bride first. Then she talks to the groom. After writing the story, she checks it with the couple, and works with a designer to include photos and illustrations. She prefers to begin several months before the wedding to allow time for interviews before schedules get too hectic.

For more information, visit courtship-stories.com. Call (909) 499-3429 or e-mail ellen@courtship-stories.com.