Photos have a way of bringing back details we thought we’d forgotten: a familiar smile, a favorite place, a holiday you spent together, or an ordinary afternoon that means much more now. A memorial photo book brings those memories together so you can remember not only the milestones in someone’s life, but the little things that made them who they were.
There is no one way a memorial book needs to look. You can tell their story from childhood through later years, gather favorite memories from family and friends, create a tribute for a celebration of life, or simply collect the photos you most want to keep close. With Shutterfly, you can start with a memorial photo book design or make the book completely your own.
What Is a Memorial Photo Book?
A memorial photo book is a personalized collection of photos, stories, and memories created to honor someone who has passed away. It might tell the story of their entire life, focus on the memories your family shared with them, or preserve a smaller collection of meaningful moments.
Some families make a memorial book to display at a funeral or celebration of life, while others create one later as a personal keepsake. You can also make copies for siblings, children, grandchildren, close friends, or anyone who would appreciate having those memories in their own home.
Most importantly, it doesn’t need to capture everything. A memorial photo book can be a full life story, but a smaller collection of photos and memories can be every bit as meaningful.
Featured design · A Life Remembered
What to Include in a Memorial Photo Book
Start with the pieces of their story that you most want to remember. That might include major milestones, but don’t overlook the everyday photos and details that instantly feel like them.
Your photo book might include:
- Childhood and school photos
- Favorite family portraits
- Candid photos that capture their personality
- Wedding and anniversary photos
- Pictures with children, grandchildren, siblings, and close friends
- Holidays and family traditions
- Vacations and favorite places
- Hobbies, interests, pets, and things they loved
- Career accomplishments or other milestones
- Favorite sayings, poems, prayers, songs, or quotes
- Handwritten notes, cards, letters, or recipes
- Names, dates, places, and captions that give photos more context
- Stories and memories contributed by family and friends
Featured design · Celebration of Life
Tell Their Story in a Way That Feels Like Them
You don’t have to organize a memorial book one particular way. Choose a structure that fits the photos you have and the story you want the book to tell.
Tell their story through the years
Begin with childhood and move through school, relationships, family, career, travels, milestones, and later years. A chronological book works especially well when you have photos from many stages of their life.
Organize the book around the people they loved
Create pages for family, friends, children, grandchildren, coworkers, or other important relationships. This can be a beautiful way to show how many lives your loved one was part of.
Celebrate the things they loved
Build sections around hobbies, traditions, favorite places, travel, music, cooking, sports, gardening, pets, or anything else that immediately makes your family think of them.
Create a collection of favorite memories
A memorial photo book doesn’t have to tell someone’s whole biography. Ask the people who knew them best to choose a favorite photo or memory and give each one space in the book.
Use it as a memorial guest book
If you’re creating the photo book for a funeral, memorial service, or celebration of life, leave a few pages or spaces intentionally blank for guests to write in. Family and friends can add messages, favorite memories, or stories about your loved one, turning the book into both a collection of photos and a keepsake from the gathering.
Featured design · Heirloom Moments
Ask Family and Friends to Help Tell the Story
You may have hundreds of photos of your loved one and still be missing entire parts of their story that live on someone else’s phone, computer, or photo album.
Invite family and friends to contribute their favorite pictures and memories to the project. Someone might have a childhood photo you’ve never seen, a picture from a trip they took together, or a story that deserves its own page. Gathering memories from several people can make the finished book feel less like one person’s collection and more like a shared portrait of the life you’re remembering.
Along with photos, ask people for a few sentences about a favorite memory, something they learned from your loved one, a funny story, or a phrase they always said. Those stories can become captions, text pages, or small notes throughout the book.
Gather and Organize Your Photos Before You Begin
When photos of your loved one are spread across your phone, computer, old albums, and family members’ collections, bringing them together is a helpful first step. Upload your photos to Shutterfly and create an album for your loved one so you have one place to collect the pictures you may want to use in their memorial photo book.
As you find more photos, you can keep adding them to the album, making it easier to look through favorite memories and choose what belongs in the book. Ask family and friends to look through their own collections, too. They may have photos from childhood, family gatherings, vacations, or everyday moments that you’ve never seen.
You don’t need to decide what goes in the book right away. Use your Shutterfly account to gather and organize the memories first, then return to that collection when you’re ready to start creating.
Add Stories Behind the Photos
Some of the most meaningful parts of a memorial book may be the things a photo alone can’t explain.
Add names and dates so future generations know who they’re looking at. Write down the story behind an old family picture. Include a favorite saying everyone remembers hearing. Add a recipe in their handwriting, a note they wrote, or a few words from someone who loved them.
Shutterfly photo books can include captions, stories, quotes, messages, dates, and other written details alongside your photos.
You don’t need to write a lot. A name, date, place, or short memory can give a photo context and preserve a detail your family will want to remember.
Choose a Memorial Photo Book Style
Shutterfly has several photo book designs that work especially well for remembering and celebrating someone you love. Choose one based on the story you want to tell and the look that feels most fitting:
- A Life Remembered is designed specifically as a memorial photo book, with refined layouts and meaningful accents that keep the focus on treasured photos and memories.
- Celebration of Life has a classic, minimalist look with soft watercolor greenery and elegant script. It’s a natural choice for a remembrance book or a photo book you plan to display at a memorial service or celebration of life.
- Through the Years uses warm neutrals, earth tones, and timeless embellishments, making it well suited to telling someone’s story chronologically from childhood through later years.
- Heirloom Moments has vintage-inspired layouts designed around preserving family memories. It can work especially well for older family photographs, multigenerational stories, and a book you want to pass down through the family.
You don’t have to choose a memorial-specific design, either. Shutterfly offers other photo book styles ranging from simple, modern layouts to family-focused and rustic designs, or you can start with Create Your Own and build the book around the photos, stories, colors, and details that best represent your loved one.
Featured design · Through the Years
Let Shutterfly Help Make the Book for You
Creating a memorial photo book can feel like a lot to take on when you’re already sorting through years of photos and memories. If you’d rather have help bringing everything together, Shutterfly’s free photo book designer service can create the book for you.
Simply upload your photos and share any notes or preferences you have for the design. A Shutterfly designer will create your photo book within 24 hours, arranging the photos and handling details like layouts, colors, fonts, and embellishments. Once it’s ready, you can review the book, add captions, make any changes you’d like, or order it as is.
It’s a helpful option when you have the photos and memories you want to preserve but would rather leave the initial design and arranging to someone else.
Share a Memorial Photo Book With Family
A memorial book can be something you make for yourself, but it can also become part of how your family remembers someone together.
Display a copy at a celebration of life or memory table so guests can look through it. Order copies for siblings or children. Give one to a grandparent filled with family history, or make copies for grandchildren so the stories behind older family photographs stay with the next generation.
Over time, the book becomes more than a collection of pictures. It gives your family one place to return to the stories, faces, places, and everyday moments that remind you of someone you love.
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