1. SELECT - First make the tough decision -- which photos to choose and which to lose. We suggest you make a "YES" pile and a "NO" pile. Try to zero in on the photos that will tell your family's story the best. The number of photos you choose is totally up to you, a DVD can hold thousands of photos with music, so don’t worry about filling up the DVD!
  2. SORT – Gather all of your YES photos together for this photo montage. Group your photos in “sections”. We suggest you put them in either chronological order (early photos and work forward to present) or by theme (vacation, grandchildren, graduation, anniversary). Within a theme you could sort them further by date or whatever looks good to you.
  3. NUMBER - Number your photos on the back with either a pencil or stickers (post-it notes work well – they need to be taped onto the back so they don’t fall off when the pictures are handled). DO NOT USE a pen as the ink may rub off onto the other photos. Place your numbered photos or slides into a folder and mark as indicated below. If you are providing digital photos, indicate file names and their order number.

This is also the time to start thinking about music and titles for your DVD video. You may want greeting text at the beginning and some closing statement at the end of your video. For example, if you are making an anniversary video, you could simply put "Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad" at the beginning and "With Love, From All Of Us" at the end.

On each folder write:

  1. What section it is
  2. The number of photos/slides in the folder
  3. The order of your songs

EXAMPLE:

NOTE: You can also arrange your video without sections by putting all your memories together in chronological order (or any order you want) by simply putting a number on the back of each photo or slide.