The Onion Slideshow

June 12th, 2008 @ 2:33 pm by Mrs. Onion

Mrs. Penguin’s recent post “The Penguin Slideshow,” reminded me that I never posted about our slideshow.

I seem to have taken on the role of family historian since my 8th grade genealogy project. I carefully stored all my family’s historic photos, interviewed my father’s great aunts (who have all since passed away) and soaked up as much as I could. When Mr. Onion and I got engaged I started asking his mother questions about their family history and a few weeks before the wedding I asked her if I could go through her photo collection.

Naturally I wanted to share some of this history with our friends and family at the wedding where we would be starting our own chapter of our families’ histories.

We started making the slideshow in Microsoft Photo Story, but with all the time it took to scan the photos, organize them, etc., we found ourselves at my parents’ house the weekend before the wedding and it still wasn’t finished! My mother has an iMac at work, so we decide to use iPhoto to create the slideshow. The music is a Bill Evans piano version of the song my friend sang at the ceremony - “There is no greater love.”

Nine months later I finally made the time to upload the video (it was 654MB and literally took me all day), so I hope you enjoy! It’s about 12 minutes long, so I don’t expect you to watch the entire thing (there is only so much Onion necessary), but if you’re planning on making a slideshow of your own, I hope this is helpful. I, like Mrs. Penguin, gave up at the end, so forgive the abrupt ending.

The video is in chronological order and goes back and forth between my photos and his, ending with photos of us together. We began with my historic family photos, my parents’ wedding, then Mr. Onion’s family photos and his parents’ wedding, then my childhood photos, and his childhood photos, then photos of us with our family and friends (we included a photo of everyone who attended the wedding — not an easy task, but easier because there were only 43 guests), and ended with the obligatory couple photos of our courtship and finally finished with our engagement photos.

We played the slideshow on the TV above the bar at the restaurant as people enjoyed their cake. I decided to narrate a little so guests would know who people in the photos were. In the end I’m really glad that we took the time to put this together and I think everyone really enjoyed it.

See? Smiles and enjoyment! It was a great way to wind down the reception.

Are you planning on presenting a photo slideshow for your guests? Any reviews of other programs that could be used for those who haven’t started this project yet?

If you are married and have done this, did you learn anything about your family history or your fiance’s in the process? Anyone as interested in family genealogy as I am?!

Tags: pictures, recap, slideshow |

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8 Responses to “The Onion Slideshow”

Guest

endb

Love it when people do this! We’re featuring a table of family wedding photos at the reception, complete with anniversary dates. This project brought to light that my FI’s parents were married in July 1979 and he was born in December 1979. You do the math. Prior to this, my fiance had no idea he was a love child. He does now (and so will any astute wedding guests)!

6/12/08 @ 2:58 pm (reply)

Member

beanchar (message) 549 posts, Busy bee

I DID watch the whole thing…

1) Who is the dude doing the awesome guitar-star jump by the old blue car? He rocks.

2) I see that “spoon hanging” is a talent that the Onions share with Family beanchar.

3) More children should wear chainmail.

4) I love that you feature Stonehenge… not once but TWICE!

5) Mr. Onion looks mighty FINE in lime green pants.

6/12/08 @ 5:23 pm (reply)

Bee

Mrs. Onion (message) 657 posts, Busy bee

endb — well that IS a little bit of family history. well, he now knows that his parents REALLY love each other! haha.

beanchar — seriously, i’m dying laughing.
1) the “dude” doing the guitar-star jump is my DAD! dead serious. he’s 74 now and still almost as awesome, just maybe with a little less air in his jumps.
2) spoon hanging is something that continued at our rehearsal dinner — i had nothing to do with starting it, but i’m a champ, little nose and all.
3) gotta love the chain mail. that was one of the most memorable parts of my families trip to england when i was 9 — the mediveal fair.
4) the photos of stonehenge were on a trip mr. onion took with his friend right after college.
5) there is a story behind the lime green pants — it’s called “ugly outfits.” many years ago, in a land of mr. onion and his male cousins, they decided to start a tradition. each cousin would purchase the most HIDEOUS outfit he could find (skirts not allowed) and he’d HAVE to wear it to any family holiday gatherings between xmas and new years. again, dead serious.

thanks so much for watching — i’m glad you enjoyed it!

6/12/08 @ 5:57 pm (reply)

Bee

Mrs. Onion (message) 657 posts, Busy bee

Mr. Onion requested I clarify point #5 above:

a) It’s called nasty outfits, not ugly outfits.
b) cousin A buys outfit for cousin B and vice versa — the other HAS to wear what his cousin picked out — no questions.

6/12/08 @ 6:23 pm (reply)

Member

beanchar (message) 549 posts, Busy bee

@Mrs. Onion: Nasty Outfits = Awesome family tradition! Love it.

Oh, and by the way, I can hang a spoon off my nose, chin and both ears and cheeks– SIMULTANEOUSLY. Please let me know if the jazz festival needs any sideshow freaks… I am available all summer and work cheap.

6/12/08 @ 7:21 pm (reply)

Guest

Mimi07

Wow! Your slide show and background music was awesome. (Very creative). I really enjoyed it, since I do a lot of video and editing for hobby and occasions. I may do something like that for my Father’s Day. That would be a wonderful suprise. Thanks for sharing.

Bless ya!

6/12/08 @ 8:05 pm (reply)

Guest

Mindy

I LOVE your slideshow! I haven’t seen many that incorporate family history to that extent. I have been working on my genealogy since I was in 4th or 5th grade. It always seemed funny to me that my family couldn’t put a name on our heritage. I can now trace my family to the 16th and 18th centuries on various branches to a handful of countries.
You have some great stories! I am so happy you are recording things for curious kids down the road.

6/13/08 @ 1:20 pm (reply)

Guest

April Wilkins

Thanks for sharing your wedding slideshow. We didn’t have the time (nor motivation) to do it ourselves so we ended up using http://www.DVDPhotographs.com who we found online to create our wedding slideshow. Paid about $100 or so and well worth it. I loved watching yours though!

8/25/08 @ 2:26 pm (reply)