Luke's Baby Book Series - The Beginning - Our Pregnancy and Birth Journal

Okay, if you have ever ordered from them before then I am confident that you already know what I am about to say....Shutterfly is happiness in a bright orange box! Especially when you spend lots of screen time sitting in front of your computer, organizing all of your pictures, playing around with the tons of different layouts and design elements they offer, you meticulously put it all together, hit submit and wait for it to arrive, and when it shows up at your doorstep it is exactly what you envisioned...or maybe even a little better!

I decided to create a photobook that would capture our entire pregnancy and birth story all in one place.  I always have these day dreams that someday I will get to sit with Luke and look through all of the pictures and show him just exactly how much he meant to us and how loved he was from the very first second we knew him in my tummy.  And then again when he's older to share it with the girl he loves and will want to marry and have his own incredible journey of life and love and hopefully some super cute babies with (but not until he's like at least 35, because I don't know that I will be ready for any of that to happen any earlier than that, lol)!

Here's a little peek at the book I made and below are some tips for getting it for the lowest price possible.

I started out with our pregnancy announcement - My precious dog daughter holding a sign that she was going to be a big sister...

And from there this book followed me through my first OB appointment, all of our ultra sounds, our BaBy-Q Baby shower, Maternity Pics, our family dinner the night before my scheduled c-section, LUKE'S BIRTH-DAY (!!!), the few days we spent in the hospital

and his first car ride when we brought him home. It is the beginning of his journey and this awesome adventure we have embarked upon as a family, all in one beautiful presentation.  I truly, truly cherish it.

I ended up getting a 12"x12" book with almost 50 pages of memories because I just kept adding more pages instead of narrowing down all of the pictures to fewer pages.

My plan is to do a "Year Book" for each year of his life going forward.  I can't wait to get started on my next one for his first year of life, since we have already experienced so many special moments with our little munchkin, and had some many experiences that make my heart feel like it may just burst when I think about them.

So here's where hopefully I am helpful in some way to anyone reading this....

YOU CAN SCORE SOME SERIOUS DEALS AND DISCOUNTS FOR SHUTTERFLY if you do a little looking around and practice a lot of patience!

I'm sure you've heard the old adage...."Patience is a Virtue." First of all, I learned that to get the best deal, you need to finish your project and have it ready to go...and then you wait.  This is where the patience part comes in. I waited 6 weeks before I felt like I had finally amassed enough discounts and deals to make out like a bandit. Then I took my already finished draft and clicked submit. So work on your book or collage or whatever it may be, get it perfect and ready to print, and then save it for all of the deal stars to align.

As for the discounts and deals, when I was pregnant I signed up for all of the little freebie business reply mail stuff that I got in baby magazines, and online, and I always registered any baby product we purchased by filling out the little postage paid card and mailing it back. And let me tell you, it was worth the 30 seconds it took each time!  We got tons of free stuff: Coupons, offer codes, formula, little insulated bags, bottles, even a $40 gift card to go out to eat at Olive Garden or Red Lobster because we were new parents! But here's where the Shutterfly part comes in...we got probably 5 different offers or coupon books sent to us from Shutterfly for baby books and such.

If you save all of these, plus sign up for their emails to be alerted of sales and specials, plus look online on the numerous coupon and deal code websites that have popped up out there you can usually use them IN COMBINATION with each other....yes, not just limited to one per transaction, but in combo when I did it, and save a lot of money!  On top of all of those options, I also bought a Groupon that I could apply towards the cost of my book, and I waited and waited and waited until I saw that they were running a sale, and then BAM! I took my finished book that had just been waiting patiently in cyberspace and clicked purchase, typed in all of my codes, used my Groupon, snagged the sale price and saved myself over $100! You read that correctly....ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!

I am keeping my fingers crossed that all of you are able to create something you love as much as I love my first try at a photobook.  And hopefully you are able to take some of my tips and tricks and get something beautiful for a lot less money than you would have otherwise spent!

As always, thank you so much for reading. I appreciate that you have taken the time out of your day to check out my blog!