what would you do with this blank canvas?

OK, I'm not crafty or creative at all so may be no help, but my first thought was - you're using red gerberas for the party, right? so, you could make a big gerbera out of craft paper and stick it in the middle (or, y'know, print one off t'internet). Then your mum & dad's names across the top, and either wedding date - anniversary date across the bottom, or something like "40 years of love"

then fill the first few pages with pics from their wedding, leave middle pages blank for guest comments, and have a page headed "party pictures" so they know to fill the back with photos from the party.

Excellent start- merci indeed. t'internet printing is the way forward for that idea though- making is not even contemplatable for a useless crafter like me! lol how and why i thought i could do this is beyond me! :/ lol

thank you! xxx

Names and date of the wedding to begin with

I would perhaps look for photos or mementos of their lives together to make a kind of collage

Or I would pick out a pretty paper that matches the theme and use that as a background

Haha, I'd be going the internet printing route, too. Every single piece of wedding-related diy we said we'd do I've ended up finding an Etsy seller to do for me!

I thought about photo's Bekki, but we're having a HUGE framed picture collage of them throughout the years next to the book to hopefully inspire peoples memories, so it'd seem redundant as they'll get the collage anyways.

and submarine- i was the same. i was going to change the lace on the ring pillow; me who can't even sew on a button! ha! i was going to burn the table names into the wood. and then i was going to walk on water lol best woman did the ring pillow and top table runner and mr winter did all the wood burning hahaha

Hmmm...then I'd go for some paper that matches the theme as a background

Top that, with a frame or border square then have their names and the date. You can buy some really pretty decorative sticky letters that you could just stick on that would look lovely and wouldn't take too much doing.

Something like:

although with your own papers of course x

Did anything remarkable happen on their wedding day? For the album I did for my parents' ruby wedding, I did a page on the day (thankfully man drove a car on the moon for the first time on that day, so there was something interesting to put in!) and printed out a pic and some facts from the internet. I did another page on stuff that happened that summer, I think one was the first Reading Festival. Oh and some stuff on the music of the time, particularly what was no1 on that day. (If you want to find that out, use the date engine on everyhit.com.)

Schwelly- little miss winter! why in the world didn't i think of her! genius! i'll put it to her!

ID- first page is all facts and figures; no1. when they got married, on this day etc but then the rest is for others who've known them longer to fill in the blanks i'd go digging for more info, but a. i'd end up giving myself away, and b. this party is enough work already! lol

I like stick figures (as you can see by my avatar!) I'd draw them (or get little Miss to) and write the date, or '40 years' beneath it ... hang on let me show you what sort of thing I mean (bearing in mind I have no idea what your parents look like ...)

ETA:

Hahahaha oh lord i love that SW!!

couldn't be further from actuality but i love it! lol

for those interested this is them at their wedding in 1975 and at mine in 2014

My gosh, you're the double of your mum!!

Ah dude, you want dopples, check out me and mini miss;

Wowsers, strong genes!