I get asked this a lot by moms who aren’t sure which to order of their daughter’s bridal portrait. A framed print? Classic. A canvas? Easy to display and totally in-style.

My answer is to always think about what you plan to do with it long term. Whose going to keep it? (Mom or bride?) Where might you hang or store it? Weddings are a little different because you’ll be thinking about wanting to fit with the vibe/style of the wedding, but it’s also good to think about after too.

And if you’re asking this question not related to a wedding, where you’ll hang it is the number one thing to consider.

When Wyatt (my oldest baby) was born, I ordered a GIANT canvas of him to put above his crib. (And I do mean giant. The picture of him was bigger than he actually was. (And he was over 10 pounds at birth!) But now that he has a big boy bed and big boy room, I have no clue what to do with that giant thing. It’s huge. I can’t bring myself to throw it away…(yet). So for now it’s just being stored in the playroom, and will probably end up in the attic, where it will probably be ruined and eventually tossed. But I can’t just throw it away right now?!

I’m sure most of you feel like this too with prints you’ve had made and no longer want to display. For this reason, I only recommend ordering canvases if you know it’s an image you’ll want to display for a long time (a forever, timeliness image), especially if you’re ordering a large size. With smaller sizes you won’t have quite the same problem because they’ll be easier to store if you ever want to take them down from their original purposed spot.

For family photos you want to update often, I recommend framed prints! You can store the old images behind the new ones and look back through them every time you change the image. And eventually when there are too many for the frame, you could start storing these loose prints in an album.

You just have more options when you order a print. A canvas is what it is, and there isn’t much you can do with it if you decide you don’t want to display it anymore.

What are your thoughts on this?! Do you have any ideas on what to do with canvases you no longer want to display? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Overwhelmed by your print options? I can help with that. Check out this post.