“The Most Thoughtful Gift They’ve Ever Received”: Luan N.’s Yearbook for His Chosen Family

How one friend group captured a year of memories in a custom Mixbook

For Luan N., friendship means showing up—and sometimes, that means showing up with a photo book. As two of his closest friends prepared to move out of state, Luan decided to create a year-in-review gift that would celebrate their tight-knit group’s memories, milestones, and in-jokes. The result? A fully custom Mixbook yearbook, revealed at his annual holiday party.

“As a gay man in my early 30s, I am lucky to have a tight friend group that feels like family,” Luan shared. “We do a lot of activities and have taken trips as a friend group throughout the year. Two of our friends were moving out of state, so I wanted a way of capturing and memorializing our year with a yearbook.”

The project became both a reflection of the past year and a send-off filled with joy, gratitude, and laughter.

“It was the perfect way to reflect on the year.”

Designed With Heart (and a Hint of Nostalgia)

Luan’s creative direction drew inspiration from a familiar source: high school yearbooks. But instead of cliques and class quotes, this one celebrated cookouts, inside jokes, road trips, and late-night group chats.

“I designed the yearbook and got inspiration from the high school yearbooks I had laying around my house,” he said. “So I customized the yearbook with elements and graphics that invited an air of nostalgia!”

The spreads included standout sections like “Senior Pages” and “Group Chat Greatest Hits.”

“The senior pages were the pages where each member of the friend group had a page with their reflections and photos of themselves,” Luan said. “The group chat greatest hits were screenshots of our funniest and most memorable conversations from the group chat!”

“They Thought I Was Making a Game…”

To keep the surprise under wraps, Luan asked everyone to fill out a Google form with personal prompts, quotes, and memories—without giving away what it was for.

“They thought I was making a game,” he said. “So they were all touched when they saw the yearbook.”

The response was overwhelming.

“Many of them said this is the most thoughtful gift they’ve ever received, and it was a great way to memorialize our friend group before friends moved away.”

A Better Design Experience

Luan had originally started the project with another platform, but quickly ran into creative limitations. “I started with Artifact Uprising,” he shared, “but there weren’t enough options for customization.”

He was pleasantly surprised by how Mixbook allowed more creative control.

“I was really impressed and delighted with the ease of Mixbook and the ability to change the layouts of spreads and number of photos per spread/page. It was really simple to use and made designing fun!”

Group Gifting Made Personal (and Affordable)

Whether you’re documenting a friend group like Luan’s, capturing a multi-generational family vacation, or planning a holiday surprise for your kids and grandkids, a custom Mixbook makes a standout group gift.

Here are a few gifting ideas for groups and families:

• Create a “Family Year in Review” book to hand out at reunions or over the holidays.
• Make a set of custom books for your friend group to commemorate a shared trip, big birthday, or life transition.
• Design personalized “memory books” for each sibling or cousin, filled with old photos, scanned notes, or shared messages.
• Create matching keepsakes for a bridal party or friend circle, with pages dedicated to favorite moments and messages.

Bonus: Mixbook offers bulk order discounts, so you can gift to everyone without compromising quality or design.

Looking to create a memory-filled group gift this season?
Mixbook gives you the creative freedom to design a photo book as personal as your people. Whether it’s your chosen family or your day-one crew, there’s no better way to say: We were here. And it mattered.