Story Terrace

What could be more meaningful than the gift of family memories?

Rutger Bruining is CEO of Story Terrace, a unique startup that helps capture treasured memories and create a printed legacy for someone you love.

Story Terrace matches you with one of their talented professional ghostwriters to tell your story using in-person, in-depth interview sessions. They'll help you gather your cherished family photos and get your images scanned and digitized for inclusion. After you approve the final draft your finished product, a beautiful hardcover book, arrives right at your door!

To date, they've helped hundreds of people record and share their amazing stories with friends and family, and you can check out some of them here.  

Story Terrace is a one-of-a-kind gift for families, grandparents, parents, couples, or anyone who has a story they want to tell. 

I had a chance to interview Rutger to learn more.

The Inspiration behind Story Terrace:

As a child, Story Terrace founder Rutger Bruining loved to listen to his grandfather’s stories. For many years he listened to his grandfather’s adventures—of meeting his grandmother, of playing football for the national team, and much more. It was later in life when Bruining realized that these stories had never been written down and that his own memories could not do them justice. So, in November 2014, he founded Story Terrace to help others create biographies so everyone’s cherished past moments could be re-lived and not forgotten! (You can find more of Rutger's story, in his own words, here.)

Why is it so important to share family memories?

Every family has the stories they pass down generation to generation--how their parents met, how their grandparents immigrated to the United States, how their oldest child acted when they met their sister for the first time. But often, as time passes, we forget the details and the story loses something of its flavor. We can usually find the bare facts of a life--when someone was born, who they married, how many children they had--but its the stories that capture a person's tone and personality, that make them the family member we know and love. Sharing and saving these memories means we won't forget about a second birthday, or a family reunion, or beloved family pet, even years after the moment has passed.

What advantage does it have over other memory book methods?

At Story Terrace we know that while not everyone is a writer, everyone has a story worth writing down. At Story Terrace we match every client with a local ghostwriter, who comes to their home and interviews them about their life. Then our writer writes a manuscript that captures the tone and personality of our client, and we produce truly beautiful, full color hardcover books so these memories can stay in the family forever. With Story Terrace you can be assured that a talented professional writer will capture your story in a charming, readable way.