Advice needed: Preparing vacation photos for IKEA SANNAHED frames

Hi everyone,

over the past few years I’ve taken quite a few vacation photos with my Sony Alpha 7 IV, and now I’d like to print some of my favorites to hang on the wall.

My wife picked the IKEA SANNAHED frames in 35 x 35 cm. With the included mat, the visible image area in the center would be 25 x 25 cm.

I’ve never really prepared photos for print before, so I have a few concerns and questions.

First of all, there’s the square format. For most of the images that probably won’t be a problem. I was also thinking about adding a small caption underneath the photo on the mat, maybe something like the location and date.

Now I’m wondering what would make more sense:

Should I use the included mat and make the actual photo slightly smaller than 25 x 25 cm so there is still some room for a caption?

Or would it be better to print the full piece as a 35 x 35 cm image including a white border?

I’d also love some advice on how to create a reusable template for this, so that in the end I would only need to drop in my photos. Is that something I can do in Lightroom, or would you recommend another program for that?

And do you have any recommendations for the type of paper I should use for prints like this?

Thanks a lot in advance!