It’s album time

Should we have a wedding album?

You’ll see that I include a wedding album into my biggest package as standard but you can absolutely opt to include one in whichever package you go for. It doesn’t need to be done at the time of booking either – I have so many couples who add one at a later date, including after the wedding or, even for anniversary gifts further down the line. I don’t want there to be a cut off point to you have something beautiful, tangible to re-live your day.

Think of it this way, you’ll put your dress away, your flowers will wilt and photos on your phone from your wedding day will disappear into the scroll, but a professionally designed album will keep your day alive in a way digital files simply cannot do. All of my albums are made with proper binding and archival materials, they’re not your regular photo book! With many fabric and colour choices, there is something to suit everyone and, once you’ve chosen your favourite images, I’ll design it for you with your own story in mind.

Professional wedding album vs photo book (what’s the difference?)

If you search for a wedding album, I’d bet you end up on a site selling photo books. These can be lovely for holidays or keeping your everyday photos in check, but professional wedding albums are built differently, and that’ll show, especially after a few years!

What’s a photo book? A photo book is a consumer product, will have light binding and thin pages. They’ll be template-led and while they look nice, they’re not designed to be handled for decades, passed around the family and still look beautiful.

What’s a professional wedding album? A professional wedding album is a photographer designed story of your day, bound and printed on archival papers. It will have strong binding, lay flat, thick pages and will be built to last. The difference won’t be just the quality, it’ll be you, experiencing what your wedding felt like as you turn each page. I design each album with pacing, emotion with the aim to tell your story. Who better to curate your album than someone who knows your story inside and out, than the person who took the shots for you?!

How my wedding album design process works

You’ll choose the images, then I’ll design an album that feels like your day.

Step 1 : You choose your favourite 30-40 images. Once I’ve delivered your full gallery, I’ll ask you to select 30-40 images that you love. That way we’ll be ensuring your album includes all the moments and people, that matter most to you. If you can’t narrow down to this amount of images, you can select more and increase the number of pages that will be in your album. 30-40 is the starting point for the size of albums I include in my package, you can opt to upgrade by as many pages as you’d like.

Step 2 : I’ll design the first layout. Using those favourite images of yours, I’ll set out the first layout with the story of your day in mind. Real moments, hero portraits and with a natural rhythm of how the day flowed.

Step 3 : I’ll deliver you the first proof. You’ll be able to make notes on every spread if you want to make changes like swapping family shots, making a portrait into a highlight etc. We’ll keep going on each design like this, a collaboration, until you are happy with the way it feels.

Step 4 : You’ll select your cover material and colour along with any wording or cover design.

Step 5 : Your album goes to print and will be made by professional album makers with high quality materials and delivered directly to your door so you can share it, pass it down so it can become a family heirloom.

Your wedding album – a visual, tangible legacy

How do you see yourself sharing your wedding day in 10 years, 25 years, 40 years? Have you even seen your parents or grandparents wedding albums? It’s a feeling of moving back through time to step into their world, their happiness, your family in their youth. I know that’s priceless, I have my parents wedding album and also my parents in-laws. My girls love to look through them. Now image having that for yourselves, but with modern storytelling in all it’s authentic beauty. That’s what an album built to last will give you.

Your images downloaded from your gallery will be gorgeous but you’ll store them on a USB that’ll sit in a drawer. You’ll tell yourself that you’ll print them, get round to making a book but life is busy and then there you are, 5 years in and you’ve had nothing printed to look at. When you have friends and family to visit, will you pull out your laptop to scroll through the folders or will you open up a beautiful album thats ready to hand as it’s sat on your shelf, or your coffee table and pass is round so you can all relive your day…?

What will be included in our package?

If you’ve booked ‘The Whole Shebang’ you’ll have a 20 page, 8×8″ album included. This is the size I recommend 30-40 images to choose for. If you want to include more images (so more pages) or upgrade to a larger size you absolutely can do that – the 8×8″ is a mid range album and I can walk you through the prices of each upgrade. You’ll be able to choose your cover material from linen, suede, leather and velvet in so many different colours, from clean and modern to soft and romantic, or bold and bright.

And is it the same if we add on an album?

If you know you want an album on booking, then yes, I can add this into your price proposal and, if you want to upgrade at a later date, you absolutely can. The other option will be to wait until I’ve delivered your full gallery as there are various options on albums in your gallery shop that you’ll be able to look through. From your shop you can opt to design your own album or, I’d love to do it for you exactly as I’ve described here!

Head over to my wedding info page to check out my packages and see which one includes an album or get in touch below and lets chat about your wedding!