Should You Get A Wedding Album From Your Wedding Photographer?

Have you ever spent time looking through your parents’ wedding album? It can be so exciting to look through old photo albums, seeing people at different stages of their lives, and even people who are no longer with us. 

Wedding albums and other photo albums are usually highly valued by families, and they are at the top of the list of things to save in an emergency situation like a fire or a flood. Sure, you can have all of those images stored on your phone or laptop, but there is still something special about being able to physically pull the album off the shelf to share with friends or during special family events.

Here are some things to discuss with your wedding photographer if you are interested in receiving a custom wedding album:

Cost
Because a wedding album is highly customized, it can come at some expense. Consider that your wedding album is a one-of-a-kind heirloom for your family! Discuss the price options with your photographer and understand the differences in quality and other factors. 

Cover Material
Albums come in a variety of covers, including leather, vinyl, wood, cloth, photo covers and other materials. Some will also have custom inset photos and imprinting on the cover. Look at the sample albums provided by your photographer to understand the differences and the pros/cons of each option.

The Number of Photos and Pages in the Album
The greater the number of pages, the more expensive it will be. You want your album to tell the story of the wedding from start to finish, but you don’t need to include every image. Many photographers are able to create custom layouts of the images from wide double-spread panoramas to multiple image collages on a single page. Have your photographer show you sample albums to see what is possible.

What About Do-It-Yourself Wedding Albums?
As you talk to wedding photographers, you will discover that the most premium wedding album manufacturers are only available to wedding photography businesses. If you want the best quality albums with archival materials that will last the test of time, it’s best to have your album produced professionally by your wedding photographer. We have also heard from many clients how they always intended to “get around to it” but never find the time to do the work involved to produce a quality wedding album. It’s a lot of work to select the final images, perform the photoshop work to perfect each image, then design the layout and work with the album manufacturer to select all of the options. Talk to your photographer about the design process and the turn-around time to produce your album.

For more information, here is an article called: The Essential Guide to Wedding Albums by Haley Shandro.

If you’re searching for a wedding photographer, contact some of our ISPWP photographers in your area and find out what they recommend for albums, and why they carry the specific albums that they do. 

(Photo by Matteo Lomonte, Gioia del Colle, Italy wedding photographer)