Is a professional wedding album actually worth it? I mean, it’s almost 2025 – can’t I just look at photos online?
The answer: 100% YES.
As a wedding photographer, I truly value photos and believe in the importance of being able to hold in your hands a quality, physical copy of your memories. Maybe you aren’t completely sold on the idea of buying a wedding album or hanging prints in your home, or you’re thinking of DIY-ing it yourself on Shutterfly or at Walgreens. While I always give you the option to print your photos wherever you’d like, I highly recommend going with a professional print lab for the best results and experience.
Why should I buy a wedding album?
When you get the final gallery from your wedding, it’s going to tell the entire story of your day. You’re going to see the gorgeous “hero” images – the stunning portraits and big moments that you’d want to frame on your wall. You’re also going to see all the in-between, smaller moments and details too – the ones you wouldn’t necessarily put on your wall, but they’re still cherished memories that help tell the story of your special day; the photos that are intentionally placed 2nd or 3rd in your Instagram post.
Inevitably, those photos end up deep in your camera roll or on a hard-drive somewhere. If you want to ever look back on your wedding day, you’ll have to search for that old hard-drive again and look through all your photos one-by-one.
BUT with a wedding album, that experience is much different. Instead of scrolling back through your camera roll, you’ll get to flip through a beautiful, quality book that will last for years to come. With every page turn, you’ll see all the important details and moments, and you’ll truly get to relive your wedding day.
Why can’t I design my wedding album on my own?
As a professional wedding photographer (and someone who designs their own family photo albums yearly), I have plenty of experience designing an album that tells a story, not just a collection of photos. I know what layouts look & print the best, which images are going to look best as a panoramic spread vs. part of a collage, and all the other details that go into building a great wedding album.
Are these all things that you could probably figure out too? Sure! But that also means spending hours and hours narrowing down photos, figuring out how to use an album design software, researching which album companies are actually good quality, and then spending many more hours and hours settling on a design. Designing a wedding album properly takes a good amount of time if you’ve never done it before, which is why I always recommend letting your photographer do all the work.
Doesn’t it sound so much nicer to just have your stunning, professionally-designed wedding album delivered straight to your door?
What exactly is my photographer going to do for me?
As your photographer, I’ve already spent hours and hours with your photos, and I got to watch your entire day unfold in person. I vividly remember the important moments of your day, the out-of-control laughs you both shared, and the moments that even made me tear up behind the camera.
When I’m designing your album, I’m designing it to tell that exact story. My creative eye knows how to create aesthetic layouts that highlight the important moments, include just the right amount of details, and bring back all those vivid emotions.
Logistically speaking, here’s what I offer:
- Quality wedding albums – I’ve already tried and tested multiple printing labs, and I’m offering you products from the best
- Saving you hours of work with my previous experience in designing albums
- Multiple rounds of edits should you need them
- An easy experience that ends with a beautiful album delivered right to your doorstep
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to DIY my wedding album?
This is actually a common misconception I see floating around – say you order your album from an online company. The price of the album itself is actually about the same or often pricier than you would get through your photographer, but the quality of the albums are significantly lower. The photo colors tend to print “muddier” than what you’re seeing on your screen, and the papers are usually thinner and/or grainier (which also affects the image quality). Not to mention all the time you’ll need to spend picking photos, finding layouts that don’t look tacky, and actually designing the album. By the end, you’ll end up spending at least $100+ and multiple hours on a mid-tier quality wedding album.
While you will be paying a little more than the physical album cost to account for your photographer’s time and expertise in designing your wedding album, you’ll end up with a much better quality product for honestly not that much more. Your photos will look exactly like they do in your online gallery, and your album will be printed through a top-tier professional photography lab. For most couples, that extra expense is 100% worth it to end up with an heirloom that you’ll actually want to show off for years and years to come.
Wedding albums are a physical, easily accessible copy of your memories.
Your printed wedding album will likely be displayed on a coffee table or bookshelf, which means it only takes about 5 seconds of effort to look through your precious memories. Without an album, you’re likely going to be spending a significant amount of time looking for that old hard-drive or gallery link, plugging it into your laptop, and going through all the files to find the pictures you want to see.
What happens if that hard-drive breaks or your online gallery link expires? Having a printed wedding album is just another way to secure all those moments you don’t want to forget.
The wedding album experience is just better.
Without a doubt, flipping through the carefully curated and designed pages of a wedding album is a far better experience than scrolling through an entire gallery of multiple hundreds of similar/duplicate photos. With an album, you’re highlighting your favorite photos from the day, arranging them in a way that tells a stunning story, and leaving out the rest of the fluff. With every page turn, you get to watch that beautiful story unfold and relive every memory of your wedding day.
And the best part: you get to easily share that story and experience with your friends, family, kids, and grandkids one day.
Recognize that girl in the album above? It’s me!
I’m a huge believer in having printed copies of your memories. Every year or two, I make my own mini-album with a mix of photos from my own family photo sessions and iPhone photos. That way, whenever I want to see what life was like back in 2022-2024, I can just pick up that album off my bookshelf and relieve that entire period of my life.
I use the exact same professional printing lab for my own memories that I do for yours. I trust their quality and service, and that’s why I offer their products to you as well.
What wedding album options do i get?
I offer two main albums:
- Signature Wedding Album with a leather or fabric hardcover binding and thick, matte lay-flat pages.
- Signature Photo Book with softcover photo front and back covers and thick, matte lay-flat pages.
The Signature Wedding Album has that traditional hardcover and binding that you come to expect when you think of a wedding album. I love this option for couples wanting that truly special, luxury-feel family heirloom.
The Signature Photo Book is a more cost-friendly option, and I truly love the way I can design the cover to look like it’s straight out of a magazine (but with a personal touch). These are the albums pictured above!
When you inquire about having your wedding album designed, I’ll send you a full list of customization options including book size, cover options, and more.
If you already had your photos done and would like me to design an album for you, please reach out! It doesn’t matter how much time has passed since your photos, I’d be happy to create a custom album for you 🙂
And if you’d like me to photograph your elopement and eventually design your wedding album – let’s chat!
