Happy Tuesday everyone! Every so often, I share a bit of “Pro Insight” here on ELD, and today the fabulous Jenny of Captured Photography By Jenny is stopping by to share a thing or two about something that all brides have to think about… Wedding Albums!

Wedding Albums. What’s the big deal about them anyways? Why are they so expensive? And is it something brides really need to invest in?

I think it is pretty easy for everyone to agree that it is important to have great images to look back on and remember your wedding day. Today, in a digital age, we have more options than ever to do that.

Here at Captured Photography, all three of our wedding packages include a disc with the images (because I think it is important to have digital copies of your photos), and two of these packages also include albums. Sometimes when my brides are trying to decide between the package without an album and the ones with one, they ask my opinion. So I thought I would share my thoughts with ELD readers too!

While I think the disc of images is important, I don’t think it should replace having a wedding album. I know that when I first got married I received my disc and boom… I had my wedding photos everywhere. My wallpaper on my desktop, my phone, on the walls in the house, etc. But to be honest, all of those things have now been replaced by photos of my kids and us as a family. It doesn’t mean that I don’t still treasure my wedding images… life has just changed. Now, I still have my disc… but do I pull that out to look at the photos? Unfortunately, not very often at all. Remember- a disc includes lots and lots of photos (our clients usually receive anywhere from 800-1000 on their disc). Who has time to sit and look through that many images on a regular basis? (From Lauren: I have a disc too. And I have NO CLUE where it is. I downloaded the images to my computer, but that was 2 computers ago. So yeah, the disc didn’t do me too much good…) 

An album can be a way to view your favorite images in just minutes. You don’t have to search for the files, and then pick which ones you want to look at. You can just sit there for a moment, flip through the pages, and be taken back to that special day.

Here are some other practical reasons I think albums are the bomb-diggity…

An album gives you something to show friends and family. No offense, but your friends and family probably aren’t going to want to sit and look through 800 photos either. It is much easier to show your wedding album than it is to fire up a computer and search for your pictures every time you want to show them to someone.

An album gives you something to show your grand-babies. Though we give our clients advice on how to back up and save their digital images, the chances of people losing them 50 years down the road is probably decent. An album is something you can keep for generations to come. Your children and grandchildren will want to know what you looked like on your wedding day. How awesome to be able to show them through a book? (From Lauren: I definitely grew up looking through my parents’ wedding album. Loved it!) 

An album is something you can touch and feel. It may be artsy-fartsy of me but, staring at pictures on a computer screen isn’t the same as flipping through the pages of an album or having prints.

An album can be personally designed for you. There are more album cover styles to pick from today than ever before. Not only that, our albums are designed based on your favorite images, not ours. So the album includes the photos you LOVE.

A professional album is worth the money. I’ve heard it before, “Why do I need an album from my photographer? I’ve got the digital files, I can make my own prints and put them in my own album.”  Yes you can make your own album with your disc, but it won’t be the same. Professional-quality, custom-made album companies only sell to professional photographers. That means your options are to buy the type of album with slip-in plastic sleeves or a hardcover book style you can order online. A lot of the time their books are printed on a paper that will not last through the years. It is easy to rip and the quality will fade. Not only that, you will have to put in the time to make the album. It can easily take us 2-3 full days to pull your files, retouch any images needed, and design the album. (From Lauren: I can’t tell you how many people I hear about that chose to just make their album themselves, but never did it!)

I know that not everyone can afford to have the photographer you want AND a package with an album. If I was faced with that decision, I would go with the right photographer and work on getting an album after the wedding. Most photographers do sell them ala carte later. Who knows? You can even ask for it as a wedding gift, an anniversary gift, or maybe even Christmas!

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Hopefully this will help some of you in making your decision about having a wedding album!

So bride, what’s your plan when it comes to an album? Will you be getting one right after your wedding, waiting, or foregoing the album all together?