Weddingbee boards

I know there are a lot of photobook reviews out there, but I just got my wedding album in (yay!!) and I thought throwing one more opinion into the mix couldn't hurt! The contenders: 

Snapfish

I've used them in the past for vacation books. They have a glossy hard cover and the print quality seems pretty good. Not as good as if you printed a photo on photo paper, but as good as most magazine photos. Their paper is pretty thin, about like a magazine page. I didn't use them for our wedding album because I was looking for something a bit higher quality. Very cheap though, and there are often groupons.

Shutterfly

Almost the same product as Snapfish. I used them for our guest book. No complaints-- it is a very cheap product and although the book doesn't look super high-end, it is a nice way to save vacation photos or whatnot. 

Blurb

I seriously considered them for our wedding album, but ultimately decided to go with AdoramaPix. I did however order two books from blurb, one wedding album for my mom and one for my grandma. I got a 8x10 hard cover image wrap, and a 7x7 softcover. 

• Very fast processing and shipping. I had my books less than a week after I built them.
• I really like the cover of the softcover book, it is glossy and has good print quality.
• I also liked the cover of the image wrap hard cover book. It has a matte finish, good print quality, and is thicker than the hard cover books from Snapfish or Shutterfly
• I liked that you could have as many or as few pages as you wanted... up to 400! 
• I liked the price. Just slightly more than shutterfly/snapfish and there are groupons floating around for them as well
• Unfortunately I did not like the paper or print quality. For the softcover book I got their standard paper. It feels like thin magazine paper, very fragile. On the hard cover book I got their premium paper. It is definitely thicker... maybe like a text book page? It is still barely thicker than text paper, and doesn't feel very expensive to me. 
• Their print quality was also disappointing. Comparing two of the same photo from blurb v. adorama, the quality is very apparently different. The photos are slightly grainy and look more like a photo printed on paper than a actual photograph

• I loved that you can design their book right on their website so you don't have to download any programs, and that you can share your book via a link online so that others can give you suggestions as you build it
• I love the lay flat pages, 2 page spreads just make the book look so much more expensive!
• I love the paper and print quality. The paper is very thick and the photos look as good as a professionally printed photograph you'd hang on your wall (they print on real photo paper-- so that makes sense!)
• I love the cover! The cover is very thick and has a metallic sheen to it. 
• I do not love their estimated print times! When I ordered my book they quoted me 12 days. This is made worse by the fact that they are closed Saturdays, Sundays, and half of Fridays... which makes a 12 day print time = 2.5 weeks! And that is before we talk shipping. Ultimately my book was made faster than that, but you certainly could not rely on them if you needed a book fast (they do have expedited service, but it is very expensive and only sometimes available)
• I also don't love the price. It is way cheaper than a professional album, and I'm sure a good price for what it is (I paid $176 for a 76 page 10x10 album), but thats still a lot of money and a LOT more than blurb. They also don't seem to run groupons or sales with any reliability. 

@june42011: glad to be of some help :) 

@crayfish: can just anyone use them?? and how was pricing? I want to eventually get an album made for us, but haven't found a site I'm willing to pay a few hundred dollars to!

I got our parents books made for xmas from Snapfish, and for what I paid, they were worth it. I got 3 books for under $100 due to sales, and they turned out pretty nice

@PizzutiStudios: yikes... i hope mine is ok! But I think it was probably the best for what I needed. It only cost like $20 and my grandma just wanted something little she could keep in her walker to take to church and show the ladies :)