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We got an album and cd with our package, but my brother and FSIL did what you're suggesting. They used the images to put together a Shutterfly photobook (using a coupon code for a really great deal). It turned out really nice, and they just ordered a few extra copies as well so a lot of their Christmas shopping was done at the same time!
I like our album, but I would be just as happy with the photobook that they made for themselves for a lot cheaper.
Thanks for posting this question! I am interested in the answer myself. Our favorite photographer has a great package, but it doesn't include an album and we are wondering if we should splurge and add one on anyway (an extra $800-$900)?
I'm a big sucker for traditional albums. I have a huge one from my wedding, and I love it. It's high-quality, archival, etc.... I know it will be around for a long time. I have some photo books, but the binding's already starting to go on a couple. If you can afford an album, I'd say go for it.
Alicia Renee...can you give us an estimate on how much those albums usually cost?
My FI's cousin got an album from his sister with pictures she took of the wedding, I think she has an Apple cumputer and they have a program just like shutterfly, I have to say I liked those pics even better that the album from the photographer. What you could do is maybe buy some NICE prints from him to have good prints then the rest make an album on your own so like that is not as much money ;)
I'd suggest looking for a designer that does just the albums. Usually the photographers aren't designers and they use the same online templates that you can use! However, they really do take a lot of time, and the printing can be expensive. But this is one of the few tangible things you will have to remember your wedding for the rest of your life.
I designed one recently (I'm a designer) for my best friend and I estimated that if I had charged her it would have cost around $500. It looks amazing though :) And for better quality, try blurb.com or collages.net (you'll have to say your a photographer for this one).
OK you weddng is done. You realx and get seddled back into your normal life. Not a life where you never talk about the wather with friends unless your talking about your wedding day. Two mounths down the line you get your pictures and you cant wait to put the disc in the computer. You start thinking about all of the ways that your going to make your own album. then you go to work on monday and the exsightment starts to fade. befor you know it it will be three years down the line and you will not have printed one picture. ..... all in all if you can. get the book
Another option that my photographer offer to us was to get an album on our first anniversary - we get the CD and some prints right after the wedding and he'll hold on to the images to make us an album in a year. That way we can pay when we have a little more spending money. Plus, first anniversary is paper, so its an appropriate gift!
As a photographer I think it's kinda pointless to pay thousands on wedding photography and then NOT get an album... The disc is probably going to sit in a drawer somewhere and get lost and scratched or forgotten about, and unfortunately there aren't high quality albums available to consumers so taking the DIY route isn't a good option unless you want more of a scrapbooky type album or a thin, flimsy album like the Shutterfly ones (which tend to get ripped or bent over time).
Albums are insanely expensive (the nice ones cost the photographer $500-800, and most people charge about 2-3x cost), but I think that if you're investing in a good photographer, it makes sense to also invest in a nice way to display those very nice, very expensive photos!
I'm planning on doing ours with blurb.com or shutterfly.com. I did a shutterlfy book of our engagement trip and we LOVE it. My only complaint is that I put in a couple of night time (dark) shots with the stars which look amazing on our computer but came out all pixelly in the book. Ah well. The rest of it was awesome though! Our photographer is incredible but his books cost $1000 which is ridiculous to me. I understand the time and care he puts into each book (it's pretty much literally art) but I want something I'm not afraid to touch and have touched! I think a $1000 book I would hide away because I'd be afraid of it getting damaged with is really not the point of having a wedding album!
IMO, it really depends on what you want. The quality difference between a photobook that you make and a flushmount or matted album that your photographer makes is significant. A photobook you make (using mypublisher, blurb, shutterfly, etc) is printed on non-photo paper, typically using 4 color printing. A flushmount or matted album made by your photographer will be printed on professional photo paper. Photographs printed on photo paper will have better depth and image quality. To me personally, it is worth having a professionally printed flushmount or matted album, even though the cost difference is significant. However, I've had a really good experience making photobooks, including our parents' albums of our wedding pics, and they are a good choice if you're on a tight budget. As a pp suggested, you could always hold off on getting a pro album until you have the money to do one later down the road if you still want one.
I think the idea to get the album for our anniversary is a really good comprimise. I think that the album is going to cost a LOT more to purchase it separately than it would be in the package though, so I might just see if I can fit it in now in the interest of being more cost-effective.
We didn't add the album ahead of time, but plan on getting one down the road (from our photographer, or from a designer, like pp suggested). We didn't have the money at the time. We might end up spending more down the road since it's not included in some sort of huge photography package, but that's ok. Now that the wedding is over, we have a lot more spending money. :-)
Tell him to give u a credit for the difference, I mean you are STILL using him for that, Let's say it is $700.00 if you buy it now with the package but it is $900.00 later by itself....ask him to let you buy it for the $700.00 later on because you are still using his services just not now, you could at least try it! lol
We had a flush mount album included from our photographer, although we got a deal, under $2000 for a CD of 1000 pics and he stayed for 8 hours. The flush mount is beautiful and a very large album, and then I also made an album on shutterfly. If you can't afford the album, most photographer's charge like $500-2000 for just the album, I would make sure you have rights to your pics on a CD and do not have to purchase your pics and make your own albums. We also had a lot of our pics printed at Walmart and put up many pics in our home, they look amazing! Here are some pages from our flush mount album from the photographer if you want to see how he put them together. A lot of the layouts we did in shutterfly we used Photoshop to make them look like the photographer's....to span the pics across two pages, make sure you use photoshop! I believe there is a website called Mpix that you can make professional flush mount albums for a few hundred dollars as well.
@Gemstone--Stacy's right; they cost hundreds, and extra pages make the prices rise dramatically. Prices vary a bit from company to company, but I was *shocked* when I first started pricing out album vendors. I thought our photographer had gouged us on ours; turns out he barely made a cent.
If you're paying to get a photographer, then, I agree, you should pay to get an album. If you have to wait to get an album, then be absolutely nutty about backing up your images. CDs/DVDs have relatively short lifespans (and are pretty fragile)--read an alarming article here. Good albums, on the other hand, can be passed down for generations.
Be very wary about cheap albums. If the wrong leathers, glues, bindings are used, they might not hold together (or, worse, could damage your images).
P.S. Photo book albums from Blurb, Shutterfly, and Photoworks are already starting to fall apart (I make one each year for family members), and this is in less than three years. They're nice, but they won't last like a properly bound album will.
Blurb.com is a fabulous site thats super easy to use (free software to dowload) in which you have several different style of photo albums to chose from (hardcover, soft cover, photo wrap, small, med, big!!). I made a few albums for my mom and gramma for X-mas and I plan on doing the same for our wedding photos - our photgrapher only charges $250 for the whole cd of edited photos.
I love my album. Honestly, I don't have much skill with Photoshop so I couldn't have made it on my own but if you do have some skills, you can print one up with those online album making places and I've heard it's inexpensive.
I have heard from so many people that they were going to get/make an album after the wedding, but they never did. There are lots of options online, but I don't think any compare to a well-designed album. I also think including it in the package definitely makes it cheaper although I have heard that sometimes a photog will let you buy it later, but still include the package price...
I chose the package without an album with the intention of having one made after a year, or so. I want the really nice couture album, just can't spring for it now. I'll just order a few prints right after the wedding to hold me over.
As expensive as they are, a really good album will still be around for your grandchildren. I am going to fork out the cash for the Leathman album. I love the idea that I will have something to show my grandchild that has pictures of my parents, whom they will probably never know, as well as pictures of me and FH looking young and happy.
Then again, I treasure my family history. My father is a genealogy hobbyist, I adore old photos, and I try to remember deceased family members (I plant bulbs on the graves of my great grandaunts and uncles who died as children, for example). Not everyone has that kind of interest in their history (nor should they if it isn't compelling to them), so a four figure cost may not make sense for everyone.
I'm doing my own traditional, leather bound album, using the hi-res images I have. I'm using MPIX for the parents (10x10) and Somerset for us (12x12). They cost $300 and $500 respectively, for around 40 pages. Depending on what your photographer is charging you, you could potentially save money.
MPIX has been reviewed a lot here on wedding bee so you can do a search and read up on what other bees have said, but all in all they are very positive.
I made a photobook of our honeymoon pictures using blurb and then made a guestbook using MyPublisher. I think if you want a coffeetable, then those companies are fine, but I personally wanted to get really nice traditional albums for the parents and for us.
i'm a sucker for gorgeous pro albums. once i saw them in person it was an easy, easy choice. yes they're expensive (mine is $1000) but so incredibly beautiful. i've made shutterfly and blurb books before and while they came out just fine, they're absolutely nothing like the pro albums we saw. the quality of the print, the thick pages and leather cover...not to mention the design from the photog, is just spectacular. photos are important to us so we skimped on others things that weren't...like flowers, gifts and the dress. it's really up to you, but before you decide on making your own album, i suggest you go take a look at some pro albums in person :)
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My budget is getting really tight, and I'm looking for ways to cut it down. We can save $400 on our photography by JUST getting the photos taken and walking away with a CD of images and a modest print credit. The original package I wanted comes with an album and some included prints.
My question is - are these albums worth it? Has anybody here just paid for their photography then put together their own album - if so, were you happy with it? Any advice would be helpful!