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Okay, so I'm torn about our wedding album. I'd planned on making my own using one of the high-quality book-making sites that some of the other bees had recommended, but our photographer wrote me this long spiel last night about the benefits of a professional wedding album. (Keep in mind, they charge $1,500 for the 12-spread album and I do freelance graphic design on the side.)
We're already paying $2,000 for unlimited day-of coverage and another $800 for a full-disc and printing rights to all the images from the wedding, so it's not like I won't have high-quality images to work with.
Any other bees on the fence? What about the girls that have already gone through the wedding... which did you do and do you have any regrets? Was it worth it?
we're going the DIY way... my fiance is also does graphic design, so we ensured that we are getting the RAWs and he can have some fun with it himself. altho... finding a photog willing to give us RAWs was a pain.
Glad you said that... I just emailed our photog to verify that we can get the RAW files instead of sized down JPEGs. I'll be bummed if they won't fork over the RAW files, but I'm glad I'm getting to ask before we pay for our disc!
I'd definitely go the DIY route and save the money if you can get RAW images. We get an album included with our package but I'm still going to make my own album on the side the old traditional way, printing pics and stuffing the pics into an empty photo book. I'm not a fan of "designer style" albums, I got one for my boudoir pics and felt that it took away from the individual photos when they were jumbled together in some graphic design. Plus for our wedding album the photographer chooses his favorites which vastly differ from mine based on the ones he chose to display on his blog. I'd rather do my own where I can have total control (hehe, I sound like a control freak).
Try a site like blurb.com and make one. (you can put any fancy stuff on your pics and then add them to this) It is very cheap and you can make an album and print if for less than $50 and hey if it doesn't work out exactly as you want it, you can always take the high res images to a professional place (does not neccessarily have to be the place who took your pics) and have them do it. For me, a $50 experiment to possibly save $1500 is totally worth it!
Btw just curious, which area of the country are you in? I am in getting married in the NJ/NY area(expensive area) and I got 8 hours of photograph for $1500 with the high res images/rights on a dvd. Maybe if you shop around a little more you can get a better deal?
Best of luck with whatever you decide!
They better be the hi res files! I wonder if I need to ask my photog about that?
And what could that photographer possibly have told you that would make a $1500 album sound reasonable? I really love the DIY books, they are professionally printed and the one my friend made after her wedding came out fantastic! My mom started going on about the wedding album too, but she doesn't know I can make it myself.
i'll be paying for a professional album, but our photog only charges $800 for a 11x13 (i think) sized album with 20 pages.
I did make 3 different albums of our wedding photos for family members using snapfish or shutterfly. They turned out nice, but the quality just wasn't what I wanted for our own personal album. Quality is the main reason I'm going with the pro who offers the album with the flushmount design and hard pages.
We are splurging for an album from our photog for us (granted ours will only be like 300 bucks for 15 pages) and then we are going to make nice books for our parents.
The books & some framed photos are going to be our Christmas presents this year!
I got the professional album, but uh, i have looked at it once. Maybe twice, in the past year.....
Wow! This really makes me feel SO much better about it. Glad to hear that lots of people are going this route.
Meliss - I agree with you. I understand that the pages are thick and aren't going to bend, but sometimes they end up feeling a little cold or uninspired to me. I also don't envision that we'll be sitting down each night to look through our album... :)
Schatzie821 - We're based in Houston, but getting married in Kansas. Part of the reason we're paying so much is because I'm such a style snob when it comes to photography — I really wanted an editorial-style photographer, rather than a traditional one, which is a little harder to find in Kansas.
Arnyth - Verbatim... Does this sway you? "We have a lot of clients who are designers who plan on designing their own albums, but then realize they don't have access to the professional quality albums that we do. Most of them end up coming back to us for their albums, but then aren't able to get the discount since they didn't have it as part of their wedding package. If you are wanting to work on your own album, just do a lot of research to make sure you will be able to get your hands on a good enough quality book. It is, afterall, the only wedding album you will ever have so you want one that will truly stand the test of time. If you can't find anything and decide you want us to do the book for you (even if we do it, it is a collaboration between you and us, so your design input is very much included), just let me know. We're just able to get a better quality product in the end."
Amariem25 - That's a really good gift idea. Maybe I'll do that for his parents and mine after everything is said and done.
I'm having the same debate although it's more like buyers regret since we already signed the contract. Our photographers charge $1500 for their albums and sent us a link to 'our albums are like these' and of course I fell in love with those. But it's absolutely beautiful, the same as Mrs Avocado's I believe, http://www.kissweddingbooks.com/
Now I have to decide if I want to pay an extra $400 for the kiss ones or their usual ones...anyone use kiss before??
We're going the DIY route. Just because then we get more freedom on what gets laid out where and things. We're also probably going to scrap getting a book of just photos and do a more scrap booking type guestbook with photos that'll double as our wedding album.
@Uskadelig: I think what your photog is stressing is that many people do not have the software to edit and resize pics and they don't have the knowledge of how to display pics in an album (for example try to have profile pics facing the middle of the book rather than facing the outer edges) so most people probably give up and come back to him.
But you have a graphic design background though so you know how to edit and crop images as well as having understanding of page layout. I'd totally DIY if I were you (I personally am - I don't even want the photog to edit my pics as I want to do my own filters on them).
I would totally go the DIY route... you could have awesome books for everyone at a much lower price!
We did all of our albums on Blurb. I'm not a pro graphic designer but I have a little bit of background in it, so I figured I had very little to lose--at least we were definitely going to get our parent albums there. We got them and they look fantastic. There is a huge quality difference between the Blurb albums, though, and the professional albums my photog offers (which are much larger, heavier, better binding, higher quality printing, etc.). The only problem is we don't have $1200-1800 for an album right now, and we probably won't for the foreseeable future. Knowing that, I think we got a great product with our $50 album. ;)
If you're unsure, I agree with the PP who said to DIY with an inexpensive site and then see what you think of it. If you love it, you're done. If you don't, make it a parent gift!
I will be going the professional route but I have been gifted with the money. That said I will only be buying one and will try to make the others for family members. I suspect I will use blurb but the KISS idea is good too, I have never seen that company before this thread, thanks girls :)
I have been thinking over this as well. Our photographer is on vacation and I have been counting down the days (3!) until she gets back so I can ask her about album pricing. It was included in our original package. I want a high-quality flush mount album, which I know are expensive and I am willing to pay for professional quality and design, but we don't have over $1000 for it.
@amariem25: Is your album flush mount? $800 seems like a good price! I have just been hearing $1500, and I think that is unreasonable.
If our photographer quotes us over $1000, I am first going to ask her if she would consider working with another, more affordable album company. There are a lot of album printing companies out there that work directly with photographers, and I know photographers have their preferences, but its possible we could choose a more affordable one that is still professional.
If that doesn't work out, and its out of our price range, I am probably going to design my own Picaboo book. They are about $500 for a true flush mount, leather bound album. I'd love to hear some reviews on them!
While I'm all for saving money, I know that it would never get done if it was left up to me to assemble. You have to consider your time being money as well.
I suggest using MPix. I used them for our album, and it looked like a pro had done it! They have templates and backgrounds, or you can just design your own file, since you do design on the side, size it, and order it that way.
I will definitely be doing my own, but a high quality one. It probably will still cost in the hundreds, but I can't justify spending $1500 on an album that I will hardly ever look at. Plus I enjoy photography, and I could do a nice layout I'm sure.
Since you do graphic design, I'm sure you will be good at this. Plus then you can make little versions for parent albums and it will be cheaper too. A lot of photographers charge $500 for each parent album, and thats crazy considering their "time" already went into the larger version, so its just a copy of the bigger one, but in a small version.
I will be doing a lot of researching and choosing the best DIY album.
I know a lot of professional photographers use Pictage to produce their wedding books... I tried looking over their website to see if consumers can use it, too, and it looks like it's just a matter of enrolling in a membership, which can be cancelled at any time. So, maybe you sign up, build your book and then close out your account after your book arrives? It still would be a fraction of the cost, I think. Of course, this would probably only be an option, if your photographer supplies you with the RAW files.. Hmmm! Decisions, decisions.
@europomme: What company are you thinking of using? I am leaning towards Picaboo (http://picaboo.com/products-pricing/flush-mount.html) but Mpix and Somerset are also in the running.
I think I will go with Somerset after talking to different people on these boards. Then I will use Adorama to make parent albums since it's significantly cheaper :)
I just got our engagement photo/guestbook today from Photobook Canada and it's amazing! I absolutely love it! I'm really impressed with the quality. I know they have an American division as well. We bought $115 coupons through Groupon for $35, so our entire 40 page book was $35 including tax, and no delivery since I picked it up from them. Our photographer actually is using our engagement session as a sample book for their studio, so I stole a few layout ideas from him. To buy a book from him costs $1000. Hmmm let me think..... $1000....... or $35....... We bought 6 more of the same Groupons so we could put them towards wedding albums for us and our parents as well as FI's grandmother who lives in the UK and can't make it over for the wedding.
Sign up for Groupon, they said they were going to have Photobook USA coupons coming up shortly after the Canadian one :)
Most definitely DIY. Fiance is a graphic designer AND we are trying to save money and use money received from the wedding for those. Easier than having to cough it up 12 days before the wedding because each album is a couple hundred. DIY allows us to make albums for our parents, too, beacuse a lot of the sites have discounts on multiple print runs. And, since we'll be heading into Thanksgiving when we get our pics back, hopefully there will be some good codes available.
I just can't justify the cost of the professional albums. They're beautiful but I'd personally rather put that money into our house fund. I love DIY albums and actually the album I'm most excited about is our wedding scrapbook that I will be making!
Agh. Just got an email back from our photographer saying that they will only supply us with the JPEGS, not the RAW files. Bum-mer.
Agh. Just got an email back from our photographer saying that they will only supply us with the JPEGS, not the RAW files. Bum-mer.
I saw a few of you ladies mentioned the KISS albums. I just wanted to point out that KISS only sells albums to professional photographers and not the general public. If you do not have a business license and are registered to pay state sales tax they will not sell the albums to you.
There definitely is an overall quality difference between the Pro Albums and the DIY album. It is mostly in the actual printing process, the type of paper it is printed on and the overall archival quality of the album. A lot of these DIY company's are selling press printed books which are not archival and are printed on low quality / magazine quality paper. Whereas they will look pretty now, in five or so years the colors will fade and the pages will start to deteriorate. So its really a question of longevity.
There is nothing wrong with getting a press printed book (that is what blurb, mpix etc. are selling) instead of a flushmount album if it is all your budget can afford, but definitely consider saving up to get a pro album down the road a bit. Also, most [nice] photographers will allow a payment plan for albums after the wedding (i do).
If you are going to make a DIY Press Printed book, I highly recommend LULU.com over all of the others. Their print quality is superior to a lot of the others out there, and they are who I direct all of my clients to.
Hope this helps out a bit!
ciao. kelly
@atomic: Hi Kelly, I'm debating between KISS and the leather albums my photographers normally work with. They happen to send me the link to the KISS albums and I fell in love and now I'm in a love pickle. They know the guys so they said they could get one for me it would just cost a little more. Just wondering if you have an experience/opinion on them. I'm mostly entirely drawn to them due to aesthetics vs. the other leather options our photographer offers. Thanks!
@Uskadelig: I notice you said you are getting married in Kansas. Who are you using for your photographer?
I'm just wondering where everyone got the idea that you need RAW files to create your own albums or make prints? This is COMPLETELY NOT TRUE. Some of the best/most expensive photographers in the world don't even shoot in RAW, they shoot JPG so there are no RAW files to be had. I am a professional photographer, and while I do shoot RAW, the files I use to create albums are already converted to JPG.
Some things you all need to know about RAW:
1.) You can't even open a RAW file on your computer unless you have professional editing software.
2.) You need to convert RAW files to JPG in order to submit them for printing so there is no "higher quality" available with prints. It's all the same stuff. What I print is what I give my clients to print.
3.) The primary reason photographers shoot RAW is that it gives them more room to correct an exposure and white balance if they are slightly off. The photos provided by your photographer should already have undergone these corrections, so you have absolutely no use for the RAW photos unless you are getting your disc unedited and your photographer messes up exposures.. badly... or if you plan on putting some crazy special effects on them (again, you'll need editing software to do so).
This is also one of the primary reasons photographers don't like to provide RAW photos, because they generally don't want non-professionals manipulating their work in what they consider to be unflattering ways.
We got a nice album in our package, but I was ready to pay for it - IMO it's one of those things I'll only do once in our life and photography IS our splurge item for the wedding.
But if I had experience with photos at all, I'd very much consider doing it ourselves.
Definitely doing the DIY thing... with blurb.com. I have a digital scrapbooking program that I can use for any special effects that blurb doesn't have. I tried them out by making an engagement book for my brother and his FI and I was happy. I agree with other posters... you can DIY and if you're not happy, print them out professionally.
Bakerella, I checked out photobook canada, but they don't have layflat pages. Also, are the pages flushmount or the thin type of paper? They look more like photobooks than albums, but the prices do look pretty good for the quality. I still think I like Adoramapix better than Photobook Canada though, if someone is thinking of doing the photo book instead of a more expensive album..
@helstrong We're using Jason Domingues. He's a KC photog... It was between that and Wirken Photo. Have you started shopping for yours yet?
As I pro I feel pretty strong about this one. I personally want my wedding photos to be around when my kids get married one day. I've testes tons of companies, some consumer but mostly pro, my studio samples get handled quite a bit to it was easy to see how quickly the consumer ones fell apart.
Some one mentioned they got a pro album and have looked at it twice, but I see it as an investment that gets more valuable with time. What about your 50th anniversary or when your significant other passes away {in old age of course!} how valuable will it be then?
Disks, RAW JEPG who knows how long these digital formats will be around. Remember cassette tapes and floppy disks? You may not have an opportunity to DIY again if your original falls apart.
I only offer my clients products I know are a good investment, Meaning I know that in the long run they are going to get their money's worth. Most of them cost me $800+ to produce plus a good 20-40 hours of design time but I also take a lot of direction from my clients and we go through as many versions and changes they need until it's perfect so that may be a bit longer then most photogs.
What I don't understand is how people can spend thousands of dollars on a photographer then {excuse the term} cheap out {not just in dollars but in quality as well} when it comes to displaying and archiving the images. It just doesn't sounds like a good move in the longevity of the photography investment.
If you are a graphic designer, why don't you see if you can work with your photographer for a discount if you do all the laying out of the album? I have done that in the past with other graphic design clients. As long as they use the same software {Adobe InDesign which is pretty much standard if you are a designer} and get me the files. It's less work for me so I don't mind giving a discount and I know that their wedding photos will be protected for the rest of their lives {less total disaster like flood or fire}.
I could not possibly agree anymore with @PizzutiStudios I want my wedding album to be around for my grandkids and greatgrandkids to see and I honestly doubt that would happen with a DIY version like Blurb (and don't get me wrong, I like them, but just not for my wedding album) or something like that. The way I look at it, why bother and hire a pro photographer if you aren't going to do anything great with the photos?
Hmm, my parents wedding album in black and white prints in a regular scrapbook is still around and in pretty good shape. So is my first wedding album (encore bride here) from 10 years ago, looks like the photos were taken yesterday and I had just made those prints at a local photo store. Why shouldn't DIY albums last??
I am a designer (jewellery not graphic) and I think there is something so unique and personal about making your own wedding album/scrapbook that you just can't capture with the glossy pro albums. Sure, they ARE pretty and high quality etc, but if I would really think of my grandchildren I would much rather they get something I made with my own hands, imbued with my spirit so to speak (excuse the cheesy metaphor, but I guess that comes closest) than a glossy yet somewhat soulless professional album. If prints aren't exposed to sunlight they last for a really long time (my parents still have photographs from their great-grandparents weddings, which are in pretty good shape) especially in albums. I would say window mounting professional quality printouts, done at your local photostore, and embellishing your book with little memories from the day itself (a place card, and order of service booklet, a pressed flower from your boquet) - is what will be cherished for years to come.
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