Hi! My name is Michelle and while I'm new to all of you I'm actually not new to the knot. I was engaged in 2004 and married in 2005 at the Desert Botanical Garden. I was on here every day planning my wedding and then moved on to the nest.com and I'm still friends with the girls from the message boards to this day!
Anyway, I'm here to pose a question to all of you brides because I know you all are the best resource when it comes to everything wedding related. I'm an architect and last year I was laid off from a firm that I loved working at. I was able to land another job, but it's just not working out. I am absolutely miserable and I really really really want to quit, if anything for the sake of my health. Unfortunately the interviews and job leads I'm getting aren't working out because of the economy. :-(
So rather than let my design background go to waste, my idea was to create a business from home doing custom wedding album design for the DIY challenged newlywed, or the newlywed who just doesn't have the time to sit down and design an album. (this happens often!) When I got married I did my own wedding album using photoshop and I ordered it through mypublisher.com. People LOVED it because it wasn't done using templates. Since then I have made albums for family and friends in my spare time, and not just limited to weddings. I've done boudoir and some other things also.
Right now I'm researching everything that's out there already. So far I've only found two or three credible looking companies that actually provide design service for the bride (check out
http://www.storybookpages.com/index.html). All other design places only cater to photographers. That's how they get those really expensive books that come in your photography packages.
So if you don't mind, I'd like to get your feedback on this idea before I go marching into my boss' office and putting in my notice! Based on my research, companies are charging around $200 to design a 20 page album, plus additional $ per page. Sounds a little expensive, but the difference is that YOU get to own the layouts and get them printed wherever and whenever you want (mypublisher, blurb, shutterfly, etc.) and get however many copies you want. These companies also offer the high quality albums that you can only get through your photographers. As a registered graphic design business with album manufacturers, I would do the same and also offer the disc of your layouts for you to own so you can print smaller albums elsewhere if you want. So tell me what you think about pricing, product offerings, anything at all that might help me start this up or deter me from doing it at all.
My goal is to provide a beautiful product for the bride while doing something I really enjoy and get my bills paid. :-)
If you've made it through this far - THANK YOU! I look forward to all of your feedback. Happy planning!