Parent wedding album

tiffanyleanne47

Hello everyone!
I finally got all of my amazing wedding photos back from our photographer and wanted to make our parents albums. But I am suddenly stuck on what to put in their albums. We have hundreds of images to choose from, but I do not know how to narrow it down. I also do not know what kinds of photos should go or shouldn't go in their albums. Any thoughts or advice?

Thanks!

CMGragain

I am a former MOB.  I was mostly interested in pictures featuring my daughter, both alone and with her groom.  If there are posed family photos, those are a must.  I was more interested in pictures of the ceremony than of the reception, but that is just my personal taste.   Why not just show them the photos and let them choose?

levioosa

I would include (obviously) pictures of both of you, and also any shots of you with parents.  If you had any pictures with full extended family, I would put a few of those in too (one from each side, perhaps?).  I know my parents personally would also want a picture of me with my two best friends from childhood, because they are like family too.  So if that's a dynamic that happens with your parents and bff's, I would include that.  My bff just got married and my dad wouldn't stop texting me on the day of for a photo of her, me, and our other bff.  You could also let them choose, as CMG said, so then you know they are getting prints of what they want.  They'll probably want to see most of the pictures anyways so it will be a win-win.  

monkeysip

If you don't want to just show them and ask them, then really I'm sure your parents would want to see lots of different photos, EXCEPT ones that are just your friends or family they don't know.  Basically stick to photos of you, groom, the parents, and the friends/family they're close to.  

I think you're overthinking this a bit.

JoanE2012

We kept our albums classic - and the ones we gave to our parents are identical to ours.  We included mostly first look, ceremony, couple reception pics (ie first dance, cake cutting) and family photos.  

SP29

Both my and DH's parents are separated/divorced, so we made each of them album.

We included the photos of us, which were pretty standard across all 4 albums, and then chose the family photos that related to the parent. My parents got the same photos of myself and my brothers, likewise for DH's parents, and then we also had taken a large family photo with each parents' side of the family. We also included any photos of guests that are particularly close to any of our parents. I agree that we included mainly ceremony and posed photographs, versus the reception. But there were a few good photos of parents' friends from the reception that we put in. 

MairePoppy

My favorite pic in my album of my daughter's wedding is a posed shot of my entire family -my parents, aunt, uncle, cousins, children and the B & G. Everyone I love is in that picture. DD purchased the rights from the photographer so we made our albums on Shutterfly.

Photo of: formal of daughter in her wedding regalia
               daughter pinning our corsages
               SIL pinning his parents
               my daughter and husband walking down the aisle together.
               daughter and SIL exchange vows.
               officiant invited parents to join hands with couple for blessing of the
                           new family
               B & G walking down aisle after ceremony
               formal shots of B&G with us and with grandparents
               formal wedding party shot
               bride and grooms entrance at reception
               first dance
               F/D and M/S dance
               Cake cutting
               beautiful photo of my mom and dad
               collages of candid shots of fancy dance moves and shenanigans at the                             reception
               family portrait

kvruns

My mom ended up making their own book, mostly because I was taking forever and she likes doing it haha but it was mostly all of the pictures of H&I, pictures of decorations/signs/setting that she especially had helped with, lots of my niece the flower girl, and then any other pictures that included our family. There was a page of just H and his friends and then some pix of his family but definitely mostly our family.

I made a book for H's family for Christmas and I did pictures of the venue (it was a pretty garden setting), some of my favorites of H and I, key moments (dance, cake, unity thing, etc), and then whatever other pictures I had that included their family. There were a lot of fun dancing ones so I would put a lot of smaller pictures on a page like one whole scene of H and his dad having a dance off, ones of his step siblings dancing, etc.

lembaslover

I'm currently working on making albums for both of our parents. I started by using a lot of our favorite shots of the two of us and the ceremony pictures (groom at alter, bride walking down aisle, exchange of vows, first kiss) that we put in our book. I'm not including much of the wedding party for our parents because honestly it's our friends and I don't think they'd care too much. We each had a cousin in our wedding party so I did include the pictures of just us and them. Then I'm customizing it with pictures from my family for my parents and his family for his. 

Maggie0829

I made parent albums for my parents and for my in-laws.  Some of the pictures were the same in both (such as wedding party pictures and pictures of H and I), but then depending on whose album it was I would switch out me and my Dad dancing to H and his Mom dancing.  I also switched out me, H and my side of the family to one of his side of the family.

So I think the best way to go about it is to go through your photos and separate them into your side and his side.  Then pick your favorites from each side.

peachy13

I made parent albums for my parents and my in-laws. I used Shutterfly and the albums came out beautiful. 

For both albums, I included only a few photos of DH and me, a couple of photos of the atmosphere (little decor, the venue, etc.) and then the majority of the photos were very specific to whoever the album was for. For my parents, there were pictures of me and my siblings, my mom's sister, my step-dad's buddy, etc. For my in-laws it was the same sort of thing. 

madamerwin

We did albums for each of my parents and my MIL. It took a long time to decide what to include! In the end, we included the photos that we thought would mean the most to each of them. For my mom, there were photos of me and her getting ready, her with my niece and nephews, shots of the whole family and of the wedding party, photos of my siblings, etc. For my dad and stepmom, I included photos of me greeting each of them, ceremony photos (my dad officiated), father/daughter dance, whole family, etc. H did his mom's album and included a bunch of photos of the guys playing golf (many were her family members), the cake (which she made), family photos, lots of her grandsons and her kids, and the mother/son dance. Plus, we included shots of the first look and other shots of me and H in all of them.

For the ones I created, I started out by adding any photos I thought I might include to Shutterfly (where I made the albums), and then I went in chronological order. It took a few hours to put each one together, but my parents were thrilled with the end result.

labro

My albums came out fairly ginormous for both sets of parents but I tried to fit in a full look at the entire wedding day from start to finish while also fitting in as many photos as possible of their extended family. In the album for my ILs I focused on more pictures of H in the "getting ready" phase (solo shots, posing with his groomsmen, etc.), any shots of their family prior to or during the ceremony, group shots of their extended family, family photos with my ILs after the ceremony, photos from the reception that focused on their family (while also including the big moments like first dance, cake cutting, etc.). I did the same for my parents with a focus on their extended families/more pictures of my "getting ready" phase of the day, etc.

It's been a lot harder to do an album for myself since I basically want to include every single photo from the day...

MandyMost

I had intended to do 3 separate books--1 for us, one for my mom, and one for his parents. We also had hundreds and hundreds of photos (as most people do), but I almost immediately narrowed it down to around 175 photos. So many are nearly the same, and some just aren't particularly good ones, etc. When I started laying out the albums, I realized it didn't make much sense to do separate albums. Was I really going to leave out the pics of my family for his parents? That just seemed odd. They can just flip through those couple pages quicker.

So we made an album for ourselves, and just ordered 3 copies! Essentially it goes through 1) me getting ready/portraits, 2) him getting ready, 3) my family shots and bridesmaids, 4) his family shots and groomsmen, 5) our first look, 6) ceremony, 7) couple shots post-ceremony, 8) reception shots, and 9) some venue shots/detail shots. 

My mom definitely likes the shots of just the groom, and also the couple family shots of his, even though she doesn't know his family well. But they were part of the wedding, and it's nice that they were represented in the book. 

May14TXbride

MandyMost said:

I had intended to do 3 separate books--1 for us, one for my mom, and one for his parents. We also had hundreds and hundreds of photos (as most people do), but I almost immediately narrowed it down to around 175 photos. So many are nearly the same, and some just aren't particularly good ones, etc. When I started laying out the albums, I realized it didn't make much sense to do separate albums. Was I really going to leave out the pics of my family for his parents? That just seemed odd. They can just flip through those couple pages quicker.

So we made an album for ourselves, and just ordered 3 copies! Essentially it goes through 1) me getting ready/portraits, 2) him getting ready, 3) my family shots and bridesmaids, 4) his family shots and groomsmen, 5) our first look, 6) ceremony, 7) couple shots post-ceremony, 8) reception shots, and 9) some venue shots/detail shots. 

My mom definitely likes the shots of just the groom, and also the couple family shots of his, even though she doesn't know his family well. But they were part of the wedding, and it's nice that they were represented in the book. 

----
I basically did the same as you. I ordered three of the same book. Both sides of the family enjoyed seeing the other side as well.

Knottie1454041162

For myself, I would try and pick the pictures that your great grandchildren would want to see.  I find that method helps me nail down a focus on my other photo albums.  That being said, I have not done my own wedding yet so please post any recommended strategies.   Good luck.

BrinkyDink16

We did an album for my parents and included photos that we figured they'd most like to see.  Posed photos of us, any posed ones that they were in, highlights of the reception, and then candid photos of their friends and family.  My husband's family is more into displaying photos than having them in albums so we had a canvas print made for them of the shot of us with them at the ceremony.  All parties were really happy with what we made for them.