Wedding Albums?

Knottie1443489624

I am in the process of hiring my photographer and of course, they offer albums. I was shocked to see how much they cost! I looked online and found several sites where you can order wedding albums at a a fraction of the cost....I am wondering if anyone has gone this route? Any recommendations/feedback?

Tyvm

Hi there, and welcome to TK!

I have made several [travel/life] photo albums on Shutterfly and Picaboo over the years (get on their mailing list, and wait until a *really* good sale or coupon becomes available). All these photo albums have come out fine. Both offer pretty good "what you see is what you get" online layout tools. Shutterfly also allows you to put a password on the photo-collections you upload so you can share photos with friends/families. I just pulled out a 2005 Shutterfly album of mine to see how its held up, and the photo quality looks fine. Although, at the time, I knew very little about layout, graphic design, and curating so the style of the album is immature. 

Most online photo album services have standard and "professional" quality albums, you'll notice. Compared to the rates my photographer gives me, the professional quality albums from Shutterfly/Picaboo are only a couple hundred dollars cheaper than what my photographer would provide. Professional artists deserve to be paid for their work/time.

So, in short, you can get a cheaper wedding photo album using cheaper paper, cheaper leather/fabric covering, and doing it on your own. But depending on your eye for design, the actual style of the book may not be to your liking.

IMPORTANT! In order to print your own photo albums, you need to have the appropriate copyright release from your photographer. If you can't figure out if s/he offers this, you should just ask them if it's possible, with their provided copyright release, to print a photo album on your own with Shutterfly, Picaboo, or Mpix.

http://www.mpix.com/
MPIX is often recommended by professional photographers, as it is a front-facing spin-off for a professional photo printing service. I have never used them before, but I will probably use them to print our photos, if not our album as well. Are they more expensive than Shutterfly/Picaboo? Probably. But sometimes it's worth it to splurge on archival paper

lnixon8

My photographer offered an album as part of my package but I printed all the rest of photos and made albums for 4 parents and 3 grandmas on shutterfly. I actually like my shutterfly ones better since I had more control over what photos went where, which ones were big etc...why is it that no one believes you when you say you don't want pictures of your shoes?

photokitty

If it is a professional quality leather bound book with thick lay-flat pages (like cardboard thick) then those books usually cost at least $200 to have made. As in that's the cost for the photog, then you are paying for their time and talent - that's why they are so expensive. I was pretty shocked when I started looking in to the pro lab pricing on albums.

If it is a hardback book with regular pages, then you can get one of those made at Picaboo (my preference), Shutterfly, etc for around $30 with a coupon. I would take my photos and make one myself for my parents. 

I chose a package with an album, as I described above, bc I didn't want to pay $200 plus to make it myself. I made one for our parents and us at Picaboo as well.

Only you can decide if you really want a fancy album. I have looked at ours twice. Personally I wouldn't have shelled out the extra $500 if it wasn't included.

It sucks they are so expensive...and that price was a few years back when I was researching in case I decided to go into the wedding business.

I make wedding albums for my family, I've made 6 so far. It takes hours and hours. If not days. Assuming she is truly doing a custom layout and not just dropping photos in to pre-sized frames on the page. Granted, I'm pretty good at it and I spend the time needed to make it look really nice - layout wise.

If your photog is really good at it and you want a quality album,I'd say it is worth it. If I was able to get my design in the fancy book (I use Picaboo, bc it's cheap, but it's not pro-printing quality) I would have been thrilled. My photog isn't quite as good as deign layout as I am, so I wouldn't have paid for his book if it wasn't included. (BUT I'm also SUPER picky, bc I can do it myself, but I can't bc I need to be in the photos  )

floridabride44

I've made a bunch of albums on Shutterfly and I've been happy with all of them. If you sign up for enough wedding mailing lists you'll probably end up getting codes for free books sent to you. I ordered free invitation samples from David's Bridal and they sent me a free Shutterfly book code in my "Thanks for Your Order" e-mail. Sweet! 

We got an album from our photographer because it was included in our package, and I like it, but the Shutterfly one I made is a lot more custom and personal.