***lboerner88*** and anyone else who wants to give any input

laura_fett

Laura,
So as I was waiting for Kate to put our e-pics up I was looking through her website and saw your photo guest book. How much did that cost? Was it worth it to do it through Kate, or do you think it would be okay to just go through Shutterfly or some other company like that. I liked her ideas of putting things like: give them ideas for date night, and Mark loves Laura because....

Everyone else: what are your opinions on going through your photographer vs. online making the guest book yourself. I was planning on making it myself, and then I saw lboerner88's which is super cute! Any thoughts? TIA!

lboerner88

well I LOVE LOVE LOVE our book! Kate is amazing at creating them so I let her create ours all by herself, but she is extremely open to suggestions if you want to give her input. I know she recently made one for another couple where they did what you were talking about before...like "Give the bride and groom suggestions for date night" on each page. Our book was included in our package (we chose package #3) so I am not sure exactly how much it is separate. She is really good about letting you customize your package though, so I am sure that it wouldn't be much.

As far as Kate vs. a Shutterfly (or other company), I think that it just depends on the quality that you want. Kate uses professional printers that use either 6 or 8 different inks, where as other places only print with 3 inks. So the coloring of the pictures might not turn out exactly the same if you use a different place, but I don't think that means it would look bad...just not the same. When I asked her about it she said they just don't print as "warm" as with her professional printer. Also, the pages and cover are extremely nice of our book. The pages lay flat when you open it and they are a bit thicker than with other types that I have seen.

I can show it to you in person sometime if you want to see it before making your decision

Hope that helped!

leggwilliams

I put mine together on my own using shutterfly. I have yet to order so I can't give comments on the quality, however, I'm going to tell you it was kind of a pain in the ass to put together. If you use the premade templates on the site, I'm sure it would be a lot easier, but I'm a perfectionist and spent HOURS obsessing over each detail on each page. So I really think it depends on what type of look you're going for (do any of the premade templates fit that look?) and the time you're willing to spend on it

lindseybrouwer

I did mine on shutterfly and it wasn't hard at all and I was very happy with the outcome!  The tricky part is to figure out how to incorporate enough blank areas for people to sign their names.

Plus if you register at Target you get a Shutterfly gift card (at least we did last Fall).  So that made our book very reasonable (I think it was under $30).  So if you can spare an afternoon, its worth it!

No matter which way you decide, having this as your guest book is a great idea.  Ours is sitting out on our coffee table and I look at it every once it awhile.  I don't think I would do the same if we had a "regular" guest book!

I can send you a link to view my shutterfly book.  we had the perfect amount of pages for 150 guests (some just signed names but a majority included a personal note).  Email me at lrbrouwer@yahoo.com if you want me to forward the link to you!

lboerner88

side note to laura:

AHHHHH YOUR PICTURES ARE UP

They are so good! You two are adorable in them and the location is gorgeous! I absolutely LOVE your white dress and white shoes so so so so so cute!

Just thought you should know (although I am sure that you already knew!)!