Parents' Albums

KimWard

I apologize ahead of time, I know this is asked all of the time, but I never paid attention b/c I figured we'd order albums for our parents from the photographer. Well, turns out they are pricey (IMO- anywhere from $109-$209) and only include 24 pics. I don't know what I was thinking. So we are going to make them ourselves.What are some of the sites you guys used? All I remember is blurb for some reason. I checked out their site real quick...it looks nice, but I was also thinking of just printing out the pics and putting them in a nice album? Anyone who used online sites, any particular reason? Do you feel they are a lot nicer/hold up better than just putting pics in an album?Any advice is greatly appreciated- TIA!

dicer2

Blurb was bad for me.  I like Shutterfly.  Some people have recommended mypublisher and mpix also.

kwynn

My parent albums are 24 sides and double what you were quoted. However, it isn't 24 photos, but 24 sides. You can usually, in a parent album that's 5x7, get up to 3 photos per page. Of course you don't want every page with 3, you want some with 1, some with 2, and some with 3. (This is only if it is a coffee table style photo book. If it is traditional matted, then you're right, you can only get 24 photos total. I completely forgot about the traditional matted style as I was writing this).You can use MyPublisher, Shutterfly, Snapfish, mpics, Blurb, etc.Could you get the pro albums for the parents anyway and give them as a Christmas gift? I make little albums all the time one Shutterfly and Snapfish, but the pages are magazine like in quality. My photog's albums are board book like in quality and seem more durable than what I have made if durability/keepsake is a concern for you.

themissizz

Our relatives loved the printed books from blurb/snapfish/etc (we used snapfish) more than they would have liked a regular album.  It's so much clearer- the pictures aren't below a layer of plastic, they're different sizes, I added quotes and grouped pictures together on pages.  It was just much better than a traditional album.

McBridetobe

We used mypublisher for parent albums.  I liked them and liked how I could do more than one picture per page.  My mom wanted a whole lot of pictures - she would not have been able to pick 24 or 48 or whatever.  There are probably over 100 images in her album...although some of them are small. 

KimWard

Yea, I'm not sure if they would like a bunch of pictures like that (some being small). I will have to show them an ex. and see if they like that better vs. a traditional album. I just figured if pics were under plastic, they'd be preserved better. I also like the idea of adding quotes.Kwynn, I know that price is really not that bad, but it just seems like a waste to get them parents' albums from the photog. When I told my mom how many pics (and I'm pretty sure on this...it's either 24 4x5s or 24 5x7s)), she said, "that's all?" I figured I might as well make my own since she wants more than 24.Thanks for the ideas/input so far! I will talk to my parents and see what's best!

McBridetobe

Kim, I *think* I could send you mine finished parent book electronically as an example if you wanted to show them. 

KimWard

Oh that would be great if it's not too much trouble! You can only see so many sample pages on sites like Blurb. LaChicaDeAyer22 at yahoo dot com. Thanks!!

McBridetobe

NP, YGM!

KimWard

Thanks- very easy to view. I love the set-up and background of some of the pages. I think this is something my parents may go for, but we shall see!

McBridetobe

Yeah, I really liked the backgrounds too!  That is the one that we gave my parents...the one for the ILs was just plain black or white pages.

kbielak17

Ooh can you e-mail it to me too? I'm still a ways away from doing this but I wouldn't mind looking into it. Thanks!! kbielak17 at hotmail

kwynn

Oh, I see. That is probably traditional matted with 24 photos. Mine are coffee table books (similar to the ones made on Blurb, etc, just with different, thicker pages). I think it is a lot of money too, personally, but once my mom and his mom saw them at the photogs, they told me they didn't want my homemade albums from MPix, which I think are really nice.(For the record, neither my MIL nor mom really like when I make stuff. It's not their style!) Also, if you search for coupons, you can often get a buy one, get one on those websites, so the whole thing should only cost you about $24 for both!

McBridetobe

Sure Karen, YGM!