5 Tips to Design a Timeless Wedding Album
As a photographer, I LOVE designing wedding albums for clients but I’ve noticed through the years more and more clients prefer to design their own. I think having complete control over what photos are important and the way they are displayed is important, but there are some tips and tricks I’ve learned when designing client albums over the years.
Tell a story! You want to start with the details and beginning of your day and go through the last moment. 20 years from now you may not remember every detail, design your book to remind you! Your grandkids may ask what shoes you wore or what your wedding day looked like a book is a perfect way to explain it in detail! You don’t need to include every hero shot, those can be for your wall prints.
Clean layout, less is more per page. The only time I suggest overlapping images or a collage is for dance shots. I suggest a max of 3 images per page but really one or two over a spread has the most impact.
Nothing smaller than a 10x10 for the main album, I offer 8x8 and 5x5 for parents’ albums as gifts but they are really too small to see every detail. My preferred size is 12 x12.
Multiple albums; I’ve had several clients who couldn’t narrow down their images to just one book, it’s totally “normal” and ok to order more than one!
Organize your favorite photos first! Most likely your photographer delivered your images through an online gallery, there is a way to favorite or heart all the images you love as you look through them, and from there you can narrow down which ones are best for the walls in your home vs. which ones tell the story of your day.
Extra tips :
Always have faces looking into the spine of the book, not out, this is just a general rule for what’s pleasing to the eye.
Keep in mind matte paper is my absolute favorite but can often show wear much more quickly than gloss does. I generally recommend if you want your album to last YEARS, you print your framed images on matte and get a glossy book to make sure it holds up for years to come.
Order albums directly from your photographer, chances are you don’t have the same access to print labs as they do. Professional print labs require verification and test prints and don’t work with the general public.
My absolute favorite print products are albums, gallery boards, and deckled edge prints!
