One of my favourite services that I offer to my clients is the design and production of custom wedding albums.  I've always been an advocate for printed photos and when it comes to printing in high volumes, albums are the way to go.  Here is my list of 6 reasons why you should order a wedding album (from a professional). 

1. Because we can't rely on current technology for the next 50 years

Think about how much technology has changed in the past 50 years.  Do you have a way of viewing the slides from your parents wedding?  So who's to say your grandchildren are going to have MacBooks laying around to pop in your USB drive and scroll through your 600 wedding photos?  Yet printed photographs from our grandparents childhood, though a little yellowed and worn, are still just that.  You can still see the faded dimples on grandma's cheeks or the crooked smile grandpa never left home without.  There's no way around it, if you want to make sure they're still around when you're 80 years old, you have to print your wedding photos!  

2. Because it's better for grandma

Let's come back from the idea of you being a grandma and think about your current grandparents for a minute.  Have you ever tried to show them pictures on your phone or computer?  It never goes well for me.  They can't get close enough, they don't understand how to zoom or move to the next photo, and it just leaves everyone involved feeling frustrated and disappointed.  Make it easy on the important people in your life by having something they can easily hold and navigate.

3. Because they tell a story of your day with your best photos in one place

Congratulations, you printed your pictures!  All 542 of them.  As 4x6's.  And put them in a shoebox in your closet for your grandchildren to happily sort through in 80 years.  No, nobody wants that!  Even if you pick out your favourites and put them in one of those albums with the plastic film covers, how often have you gone through an old one of those to find pictures missing throughout?  Printed wedding albums provide an opportunity for you to have all of your favourite, most important images together in one book - permanently.  No sorting through hundreds of prints to find what you're looking for, these albums flow through your day, highlighting key moments that you want to remember and pass on to future generations.

4. Because sharing your photos online isn't the same

Trust me, I'm all about wedding blogs and Instagram posts, but they can never tell the full story.  There's something so precious about the time shared sitting on your sofa with your dinner guests, reliving your favourite day ever with them.  You get to tell them all the little behind-the-scenes stories while seeing their reactions and hearing the awe's as they point out their favourite things.  A double tap will never replace this.

5. Because design is hard

It truly is.  I look back at my first digitally designed printed books from high school and they're not great.  It's taken a lot of time, education, and experience to learn what works well together, what flows nicely from page to page, and what will translate correctly from computer to paper.  Things like digital file sizing and colour profiles are foreign languages to most but make a huge difference when putting digital photographs on paper.  There are a lot of do-it-yourself websites out there to make photo albums, but the time and effort it will take someone with no design background to put together a cohesive album honestly isn't worth the risk.  More often than not I send the first draft of an album design to a client and get, "It's perfect, don't make any changes!" right back.   

6. Because you can't get the same service or quality on your own   

Some people have a knack for making things look good.  Maybe you work in a creative field or have always been the artsy one in your family.  That's great if your able to make something you love on your own, but when it comes down to the final product, you won't have access to the best there is.  The top companies producing wedding albums in North America require proof of your profession before you can even see a pricing guide.  They work exclusively with photographers so they can better serve us as we serve you.  When you look at cheaper products you deal with foreign currencies, poor customer service, clunky software, and mass-produced books.  

The fact that I'm able to work with a Canadian company means the dollar never changes, I can pick up the phone and call them anytime, and they've got a great interface with integrated client proofing made specifically for photographers.  For you, it means a gorgeous hand-made album with quality material, seamless pages, and archival paper delivered right to your mailbox.  We've already established that you want a wedding album that will last, this is the way to make sure of that.           

Time to order your wedding album?  Start here :)