Should We Get One?

Couples spend hours upon hours planning a wedding.  They spend hours dreaming about their wedding.  They invest a great deal (both energy and finances) into the wedding day itself.  The day comes – it’s wonderful, beautiful, and filled with joy.  And yet, in what seems like a blink of an eye, the day ends!  The main part of my job as a professional wedding photographer is to help couples hold on to these moments that pass by so quickly.  To freeze them in time with beautiful digital photographs.  And yet, I believe that the very best way I can serve clients in preserving memories is by providing them with a professionally designed and printed wedding album.  The following are three reasons why I believe couples should seriously consider purchasing an album from their wedding photographer.

The Showcase Effect

First, showcase.  As far as digital photography has come, and as detailed, crisp, and beautiful as digital images can be (thanks to strides in technology), it still has its limits.  You cannot hold a digital image in your hand.  This highlights one strength of digital photography that can also end up being a weakness when it comes to weddings.  Digital photography allows us to provide couples with SO MANY more images than back in the film days.  I’d say on average (depending on how many hours I am covering) I’m giving clients around 1,000 images from their day.  While it’s amazing to have so many memories (and I think important), it can also be overwhelming if you are trying to share your day with others, or even look back on it yourself. 

An album tells a story.  It captures the very best from your day in a way that scrolling through hundreds of images can’t.  Would you rather celebrate your 50^th Anniversary with your grandchildren by clicking through images on a monitor, or sitting side by side turning the pages of a beautiful album?  There’s something much more intimate about looking at a book together.  This brings us to the next point: investing in products that stand the test of time.

A Wise Investment in a Quality Wedding Album

Professional photographers have access to professional labs.  For example, I order all of my clients’ prints and albums from Millers Lab – one of the top in the country.  I know that anything Millers sends me is going to be of the highest quality.  Their products meet archival standards – and THAT is what allows an album to last 100 years or more without fading.  While some nonprofessional labs may also print albums on archival standard paper, they do not provide handcrafted albums with pages mounted on sturdy, thick pages.  This is one major aspect that sets a professional album apart.  You’ll notice the difference when holding pages that have substance and aren’t bendable.  The quality is top notch.    

Ok, confession.  I’m super nerdy about numbers and math.  I love it.  Not necessarily normal for most artists I suppose.  Let’s look at some numbers together because I think it’s really important and striking.  According to the Knot, the average cost of a Delaware wedding is about $29,900 (based on 2019 data).

My pricing for a beautiful, professional quality wedding album starts around $345 (8×8 album with up to 20 images).  That means an album could be less than 1.2% of the overall cost of your wedding.  Suppose you’re not spending close to $29,900 on your ceremony/reception.  Let’s assume total costs are around $20,000.  A $345 album is still less than 1.8% of those costs and a larger, $855 album (10×10 with up to 80 images) is just over 4% of the total cost. 

What’s my point in dragging you through all these figures?  I think it is wise and helpful for couples to think about what percentage of their wedding budget is going towards each service.  When investing so many dollars, doesn’t it seem worth it to set aside 1.5-5% on something that will last, an album you can enjoy looking through for years to come? 

Less Work for the Clients

The wedding is over and you get back to your normal routine.  It’s hard to carve out time to devote to designing your own album!  Believe me, I get it.  I take photos for a living, and when it comes to my personal life, I struggle to take the time make prints and albums for my family.  There is always something else that needs our attention.  Part of the beauty of purchasing an album from your photographer is that you aren’t only paying for the product itself, but for the time that it takes to design and put it together.  One less thing you have to worry about. 

And remember, your wedding photographer is someone you trust (I hope, lol). One likely reason that you hired them is because you like their style.  If you can trust their artistic style in capturing your memories, you can be confident that they will display those memories beautifully.  You’ll always enjoy opening up that book and reminiscing. 

Looking for a Photographer?

I’ve been capturing weddings professionally for 15 years.  I find so much joy in delivering albums to my clients!  If you are searching for a photographer who will focus on listening to you, capturing your love story with bold and beautiful photography, and providing high quality print products and wedding albums, I’d love to chat.