Last week I received another little package for one of my amazing bride & grooms that I wanted to share. Last year, I photographed Andrea & John’s wedding in Los Angeles, CA.  They had ordered a wedding album and after a few revisions to their original design and sending it to print it finally arrived for a quick inspection before I shipped it off.  Andrea and John ordered a square flush mount album with 10 pages, or 20 sides, but I wanted to go over different options and what actually happens during the process of ordering your own custom wedding album.

Fist let me  go over what one of our Custom Wedding Albums look like by showcasing Andrea & John’s recent order.  Although Andrea and John ordered a square album, each bride and groom can choose between a square, vertical or horizontal album. They all have the same quality and  perfectly lay-flat openings that allow a beautiful panoramic view of the an entire 2 page spread.  The layouts are printed in photographic paper and binding  completed by one of the most trusted binding companies in the world.  The album cover has an acrylic cover that provides a smooth, pure crystal like material that showcases one image from your wedding while the back and spine are black leatherette.

The Process of a Custom Wedding Album

1. Receiving your Edited Images – Before we can get started, I first need to finish editing your wedding images so you view and select the images you want for your album.
2. Choosing Images for the Album –  I do have a few pointers give my couples while they’re selection the images for their album.  First: it should tell a story,  so I try to have them pick images that will help them remember different parts of their day or that meant something special to them.  Second: don’t pick too many images.  The more images you choose, the more distracting and cluttered your album will look.  Also, you won’t be able to have those amazing two page spreads that are seriously eye catching.  Third, if you really want a lot of photos in your album, order more pages.  It’s better to add additional pages for your album that to cram a ton in a few pages.  You don’t want your images to look like thumbnails!  Once the bride and groom pick their images they send me their selection and I start working on their album.
3. Album Design –  After we receive your images, I’ll create the first draft of your wedding album which normally takes about two to three weeks.  During this time I go back and retouch all the images you selected and create a custom design that tells your wedding story.
4. Revision – I will upload a private online gallery with your custom album design to show you the design, page by page.  You can then ok the layout or decide to move a few things around, add or remove images or add more pages.  You have up to 2 revisions for your album design with your purchase but you can add more if needed.  Each revision can take an additional 1-2 weeks.
5. Finalizing the Album Design – Once we receive the ok, we send our files to our print and album binding team.  They help us make sure our pages are aligned correctly, print and bind the album and deliver the custom wedding album back to us.  This process can take between six to ten weeks.
6. Final Inspection and Delivery – Once we receive the album, we review the final album for any damages and if it passes our inspection it’s quickly delivered it our brides and grooms.

I’ll share a few spreads from Andrea & John’s custom wedding album below.