Picture Perfect Wedding Albums
Photo: Joseph West Photography
While fine wedding photographers, including Houston’s Steve Lee of Steve Lee Photography, make photos available to wedding clients soon after the wedding through online galleries, proofing sites, and social media, there is nothing like a beautifully crafted physical album to preserve your most cherished photos, and endure as a family keepsake for generations to come.
For Lee’s clients, the “classic leather book” is the album of choice. As for photo layout, “Our design has always been simple, storybook-style designs. I look at the book design like a storyboard for a film. I want to convey the story of the wedding with my design.”
Photographer Matt Trevino notes, “My top-selling albums are the 20-page 12-by-12-inch and 10-by-15-inch flush-mount wedding albums”—which feature thick, solid pages, with photos printed completely flat across the page. “They are bound with premium leather and you have your choice of embossed or printed text on the front cover.” Trevino personally designs the album, using his client’s photo selections, and employing “a contemporary layout that isn’t cluttered and is very easy on your eyes. My brides love these albums because they instantly become family heirlooms.” Many photographers also offer gallery wraps, where an image is printed directly to a canvas and wrapped around a wood frame—an ideal choice for mantel-ready wedding portraits and engagement-shoot favorites.
Other customizable choices, and albums created using unusual materials such as acrylic, glass, metal and interesting fabrics, can be found at Etsy or sourced by your photographer at your request.
A good wedding photographer will go beyond the big picture, to capture small nuances of color, sentiment, and beauty—and you’ll want to mix these detail shots in with larger-focus photos.
Another way to bring texture and drama to your wedding album is by mixing color shots with black-and-white images. Generally speaking, black-and-white is excellent for action shots—your descent of a staircase with your train trailing behind you, your tearful embrace of your father when he sees you in your gown for the first time, your bouquet toss, an intimate kiss with your groom in the middle of a crowded dance floor. Vibrant color, meanwhile, is best for capturing flowers, lighting, cake decoration and room shots.
Lastly, don’t go overboard with album design. Classic shots, well laid out, with sufficient white space in between, will trump razzle-dazzle graphics and gimmicky album design anytime—and ensure that your wedding album will fill you with as much joy years in the future as it does when you open it for the very first time.
