Wedding Albums. In a world of digital imagery and photo-sharing sites somehow you still can’t beat the touch and feel of a real wedding album. In the old days of course there was little choice but to protect your prints by putting them in an album and, with the option to have your album professionally made by your photographer, this was often how you would receive the bulk of your images. Nowadays of course you’re far more likely to receive your images online or via DVD or USB stick first and consequently having received all of the images already, many couples are choosing to wait longer before putting together the final album. But should you really wait or is it best to ensure your album is included and delivered in the photography package itself?
Time to put it to the debate!
In the Red Corner, putting forth the case for purchasing your album separately at a later date, she’s a girl of expensive tastes when it comes to albums and still sounds worryingly close to buying one of each of the most expensive albums out there for her own wedding… it’s Dom “The Tog Bride”
In the Blue Corner, arguing the case for getting your wedding album straight away, although admittedly he realises the sum total of his input to any wedding album would be nodding his head and saying “yes dear”, it’s Matt “The Gormless Groom”
Wedding Albums – Sooner Vs Later
FIGHT!!
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Dom: Your wedding album is something to be cherished by not only you but one day by your children and your children’s children and so you want to have something of lasting beautiful quality. Top notch, long-lasting albums are very expensive though and buying them at the same time can make the wedding photography prohibitively expensive at the time of your wedding, whereas if you wait for your album you can give yourselves the chance to save up again.
Matt: Seeing the files digitally can be great but for many couples it’s the anticipation of sitting around with their family and opening up their beautiful album for the first time and seeing those gorgeous prints that is really exciting and it’s lovely to have that as soon as possible after the big day.
Dom: But if you’ve already seen the files digitally isn’t it more exciting to wait and build that anticipation longer so that further down the line you get to experience that excitement about your wedding all over again when the album arrives?
Matt: Weddings are so expensive that sometimes it’s better to get all the costs out of the way at once and then rebuild your savings afterwards rather than have all that expense only to still be saving for more wedding related costs after the big day has been and gone!
Dom: In the old days of film photography there weren’t so many pictures to choose from for your album and selecting the best pictures to include was a relatively simple task. Nowadays you might be receiving hundreds or even thousands of images from your photographer and digesting them all and deciding which ones should make the album takes a lot of time to properly consider.
Matt: Many photographers also offer “parent albums” – smaller wedding albums just for the families which are a lovely way to say thank you for all their help leading up to the big day. If you leave it too long before giving the parent albums though the meaning behind it might be lost.
Dom: There’s so many exciting things happening around the time of the wedding that the album just doesn’t necessarily have the same impact if you receive it whilst you’re still in the “wedding bubble”. Albums can make fantastic anniversary gifts though and give you the chance to really bring yourselves right back to that magical date 1 year on.
Matt: A lot of photographers include the albums in their packages anyway and that being the case there is no financial advantage to delaying having the album made up.
Dom: Designing wedding albums can involve a lot of consultation and consideration and if you’re getting married during the peak wedding months then you may find that your photographer is so busy with other weddings that they may not be able to get your album completed until the quieter winter months anyway, so perhaps it’s better to wait and put more time into choosing your pictures rather than rush to get the pictures chosen quickly and still have to wait for the album to be finished.
Matt: Some photographers only hold onto the images for a limited time as storing all that data safely can be very expensive for them. If you wait too long they may no longer have the images to make up the album or you yourselves may forget all about it until it’s too late.
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So those are our thoughts but where do you stand? You can join the debate by leaving a comment or simply place your vote in our poll below!
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