Tips for wedding album? Calling photogs and marrieds!

If it were up to me I'd have 10 pages of just detail shots so I'm no help

I've done an album for my mom and for my MIL and focused on a lot of family pictures and reception pictures that included their friends.

How do you have your pictures organized right now? When I made an album for my mom through my photographer she asked for me to 'favorite' 5-10 pictures from each wedding gallery (pre-ceremony, couples portraits, wedding party pictures, family formals, ceremony, reception) and then she worked on a layout from there. If you have a way to mark or save favorites I think I'd start by selecting all of your favorite photos and then narrow down and balance from there.

Here's some much more helpful advice from our editorial team

https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-ideas/how-to-create-the-perfect-wedding-album

Thank you! Right now they are sorted into folders (details, getting ready, portraits, family, ceremony, reception) but it's like 700-some pictures lol. That's a good idea to narrow down my top 10 and then build from there!

This is how I design client and personal albums :

- max of about 40 images. Any more than that and it becomes repetitive. Keep in mind your album consists of the highlight moments. You want the album to tell a story not become the holding tank for every single image.

- break the album down into segments : getting ready then details, first look then details, B+G only then details, B+G and BP then details, family formals, ceremony, cocktail hour, reception details, Grand March, toasts, First Dance/dances, candids. Start with a ring/invitation shot and end with your fav pic of just you and husband.

- each segment should be no more than 2 full 2 page spreads.

- your fav pic from each segment should be the largest, even if it's the entire 2 page spread.

Hope this helps to at least narrow down the selection!

This post is right on time as I was talking with a friend about being overwhelmed with just thinking about how to choose pictures to include in albums. Such helpful advice shared so far!

I just did mine! Our photographer was incredible, sent us over 800 photos and it was SO hard to pick from those because they were all awesome. Our favorites folder probably has 350 images.

Ours turned out to be the maximum 100 pages for the type of album we ordered. Here's how we broke ours down, and we didn't feel it was repetitive at all, perhaps because of the quality and variety of pictures we were supplied:

(each is one spread of two pages, so 50 spreads total)

7 of details and bride getting ready, including mom putting on the veil, opening gift from goom, first look with dad, invites, rings, shoes, bridesmaids, etc.

5 of the groom getting ready, first look with mom, opening gift from bride, shoes, bowties, pictures with dad and brothers an groomsmen

10 of the first look. It sounds excessive, but each is drastically different than the next. We got married on campus where we met, and our first look basically started in our favorite building and proceeded as a stroll along campus. It took me a few spreads to capture the movement of that, where we end up by the church

1 spread of bridal party formals

1 spread of entrance and inside of church

2 spreads of formals with parents and siblings

1 spread of individual pics with bridal party

2 spreads of ceremony detail shots (bagpiper, programs, bubbles, ring dish for blessing of the rings, etc)

8 spreads of the events of the actual ceremony (long, Catholic ceremony with various events)

1 spread for bubble exit

1 - grandparent formals

2 - Rolls Royce exit/champagne

1 - reception details

1 - cocktail hour photos

7 - all reception, including first dance, parent dance, cake cutting, speeches, and nighttime "farewell" photo

Sorry if that was all way too detailed. We wanted to include things in the order that they happened, with spreads formatted so that it told the action of the day, which obviously included our favorite shots. We didn't receive any physical prints, so this will be the body of photos we look at again and again, and there were just too many good photos to include.

We ended up going with a Hudson Album from Adoramapix, which cost us about $550

This is why I include albums in my packages...I'd hate to see my clients either not do it or feel overwhelmed....but I am glad you're doing it!! My offerings, which is what I suggest for album content...

5 hours coverage - 20 spreads (1 spread is 2 pages)

7 hours coverage- 25 spreads

9 hours coverage- 30 spreads.

My recommendation for a 10"x10" album, average no more than 4 images per spread.....so for a 30 spread album, 110-120 photos is ideal for the best design...of course that's just an average and some spreads may contain less or more to make that average. A 20 spread may have 70 photos. You get the idea.

Sure, you can increase the spread and image count...but the viewing process gets tiresome after a certain point. Which from my experience, that's the cusp of being overkill but not quite yet. Ideal.

Avoid too much redundancy. For my sample albums and client albums, getting ready to 2-3 spreads and details maybe one spread. My approach is more about human interaction than staged and styled elements, and that's what people hire me for. I know that differs from the norm. You can lead the album with a photo of you as a couple before getting back to sequential order.

@tjacob that is sooo helpful!!

Jay thank you for your professional expertise! That is really helpful!!

I was wondering, is 10x10 the size you would recommend? I'm using Nations Photo Lab and the price doesn't change based on the size so I didn't know if I should go bigger?

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Anytime! That's my favorite personally....it's large enough to view but still transportable. Plus not as boring as an 8x10 portrait size. My 5 hour package that I book in limited quantity comes with a 20 spread 8x8. I do 10x10 on all others and don't offer alternate sizes unless they really want it. I definitely recommend a storage box and / or dust jacket to store it in. BUT....a nice wooden or designer box, you're more likely to leave it out for viewing instead of in a drawer....but still protected from that clumsy friend...yea, the one who always fucking spills shit. LOL.

Also, if they have Fuji Crystal semi lustre finish for the paper, that's my fav.

Just found this old thread. I'm very happy for the pointers as I am designing my album right now with Adoramapix Hudson - right now we were at 40 pages (20 spreads) but now ballooned to 46 pages (23 spreads).