Beautiful Album

Dazzling albums at a surprisingly low price. Affordable enough to get copies of your album for special family members and friends!

I'll create a beautiful album that tells the story of your wedding by creatively blending together the very best images in a hardcover book that's created just for you.

On this web page you'll see:

1. Some sample albums
2. The different sizes of albums available
3. Color samples for album covers
4. The album design process
5. Album pricing
6. Frequently asked questions

Click on a topic to go directly to that part of the web page.

Sample Albums

Here are a few representative pages from just a few of the albums I've done. Each image below shows 2 facing pages from an album. Click on an image to see the entire album in a separate window.

Album Sizes

Albums are available in three sizes:

• Large 11.25" x 8.75" hardcover album that's 22.5" wide when opened.
  
  
• Smaller 7.75" x 5.75" paperback album that's 15.5" wide when opened. This size is perfect for parents or for carrying around in your purse or briefcase.
  
  
• Extra large 15" x 11.5" hardcover album that's 30" wide when opened.

The cover of the two hardcover albums have a cutout that allows the viewing of a small image through the cover, while the paperback album comes with an image on a printed cover. The hardcover album covers come in different colors that vary by the size of the album:

Album Cover Colors

Cover colors for the Large Hardcover Album
Black	Ivory	Taupe	Sage	Navy	Smoke	Maroon	Kiwi	Tangerine	Poppy
Cover color for the Small Paperback Album
White with an image
Cover colors for the Extra Large Hardcover Album
Black	Ivory	Taupe	Sage

Color choices for all albums are subject to change

The Album Design Process

I'll personally create each album page in PhotoShop using one or more images. Then each page is professionally printed using 4-color ink, and the pages are bound. The result is like an art book or coffee-table book.

The process for creating the album design requires very little work on your part. You tell me how many pages you want in your album, we agree on the allocation of pages for each section of photographs, and I'll put together a draft album design based on my own ideas of the images you're most likely to want.

As an example, here's the allocation of pages for a typical 20-page album:

• page 1: Intro page with photo of bride & groom, maybe an overview shot of the church, often some words like "a celebration of love"
• pages 2 and 3 (facing pages): Bride pre-ceremony, with bridesmaids, with family
• pages 4 and 5: Groom pre-ceremony, with groomsmen, with family
• pages 6 and 7: Ceremony
• pages 8 and 9: More Ceremony
• pages 10 and 11: Group photos after ceremony, with family
• pages 12 and 13: Reception, first dance, bride dancing with father, groom dancing with mother
• pages 14 and 15: More reception, toast, cutting the cake
• pages 16 and 17: More reception, tossing the bouquet and garter
• pages 18 and 19: Departure through bubbles, birdseed, rice, etc.
• page 20: Arty shot of bride and groom or can be a collage of multiple shots

Each page or two-page spread is designed using a layered approach. There's an underlying image (which is sometimes lightened or colored), and other smaller images are laid on top of it. White or black pin-stripe outlines and drop-shadows are used to separate the images and make them distinct.

As you can see from the page allocation example, it's easy to quickly fill up 20 pages, even with 4 or 5 images per page, so you might want to go with more than 20 pages to make sure all of the important moments are included. Adding more pages to an album usually gives you more images, but you can also choose to include larger images in the album by spreading the images over more pages.

Once I've put together a draft design for your album, I'll send you an Internet link by email, and you can review the album design over the Internet and tell me what changes you would like. Most clients are so happy with my draft that they request very few changes. The most common requests are the addition of a photo with a relative that I left out of the album, or a change in the text.

After I've heard from you, then I'll make the changes you request, and you can review the revised album design over the Internet to make sure you're happy with the changes. Once you're satisfied with the album design, you tell me what sizes and colors you want. I'll order the albums you want from the printer, and the albums will arrive in a few weeks.

Now, wasn't that easy? I've found that most people panic when they have to wade through a bunch of photographs to select their favorites to include in an album. It's much easier for you to just take a look at the draft album design I put together and then recommend any changes you'd like. Weddings are tough enough on your emotions without you having to do a bunch of work afterwards, so I'll take care of it for you. Remember my slogan, "All you need to do is smile."

Album Pricing

First a definition: a page is like a page in any book – one side – so when you look at an open book you see two pages: left and right. You'll notice that some large images span two facing pages.

The minimum number of pages in an album is 20, but at these prices you can afford to get as many pages as you like. There are two components of the price: the design of the album ($500 paid once no matter how many pages in your album, and no matter how many albums you order), and the albums themselves. Here are some pricing examples for different numbers of pages:

Pages	Album Design (one-time charge)		Large Album 11 1/4 x 8 3/4 hardcover	Small Album 7 3/4 x 5 3/4 paperback	Extra Large Album 15 x 11 1/2 hardcover
20	$500	+	$60	$30	$100
22	''	+	$66	$33	$110
24	''	+	$72	$36	$120
26	''	+	$78	$39	$130
28	''	+	$84	$42	$140
30	''	+	$90	$45	$150
32	''	+	$96	$48	$160
34	''	+	$102	$51	$170
36	''	+	$108	$54	$180
38	''	+	$114	$57	$190
40	''	+	$120	$60	$200
50	''	+	$150	$75	$250
60	''	+	$180	$90	$300
70	''	+	$210	$105	$350
80	''	+	$240	$120	$400
90	''	+	$270	$135	$450
100	''	+	$300	$150	$500
Albums over 100 pages require multiple album volumes.

Let's take an example. Let's say you want an extra large 40-page album for yourself, two large 40-page albums for your parents, and 2 paperback albums for your maid of honor and best man. Go to the row in the table corresponding to 40 pages and you'll note that the extra large album will cost $200, the large albums will cost $120 each, and the paperback albums will cost $60 each. So your total album cost will be $500 for album design + $200 for the 1 extra large album + 2 x $120 for the large albums + 2 x $60 for the paperback albums, for a total of $1060. If you pay one month prior to the wedding then you can get a 10% credit and get these albums for only $964.

Now let's take a different example. Let's say you want the same albums as in the previous example, but you want only 20 pages in your album. Now the total album cost would be $500 for album design + $100 for the 1 extra large album + 2 x $60 for the large albums + 2 x $30 for the paperback albums, for a total of $780. If you pay one month prior to the wedding then you can use your 10% credit and get these albums for only $710.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: What if I want different sized albums for different people?

Answer: If you mean different physical sizes, like one large and two paperback albums, then that's no problem as long as the album content is the same. You pay only one $500 album design charge, and then you buy as many albums of the three different sizes as you like.

On the other hand, if you mean different albums which contain different numbers of pages, then that's also possible with just a single design charge as long as the shorter albums are a subset of the pages from the longer album. I'll do one album design for the highest number of pages you want. You can order albums with all of the pages for yourself and maybe your parents. Then you can pick the pages you want in the shorter albums, and you can order the shorter albums for other people.

Since I'm using the same design for both long and short albums, you avoid an additional charge for a separate album design, and you save money on the shorter albums by getting albums with fewer pages.

Question: Why do you charge separately for album design when most other wedding photographers bundle the design charge into their album price?

Answer: Pricing this way allows me to charge much less for the albums themselves. And that means that it's much easier for you to afford multiple copies of an album. So now it's possible for you to get a copy of the album for parents, grandparents, even bridesmaids and groomsmen if you wish.