Weddings

A Real Bride’s Wedding Album

Sometimes I hear from brides that they haven’t seen their wedding albums until a year or more after their weddings.  If it is the couple lingering on photo choices or the busy photographer’s backlog, sometimes these things happen.   It happened to me.  It was not until after my third wedding anniversary before I saw my own wedding album.  Hilarious because I had designed, printed and delivered many albums to clients before having my own.

But you should get your album as it is often the only legacy left from your wedding (besides, you know, your rings and your spouse) and something that will be around for a long long time.  Forever?

One service I offer is Wedding Album Predesign.  If you are planning to purchase a wedding album from Randi Voss Photography, you will get to see the preliminary album design on the Wednesday after your wedding.  Yes, that’s right.  Go online while you’re on your honeymoon and relive your wedding with your new spouse and think about how great it was.

You may be asking “So Randi, what makes you think that I would like the album design?” And the answer is simple.  You like my style and sense of photo composition enough to hire me to be your wedding photographer, and the wedding album will continue in that style.  Also, you don’t have to do it yourself.  So let me do it for you, and right away.  Since it is done so quickly after your wedding, I remember who was really at your side the whole day, your important friends and relatives, and the special and hilarious moments you shared.  I can also remember making sure your album shows the people most important to you instead of what a outside designer may consider the best looking people.  Not that your grandma isn’t beautiful, but you get the idea.

From my own experience with my own album, it is very difficult to choose your favorite photos from a group of  hundreds, with enough variety, and a balance of time line from the day.

Plus you can look at tons of sample album designs to see if you agree. I’ve had two album clients (Jessi&Benjamin and Sara&Nigel) in 2009 who made no changes to my Wednesday-after design and basically said “Why mess with perfection?” But if you want to make changes, after you see the rest of your photos, I work with you to make sure that your album (add or remove pages, swap photos, change the design) is perfect before it is sent away to be made. The Predesigned Albums are often longer than the package album and you have the option of eliminating spreads or adding on to create a longer wedding album.  Less work for you, and more choices.

Now take a tour of a Real Bride’s Wedding Album with my explanation of her changes.

This was one of the most relaxed weddings I had this year with Alison and Paul.  Actually two weddings – a small destination wedding and a larger hometown reception.   If you want to watch a few flash videos, you can watch their original albums roll on by.

This is the first spread of the book and I like this reflect the overall theme of the wedding.  As with all of the comparisons below, my initial design is on the left and the final design is on the right. Just a small change on the right to photo of Alison’s shoes and the date was moved to spread 4.

Right on for this one.  I really liked this one so I’m glad she was in agreement.  That handmade “Wedding” sign is killer.

Since Alison and Paul got ready in the same house, and really at the same time, their experiences are combined here.  I like Alison’s choice (on the right) of her putting on her necklace and Paul similarly tying his tie.

Right on again.  So good!

And again.  They had a great first look meetings.  When their wedding was featured on Wedding Belles Online, Alison said it was one of her favorite moments.  I’m happy that she loved the emotional photos.

A quick switch on the group shot that Alison and Paul preferred.

Another swap of the main group shot.

Bingo on this bridal photo.  What beautiful lighting that day!

A few exchanges here too.  I’m so happy that Alison and Paul found this wonderful place to shoot and were brave enough to walk a few feet off of the road to get these.  What’s the point of getting married somewhere so beautiful if you can’t enjoy it.  Cheers to photos before the ceremony too, as it was dark after the ceremony was over.

Wonderful ceremony location at The Peace With Inn. Just two exchanges here on the page on the right.

So here is a photo of every guest at their event in Maine. On the right, Alison added a few more photos from the end of the ceremony.

Cake cutting, right on.

Alison asked me to remove the text here, which was not a problem, of course.  Since there were two events, she wanted the text to introduce each location with only her “a&p” logo on the first and last pages.  A fine decision!

Part Two at The Heinz History Center.  Alison was also featured on Wedding Belles Online for having a hometown reception in Pittsburgh a month after her wedding.I really liked photographing in the Grand Hall at the Heinz History Center.  There was such great lighting and a super staff.

Since the Heinz History Center is a working museum, it has great artifacts like this trolley where a&p hopped inside for a few photos.  No changes to this spread either.

This spread showed the overall room and some of Alison’s great details.  She swapped out quite a few here, sure to capture her favorite items.

The first dance.  I had the spread on the right (sorry they are mashed together) all about the First Dance.  Alison and Paul chose to have this spread incorporate more reception events, so they made swaps within the same layout that I had.

Cake cutting number too. A few changes here to incorporate more events including Alison’s parents thanking everyone for coming.  And Alison and Paul smiling for their guests photos right in the center. You’d be surprised at how often that happens.

On this spread, most of the images were changed to reflect Alison and Paul’s favorite parts of the reception.  So I missed some here on the design, but they had plenty of favorites to choose from.

And in the final spread Alison and Paul chose a different shot of them to be featured on the right hand side of the spread.  Since it was a landscape-oriented photo that they preferred, I just changed the design to a black background and placed it in the same location.

I think that it is so critical to communicate well with my clients and this is one of the most important times.  Alison, Paul, and I worked out this design by email and web previews alone.  Their book will take about a month to produce at the bindery, but then they’ll have it forever.

All that said………….what do you think?  If I’ve made an album for you (or even an Album Predesign), what did you think of the experience?  If you have your album, how was the editing process?  And if you’re thinking about getting married or you ever have, you know, comment below about the importance of a Wedding Album and its timely delivery.

I'm Randi Voss, a professional wedding and portrait photographer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I specialize in photographing fun, happy weddings working throughout the wedding day as both a photojournalist and a portraiture artist. Have a look around my blog to see what I've been doing lately, both personally, and professionally, and get to know me better. View the Galleries to see some of my favorite photos. Leave a comment to let me know your thoughts. Sincerely, Randi

3 Comments

  • Jessi

    I have my wedding album! I fell in love with it as soon as I saw the slideshow. It wasn’t until you said that there was a picture missing that I realized it. I am so thankful that you knew how much it meant for me to have that certain picture in my album. I’m soooo happy that it wasn’t left up to Benjamin and I to put together our album… it would’ve been so hard to choose photos and design the pages. After a year of planning a wedding, I wanted to take time to relax and not think about wedding stuff! I absolutely adore our album, front to back. Thank you, Randi for your amazing work!

  • sister

    i think this post is the perfect way to explain your process. i can’t wait to see your new website!! in the works!

  • Alison

    What a nice surprise seeing our albums used as your example 🙂 Amazing work as usual – thanks Randi!!!

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