Most brides I speak to ask me this question and I thought that it would be a great blog post for anyone passing by my blog.
Wedding blogs and many wedding industry magazines will often suggest saving money by foregoing a professionally designed wedding album and instead opt for a disc of images. Unfortunately these wedding “insiders” dont really know whats best for you, and alot of times offer bad advice.
Every wedding I photograph will come with a CD of all the images for archival purposes along with a license for personal use. Many brides ask me why they need an album when I am giving them a CD. This is a fair question, and heres why:
1. You are starting a new family and the album is your very first family heirloom. Your album will last hundreds of years if properly cared for. Try to imagine showing your grandkids the images on your CD (see #2), then try to imagine sitting down with your grandkids showing them a beautiful wedding album, a vivid picture book telling the story of your day! The wedding album is just the beginning of your story – the story of your family!!
2. Technology moves so quickly. Who can say if 20 years from now a CD or DVD will even be readable in your computer. It is very important that you will always create backups of these files on whatever the latest storage medium is. An album on the other hand – never changes- never goes out of style – an album is a timeless storage medium that will outlast any of the latest technology – if you think about it CD’s have only been around for 20 years or so, and DVD’s even less – Who knows what will be out next!
3. If your photographer shot your wedding with film, How would you feel if you all you received at the end was the negatives? Your probably wouldnt be happy with that. This is essentially what you are getting when you get a CD, an unprocessed, unedited, essentially “undeveloped” digital negatives in a high resolution format. This is good to have for a piece of mind and to know that you always have the images if you needed reprints, but not a very good way to view your images and display them.
Now there are some couples do have great intentions on designing an album on their own to cut down costs but sadly, this usually remains undone. Mainly because they dont have the time to design the album, or they realize that the reputable album wholesalers do not sell directly to the public.
Then there are some couples who decide that they will order a photo book from an online consumer company like “Snapfish”, “shutterfly” or even “Costco” not saying these are bad companies but they do target a particular market and are great for the point and shoot user looking to create christmas gifts, or family keepsakes. These companies certainly do not specialize in wedding albums and by no means meant to be used for professional printing. Basically, these labs are not calibrated to your photographer’s computer monitor or other photographic equipment, and this will definitely affect the overall quality of your photo, color balance, etc. These books also do not have the shelf life of a professional grade wedding album and will not last as long.
Whatever you decide, please remember that your wedding is a once in a lifetime event – You will never do this again!!!! You took alot of time and money to plan the perfect venue, the perfect flowers, even the perfect photographer! Why not display your pictures in a perfect album!! In the end the pictures are the only thing left from all that planning and the only thing that you can actually look back on in years to come! So really sit down and think about it before you make your decision!
If you have any questions about albums – please contact me!
