mom hugs daughter before wedding in akron ohio

Why Do I Need a Wedding Album?

An Essential Part of Your Legacy

Wedding photo albums should be an essential part of your wedding photography. I’ve written before as to why I print my photography but I want to specifically detail the importance of a wedding album.

Photography Tells a Story

A single photograph can tell an entire story. The famous photograph of Muhammad Ali standing over Sonny Liston is a good example. You didn’t have to see the fight to know who dominated. The infamous photograph of the sailor kissing the woman in Times Square on V-J Day perfectly encapsulates the joy of the war being over. But what do you do when you have many moments? Wedding days are made up of many moments. Mini stories that play out throughout the day that end up being an historical event in it’s totality. That is when you need to show more than just a single photograph. That is when you need a wedding photo album.

Put Many Pictures, or Moments, Together in a Wedding Album

You can tell all of the mini-stories that happen on a wedding day in an wedding album. In my designs, each spread, or two pages, represents each of these moments. When all is said and done, you have a complete story of your wedding day contained in one tangible item. Your day and all of the moments can be relived by you and, more importantly, those that come after you. I’ve said it in my blog post, your wedding pictures and your wedding album are “pieces of ourselves that we leave behind when we are gone.” and I truly believe that. But more than that, I want you to leave behind a legacy of care and beauty. These are things that go into my work as a wedding photographer. These are things that go into my wedding albums.

It this spread, we have Berta and her mother. These four photos perfectly illustrate their relationship. Each individual photo tells a smaller part of that story. The album spread conveys it more completely. This is one of my favorite wedding albums. The wedding and reception took place at The Club at Hillbrook in Chagrin Falls.

bride getting ready for wedding at Club at Hillbrook

Only One Way to Display My Pictures

See the entire Club at Hillbrook wedding album

In my print blog post, I explain what it means to “finish” an image.  Putting wedding pictures in a printed album is the absolute best way to finish, display and archive your photos. Can you imagine, in 20 years, being asked to see your wedding photos and pulling out your smart phone, tablet or whatever technology is being used then? Or worse, and cheap book that was printed by a consumer card company. It probably would have fallen apart by then. A wedding album is a tangible item that, as long as it’s cared for, is guaranteed to exist long after you’re gone. And, it only increases in value over time. It represents who you are and were in a specific and very important time in your life. How do you want to be remembered? It’s a very important question when deciding if digital files are good enough.

black leather wedding album

Why Should Your Photographer Take Any More Pictures than They Have To?

In my print blog post, I explain what it means to “finish” an image.  Putting wedding pictures in a printed album is the absolute best way to finish, display and archive your photos. Can you imagine, in 20 years, being asked to see your wedding photos and pulling out your smart phone, tablet or whatever technology is being used then? Or worse, and cheap book that was printed by a consumer card company. It probably would have fallen apart by then. A wedding album is a tangible item that, as long as it’s cared for, is guaranteed to exist long after you’re gone. And, it only increases in value over time. It represents who you are and were in a specific and very important time in your life. How do you want to be remembered? It’s a very important question when deciding if digital files are good enough.

album page from wedding reception at landerhaven

See the entire Landerhaven wedding album design

Here is another reception at Landerhaven that I photographed.

Answer this question, should a photographer care about how their work is being presented? This is something everyone should think about when they are researching wedding photographers. Do you want a photographer that doesn’t really care what you do with their pictures once they hand off the digital files? Or, would you rather have one that is obsessed with presentation? That is why I go the extra step to finish your pictures.

Finishing Your Wedding Photos

So “finishing” your photos and taking the last, crucial step in printing them in a wedding photo album should be a requirement of your wedding photographer. A picture on your computer screen or phone screen, a picture shared on social media, does not look the same as a printed picture. It just doesn’t. There is nothing like seeing your wedding pictures printed and presented as beautiful as is possible. So, even though digital files are still an option to my clients, the first tangible item that they receive, every single time, is a printed wedding album. I care enough to require this. Do you care enough to require it of your wedding?

See more of my weddings albums -HERE-