Woohoo, you’re officially getting married! You’ve got the date locked, the location booked, and just need to secure a photographer (me!). In order to look back on your day, you should know about the importance of wedding albums and why I include them in my wedding packages.
Not every photographer will include wedding albums in their package, in fact, most photographers won’t! Throughout this post, I’ll be covering all of the reasons why wedding albums are a must-have after your big day, including why I always include them in my packages (hint: it’s personal).
Keep reading to learn all about the importance of wedding albums.
What is a wedding album?
Before we dive into the thick of it, let’s chat about what a wedding album actually is. Essentially, it’s exactly what it sounds like: an album that’s filled with all of the precious photos from your wedding day captured by your wedding photographer.
A physical representation of your wedding day, to hold in your hands… there is something so amazing about being able to touch your photos, not just scroll through them. This means that you can keep your album anywhere you want in your house and always show it off to visitors, or even just look back on it with fond memories.
Reasons Why You Need a Wedding Album
Here are some of the top reasons why wedding albums are so important.
It Creates an Image Backup
This one probably seems obvious, but when it comes to the importance of wedding albums, they automatically create an image backup. Sure, you can also backup digital images by adding them to hard drives, countless online storage websites, and more, but the issue with digital images is that, unfortunately, they can go corrupt.
By creating a wedding album, your backup is physical and tangible. It’s something that you can touch and know that it’s still there. Meanwhile, your digital photos could technically just disappear without you even realizing it, like mine did (more on that later).
This physical image backup helps you rest assured that your images are still saved and can be cherished for years to come. You won’t have to worry about any of your images disappearing, especially if you always just know where the wedding album is. This is one of the top reasons that my couples also love receiving wedding albums.
Albums Can Be Passed on Through Families
One of the best parts of having a wedding album is that it will become your first family heirloom!. You can pass it down to your children, and they can pass it down to theirs for generations to come. It can be handed from parents to children throughout your family, helping to showcase the beauty that was your wedding day.
This can not always be the case with digital images. That’s because technology is always changing. Seriously, before we know it, the iPhone 42 is going to be here (will they even go to a number that high? Who knows). But, because technology is always changing, it’s hard to know if your images or the hard drive that you backed them up on will even be compatible with future technology, phones, computers, etc.
By having a physical album, you won’t have to worry about that. You can be sure that your images can still be seen even 100 years from now if you want them to be, especially if you take great care with your album, as I’m sure you would.
Plus, your children will love being able to see your wedding in a tangible way, even if they weren’t there. It will give them a story, too, that they can then pass on and continue to tell for years to come!
You Can Make Them Your Own
Guess what? Albums can be completely customized for you and your significant other! That means no two wedding albums technically ever have to look the same. You can customize them to your personal style.
There are many different ways to customize these albums and make them your own. You can choose the color of the leather or fabric that binds them, you can change the font on the cover of the album, and you can even be as picky as to decide whether you want an ampersand or a plus mark to signify “and.”
The creativity really shines through when it comes to designing wedding albums, and I’m here to help in way you need it! I’m always happy to provide my creative opinion with my couples as we decide what’s best for their wedding albums, but ultimately, the decision is up to you since it’s your big day!
They Help Tell the Story of Your Wedding
Yes, I’m a wedding photographer, and I’m used to scrolling through thousands of images on my computer screen. However, I know just as much as everyone that you can’t necessarily tell a story with a scroll of that many images, even though I wish you could!
Each image throughout the album has been carefully chosen to tell the story of your wedding day. By having a physical album, we’ll start with getting ready images, some detailed images with the venue, and then move into the ceremony, reception, and even the party! These albums are so carefully curated with all of the best images that truly represent what happened on your wedding day so that you can still show them the album even if someone wasn’t there, and they’ll understand the whole story.
This is another point connecting back to creativity as well; we really have the power to choose which images get shown, so we can focus on highlights of your special day throughout the album.
Albums Can Double as Beautiful Home Decor
Believe it or not, when it comes to the importance of wedding albums, they can also double as home decor. Luckily, since you have the power to customize the album exactly how you’d like (as mentioned earlier), you can make sure that it will seamlessly fit in with the style of your home if you want to.
By having a physical album, you can use it as decor throughout your home. You can have it sit on a bookshelf with your other albums, you can place it carefully in the drawer next to your couch, or even use it as a coffee table book if you trust that everyone will flip through it with clean hands.
The wedding album truly becomes a cherished book that can be placed anywhere throughout the home so that you can always refer back to it and grab it to show to anyone who visits.
It Allows You to See Your Photos Off of a Computer Screen
Lastly – and this is a big one – wedding albums allow you to see your photos off of a computer screen. It’s the 21st century, so I know we are all so used to seeing images online, whether on social media or even just our own saved digital copies of photos.
However, there’s still something to this day that’s very different and special about having a physical copy of an image. Even receiving a framed image from a friend is still considered a truly treasured and irreplaceable gift.
So, why not treat your wedding albums the same way? By having a physical copy, you won’t even need a computer or other type of technology to show off your photos. It allows you to move the photos wherever you want, taking them with you to show off as you visit others or go on adventures. It’s truly something that you’ll treasure forever because you’ll be able to sift through the pages yourself with your fingers versus clicking an arrow on a keyboard.
My Personal Story with Wedding Albums
When Kevin and I got married in 2011, we tried to keep costs down, as most couples do. We hired a photographer who actually did offer us an album add-on, but we turned it down due to cost.
Fast-forward a few years, and unfortunately, I have managed to lose almost all of our wedding photos, except for a select few. This made me truly understand the importance of wedding albums. Since I’m now a wedding photographer, I truly don’t want this same experience to happen to my clients; I’d be just as devastated as them. It’s my goal not to let that happen with any of my couples..
Every couple working with Shifted Focus Photography now walks away with an album; it’s automatically included in their package. There’s just something about holding the image in your hand versus seeing it digitally on a computer screen or even on the phone.
Do you think we are the perfect fit for your wedding? Do you want to have a physical album automatically calculated into your package for you? Click here to get in touch!
