Wedding Albums
Your wedding album is not really something that sits on a shelf. It is the thing that gets passed around the room at every family gathering — the one people pick up with a cup of tea and start pointing at, laughing at somebody’s expression, noticing a glance they had forgotten was even happening.
Unlike most of what you will spend money on for the wedding, an album only gets more meaningful. It becomes the place the day is kept — something to show your children, or to open on a quiet evening when you want to remember how it all felt.
I am Dave, a documentary wedding photographer in West Yorkshire. This page covers how the albums work, the sizes and what they cost, and how to choose the pictures that go in one — because that last part is where most couples get stuck, and it is the part I can help with.
Your Wedding Album at a Glance
Why a Printed Album Still Matters
You will get 800 or more pictures from a full wedding day. That is the right number to receive — it means nothing is missing — but it is far too many to sit down with. Most couples look through the gallery hard for about a month, show it to a few people, and then it settles into being a link in an old email.
An album is an edit. It takes the day and gives it a shape: the quiet bit in the morning, the walk down the aisle, the faces in the front row, the speech that went on too long in the best way, the last light outside. It is the difference between having your wedding photographed and having your wedding somewhere you can hold.
It is also the version other people see. Nobody scrolls a stranger’s gallery, but everybody opens a book that is sitting on the table — and it will not age the way a screen does.
Layflat Pages
Both albums are layflat and handcrafted in Italy, and the layflat part matters more than it sounds. The pages open completely flat, so a picture can run right across the middle without half a face disappearing into the gutter where the pages meet. It is the difference between a spread you can actually look at and one you have to flatten with your hand.
It is also why a wide picture works so well in an album — a room full of people, a ceremony from the back, the last light across a field. Given a full spread, those get real size, and they hold up.
How Your Album Comes Together
There is no rush to any of this, and the album does not expire. Plenty of couples come back to it months after the wedding, once the dust has settled.
1. Your gallery arrives first. Every picture from the day, fully edited, ready to download. Live with it for a while before you think about the album.
2. You choose your images. You pick them straight from your online gallery, and when you are happy with the selection you press the send to photographer button. That is all I need to get started.
3. I design the album. I lay it out properly — in the order the day happened, with the big pictures given the room they need and the smaller moments grouped together.
4. You get a proof. I send the design over for you to look through, and you tell me what you want moved, swapped or taken out. Changes at this stage are completely normal.
5. You approve it. Once you are happy, you settle anything not already paid for, the album goes to production, and the next time you see it is when it is in your hands.
Choosing Your Images
This is the part couples find hardest, and it is nearly always for the same reason: they try to pick their favourite pictures. An album is not a greatest hits. It is the story of a day, and a story needs the joins as well as the highlights.
At least three from each part of the day. Go through section by section — getting ready, the ceremony, the group shots, your portraits, the speeches, the evening — and take a minimum of three from each. This one rule does more than anything else to stop an album that is all ceremony and no party.
Think about how a picture will sit on the page. Some images deserve a full double-page spread — the big emotional moments, and the wide shots that need the room. Others tell their story better grouped together, like little scenes from the same part of the day. You do not have to work out the layout; just knowing which pictures are the big ones helps enormously.
Black and white or colour — both are fine. Mixing them through the album works well, and if you have a strong preference either way, tell me and I will design around it.
Two of you, one album. Go through separately first, then compare. It is much quicker than trying to agree picture by picture, and you will find you have both marked most of the same ones. Where you disagree, send me both — that is what the proof stage is for.
Sizes, Upgrades and Extra Spreads
Your album comes with 10 spreads as standard — that is 20 pages, and on average around three pictures to a spread. If the day needs more room you can add up to 80 spreads in total. Pages are added in pairs, which is just how they are made. Filled right up, the album holds a maximum of 150 pictures. Long weddings and big family days often do need a few more.
You can also go bigger than the album in your package. A larger album gives the pictures more space to breathe, and it does turn it into something that lives on the coffee table rather than in a cupboard. The upgrade price is what you pay on top of the album already included with Signature or Complete.
Cover options are included as standard whichever size you choose.
Covers and Finishes
The album is custom made, and the outside is part of that. There is a range of covers and finishes to choose from and your names can go on the front. Some couples want something plain that will not date; others want the colour that matched the day. Both are right.
I will show you the options when we get to that stage, so you are choosing from things you can actually see rather than names on a list.
How It Arrives
The album comes to you finished and ready to hand over. If you would like it to arrive in something better than a box, a presentation box is available as an extra — rigid and lined, with a ribbon to lift the album out, in a finish that can be matched to the album itself. Your names can go on the lid.
Most couples who order one do it because the album is going to be a gift, or because it will live on a shelf rather than a coffee table. Ask me when we reach the cover stage and I will show you what is available.
Albums for Parents
A parent album is an exact copy of your album, just slightly smaller. Same pictures, same order, same design. It is one of the few wedding presents that genuinely lands, and it saves the conversation where both sets of parents ask for the same photograph to be printed.
One parent album is £150. A set of two is £200, which is why most couples who want one end up taking the pair. They can be added to any full-day package, and you do not have to decide now — plenty of couples add them once they have seen their own album.
Which Package Includes an Album?
Signature is the one most couples book, and the album is a good part of why. The full breakdown of what sits in each package is on the prices page.
The Pictures That Tend to Earn Their Page
If you look across the albums I have designed, the same kinds of pictures keep taking the full spreads. The ceremony from the back, so you can see the whole room. The one honest reaction during the speeches. Whatever happened on the dance floor in the first ten minutes. And almost always, something from the end of the evening.
Twilight portraits are the ones couples most often tell me they were not expecting, and they usually end up printed large. If you like the look of them, it is worth leaving fifteen minutes free after dark when you plan your wedding timeline — they are the pictures most likely to end up on a wall as well as across a spread.
