Becky Ryan Photography

PINIMAGESo, a question that most newlyweds will ask themselves at some point, should I invest in a wedding album?

Growing up I loved looking through old albums. The experience of going through the drawers in the sideboard at my grandparents’ looking through their old holiday snaps, and getting childhood albums out the cupboard was so lovely. Asking who people were in the photographs, learning about the family history, my grandparents’ friends, people that meant something to them. I feel like this shouldn’t be lost just because we’re living in a digital age. Making time to just sit and relieve wonderful memories, remembering happy moments, and important people in our lives is pretty special. You aren’t just investing in prints and albums, you are investing in this experience for generations of your family to come.

When we have albums on our shelf we can get them down and look through them with friends and family. How many of us are guilty of completely forgetting about digital photographs stored on our hard drive?

An album is something you will look at again and again. When anniversaries come around, when parents, children, grandchildren, come to visit. Having this experience with them just isnt the same as sending them some photos via email, or even looking at them together on a computer screen.

With a wedding album in particular, I love the story book feel to it. They can really convey the full storyline of your day, from starting with the images getting ready in the morning right through to the first dance and party atmosphere at the end of the night. People that didn’t make it to the wedding itself can enjoy your day through this album as if they were almost there at the time.

PINIMAGEAn important point to make is of course the fact that technology moves so fast.  Those that have footage of their wedding day on VHS or even floppy disk will have a difficult time viewing their images or video today. CDs and DVDs will likely be obsolete before we know it (I was amazed when I upgraded my macbook last year to see that they no longer have CD/DVD drives. They’re also so easily damaged by scratches from dust, damp weather, and becoming warped that all those images could be lost in an instant. Will you always get round to updating your files to the latest form of media as the years go on? A physical album of your favourite photographs will never go obsolete.

Why invest in a professional album from your photographer?

Here is what established wedding blogger Kelly has to say –

“You may decide to make up your own wedding album with the disc. I did this and the results aren’t great. I made 2 albums. Album 1) I got a select few printed out from a leading photography shop, quite large and popped them in a  big album, you know the ones with the tissue paper in between. Yes they look OK, but the photos have already come unglued and the quality of the images isn’t  as good as it would have been from a professional album. Album 2) I designed my own album via an online photo book maker, you know the ones where you can design the background, the cover and add as many images as you like per page. This album is bad! I managed to get 300 images in one book, never a good idea. The book looks cluttered and badly designed and the image quality is poor. I have seen lots of these books and to be honest none have ever looked that great. Photo books are a fab idea for holidays, or birthdays but for a wedding album, honestly leave it to the professionalsYou hired a professional to take the photos so why not hire a professional to print the photos? Your photographer will be able to print out the images into a book at a high quality that will do the original photo justice.” – Kelly, Boho Weddings Blog

They are an investment, and of course a lot of people may see them as yet another expense to the wedding day, which is why I allow a full 12 months for my couples to choose and purchase their albums (your first anniversary is in fact ‘paper’!).  I choose to offer albums from Folio as I want my couples to be able to experience their images in a beautiful way, in a handcrafted professionally printed album. So much goes into a wedding day, not necessarily just money but time, emotion, people, why wouldn’t you want to preserve these memories in the best way possible. Unlike the glossy prints of high street photo stores, shine causing reflections meaning you can’t enjoy an image, as well, the albums I offer showcase your images as beautiful matte prints on fine art paper.  My professional fine art wedding albums start from as low as £450. If you would like to arrange a meeting to view my sample images in person just get in touch 🙂

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the importance of wedding albums – Becky Ryan photography