Great Wedding Photo “Albums” Without the Great Big Pricetag
06.10.09
As a bride-to-be, one of the most important decisions you’ll make is probably which photographer to hire. Your pictures will be your treasures as you begin your life together.
Those same photographers that take great photos will likely offer services to put those photos into a lovely album, and often for a not-so-lovely price.
If you can negotiate with your photographer to just provide you digital images, YOU can make your OWN album, one with your own special touches and that tells the stories of your big day, for a FRACTION of the cost.
I, myself, am kind of a scrapbook nut. I love showing off my photos with embellishments, specialty papers, etc. I’ve done many a wedding book for friends and family, and I’ve spent a ton of time and money doing them. So when I found my new company – Heritage Makers – and saw the kinds of photo books I could make, well, I just flipped!
A storybook allows you to display your photos using beautiful embellishments, as well as your thoughts, feelings, expressions about your wedding. You create it online, using digital photos and time-saving templates, or if you are so inclined, you can create your own keepsake book from scratch. Once you’ve created your storybook online, it is printed in a high-quality book format – with a real spine and everything! You even design the cover, so it’s truly yours.
And if you’re worried that the templates are old and tired, or just not as detailed like the kind you’ll find on popular photo sharing sites, you can worry about one less thing! There are more templates to choose from than you can shake a stick at, plus, you can personalize them further if you’d like! The studio software uses digital pictures, so there’s also no worrying about getting prints made and watching them fade over the years. The drag-and-drop functionality makes it so easy that you can finish a wedding storybook in about an hour! Now, you’ll have more time to write those thank-you notes!
There are other wedding items that you can create with the software and your photos – you could:
- Make a guest sign-in book!
- Make a bachelorette party book
- Make a gift for your wedding party, with photos of you and them
- Create personalized thank-you cards
- Make a poster from your favorite wedding image
- Make a book for your Mom or Dad (plus the in-laws!)
- Make a honeymoon book
Also know, you can order multiple copies – which always gets a discount!
Now, I bet you’re thinking that something like that is expensive. Let me do the “traditional scrapbook” math.
- I used a coupon and got the book itself for $20.
- Printed pictures = $40.
- Refill pages = $10.
- Embellishments and papers to decorate the book? $50-$100 – but we’ll go with $50 for now.
- Man hours at $10/hour it cost me over $200!
A good friend of mine priced an album with her photographer, and he wanted over $400! What?!!
Photo storybooks cost WAY less.
- There’s a great, limited-time special right now for a 12×12 album for $59, and there are other sizes/prices to choose from!
- I can also help you work out whatever options fit YOUR budget, and help you with ideas, suggestions, etc.
- I can also get you access to the premier art collection free for one month when you purchase a book through an event I have open through June 16, and right now, there’s another limited-time special to get three months for $10 per month!
- That’s $89 TOTAL
My boyfriend promises I’ll get to do my very own wedding storybook soon, so keep your fingers crossed for me. 
Meanwhile, you can see one of my completed books (my Boston trip).
Head on over to my site www.tinyurl.com/MakeAStorybook – you can create a free account and poke around the templates, the books, the artwork, etc.
However, to get the super-duper deals I just mentioned, you’d need to purchase through me, and I can be contacted at cs94wahoo @ gmail (dot )com (no spaces, use a period instead of “dot” This way, I don’t get spammed!) I also have a photo book blog at http://photostorybooks.blogspot.com where I have my contact info.
Posted by Guest Poster Carmen Shirkey
Tags: photo albums, photos, storybook, wedding albums
disclaimer: I am wedding photographer.
While I appreciate the state of the economy creates a desire to save money, this submission contains a few misleading statements.
First, the statement “often for a not-so-lovely price” is a judgment the writer uses to set up promoting her business.
What is her definition of lovely? Later she suggests $400 is out of line with reality. The statement “Photo storybooks cost WAY less.” needs context to be helpful and accurate.
It’s like stating… “don’t pay $300,00 for a house, I know where they only cost $150,000″
The photobooks she can supply for under $100 is in no way equivalent to the over priced albums she talks about earlier.
It is extremely unfair to imply otherwise.
She also admits to being a scrapbook nut. In my experience, most couples do not want a scrapbook approach to their album and demand a cleaner classic look. They are also often busy people who hire a photographer specifically to take the job from end to end.
To hire a visual artist/professional and only have them do part of the job is false economy. Great images in the company of a poor layout equals a poorly album.
And finally, her suggestion to negotiate for files only will likely increase the fee a professional wedding photographer will ask for.
Photographers need to be profitable too. Just like those who sell Heritage Maker products.
Of course this is just my opinion. I could be wrong.
regards,
Lorne Chesal
Disclaimer, you’re right, I represent Heritage Makers, but only because I was so impressed with the service that I just wanted to share the option.
The “not-so-lovely” price is not only referring to the charge that photographers ask for to create a wedding album, but also to the fact that many women DO want a scrapbook-approach to wedding photos, that come not only from the professional photographers, but also from family and friends that take photos at the event.
I’m sorry, but I, myself have HEARD the complaints about how much photographers charge for the photo albums. I think in the digital age, photographers need to adjust – and I have a friend that found a wonderful photographer that agreed to give her all her photos digitally for her to use as she wishes.
I will also defend the quality of the photo books that I suggest are an alternative for frugal brides who don’t want to pay huge prices. They are personalized – created by the bride (and groom) themselves, complimented with text about the stories that go with the photos, with embellishments and designs, and are printed with high-quality care.
They are not an equivalent of a photographer’s album – they are an alternative. Some think the photographer albums are impersonal and “stodgy” and some love them. That’s why everyone has an opinion, I guess.
I’m not daring to say that photographers shouldn’t make a profit or a living. Perhaps charging the $1200 to show up to the wedding and take the photos covers that?
Your analogy of don’t spend $300,000 on this house, and get one for $150,000 over here. Perhaps a person doesn’t have the $300,000 for the house, and they want similar options for less money. I think that’s a valid stance.
But that’s also just my opinion. Everyone is entitled to their own, and thank you for raising the questions that I could respond to.
Carmen
Heritage Makers
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Hi Carmen..
I appreciate your reply..
“They are not an equivalent of a photographer’s album”
“Perhaps a person doesn’t have the $300,000 for the house, and they want similar options for less money.”
This was really my point. I don’t feel you left that impression with your post. It reads like wedding photographers don’t get it, and are too expensive for what they give.
I didn’t see you comparing apples with apples.
I believe most anyone would be able to understand that a $300K house and a $150K would be very different and assume the higher price must mean larger, newer, better location and so on. Doesn’t mean they want it. Their ability to afford it keeps them from looking into the larger investment. I get that.
Same in my business. Not everyone can afford, or even want to afford what I do. Others can afford it, but don’t like my work. : )
But IMHO, you are doing a disservice to your readers if you don’t speak to the tangible differences between a DIY approach and a professional service.
In the wedding image business, there are many “layers” of client. Let’s say there are 10. What you speak to is layers 1 through maybe 4. Couples who simply don’t want or can’t spend a lot on images. I have no problem with that.
In a crass business manner, they aren’t my clients. I am targeting layers 8 through 10. Those couples do not want scrapbooks. They are not DIY’ers.
Again, I read your post and don’t see you making that type of distinction.
Photographers have a few catchphrases to address this… “you get what you pay for” and a few other saltier ones I won’t list here.
The market can easily support your approach as well as mine. In fact, the market needs both.
It also needs honesty and candor. A great deal of my effort with a couple is setting expectations. No surprises in my business!
regards,
Lorne