There is no doubt that the wedding is one of the best and most beautiful moments in anyone’s life, and as such no one wants to let their memories of the day fade away. That’s why professional photographers so commonly advertise their experience with weddings; it’s perhaps their biggest income. The many guests participating in the big event will have their fair share of snaps, too, since most of them will be equipped with high quality cameras in their smartphones. It only makes sense to make the most of all this photography, and relive the day as often as possible with the help of a fully customized wedding photo book. There’s an option to build your wedding book by yourself or collaborate with your professional photographer, but either way you’ll be happy to receive a quality book commemorating the day.
And no matter how the book’s appearance will be and who will receive the final product, immortalizing the best moments of your wedding into a book will no doubt cheer you up any time you flip through it.
Wedding Photo Book Ideas
A wedding is a special occasion where everything is organized thoroughly, creating a photo book surely deserves the same attention and sophistication. Like in the case of any other photo book, there are no restrictions on anything when creating a wedding book, but to truly emphasize the importance of this extraordinary day, here are some tips to follow:
The Photos and Their Arrangement
It’s important to select the best of the best photos either on your own or with the help of the professional photographer that followed you around on the big day. The latter option is highly beneficial since they can give useful advice on every single step of the creation process.
But the arrangement of the photos is entirely up to you: whether you prefer the always-classic chronological order or a different approach, like telling a story within the book or utilizing a unique theme, will only make the photo book more outstanding.
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Backgrounds and Styles
Choose a theme with the most neutral color scheme possible – like black or white – to emphasize the stars of the photo book: you and your spouse, of course. Usually wedding photo book builders offer themes just for this purpose, but if you don’t fancy the default settings then there’s no reason it can’t be changed at any time. The same rule goes for backgrounds: they should be simple and/or neutral enough so as to not distract readers from the photos and, even more importantly, to look classy and prestigious.
Layout
The safest way of laying out your book is to have one photo per page positioned in the center with the occasional collage of a maximum of two or three pictures to prevent any monotony and repetition – like you might get with traditional photo albums. Photo spreads are more than welcome, but you can also play around with special layouts, like the one where the big photo only partially occupies a two-page spread.
Text and Embellishments
In the case of wedding books, less is very much more, in other words it is better to avoid over-designing, and apply text and embellishments only where it is strictly necessary. But if the text (a very short story or just a word or sentence) or the embellishment (hearts, balloons or whatever) adds something extra to the photo or it completes the picture, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be included. Let your fantasy soar, but try to keep it tasteful.
Overall Appearance
If you are creating copies of your photo book for family members and participants, a smaller book that replicates the overall look of the original copy is more than enough.
As for your copy, only the sky is the limit: maybe consider a fancy cover like leather (with or without a die-cut window), linen or silk; order the book in a larger size; or perhaps upgrade the photo paper to a finer quality with the always stylish and perfectly album-style layflat binding.
Wedding Photo Booth
A new and entertaining trend to smuggle a little variety into the exhausting wedding preparation process is by setting up a photo booth where guests can capture themselves in funny situations. And the best thing is that not only does it make your big day even more memorable but it can also be realized at a relatively small expense.
Whether the wedding is organized indoors or outside, all you need is a corner of the venue where the photo booth can be set up. No need to overthink the whole concept: just simply create a goofy or heartwarming background using an empty frame, painting something onto a flat surface or a huge piece of cardboard. Photo booth backgrounds can also be purchased at different retail stores or on the internet (such as Amazon), but hiring a proper photography booth for the event is just as good. But don’t forget about the stars of the photo booth, the props. Stores and the internet are full of hilarious masks and even costumes your guests could wear when taking pictures in front of your chosen background.
Then it’s just a case of encouraging guests to take photos in your photo booth by making it a true attention grabber. If the photo booth is successful, everyone will want to try it, adding countless more photos to a collection that can then be used in your wedding photo book or even as a separate book. And don’t worry about the equipment: whether pictures are taken with a regular camera with a timer and a tripod or smart devices, a photo booth with funny props and costumes is a true selfie magnet, meaning that pictures will likely to end up on Facebook or Instagram where they can then be shared with you.
Professional Wedding Photo Books
Photo book companies are so confident in the quality of their products that they offer money back guarantees on the photo books should they have any unforeseen defect. However, it is very unlikely your book will be unsatisfactory, since photo book editors are fool-proof and simple to use, providing endless possibilities for customization.
Not only can your photo book be created in various shapes and sizes, but it is possible to combine different covers, upgrade to better quality paper and even change the binding type. However, it is the design of the pages where virtually anything is possible: including various wedding themes, stylish backgrounds, modifiable layouts, cute embellishments, text boxes and the list could go on. Additionally, some builders offer the option to affect the look of the photos. But even if this feature is not included, then all builders will warn you should the image quality be too low or if it would be cropped during printing. Not to mention there is the always-popular auto-fill option with which a book can be completed with photos in seconds.
To top it all off, certain photo book companies allow you to share your WIP photo book via email or social media, which is a perfect opportunity to ask for the advice of your wedding photographer or, if they are working on the book themselves, let you see the book before printing. But if you really want to make sure you receive a quality product, use editors with a collaboration option like Mixbook or MILK Books.
Recommended Wedding Photo Book Services
Shutterfly
Shutterfly not only allows you to create your photo book on the go – with the Photo Story iPad app that even has a doodling feature – but it also provides three editing methods, including one where professionals design the book for you. A wedding is embraced by this photo book company with 31 themes related to the occasion available, out of which ten are free of charge, five can be chosen to be used by the professionals and one is actually a honeymoon style. However, regardless of the building method and the selected theme, wedding books can still be fully customized to your liking with the Ideal Pages or various layouts, backgrounds, embellishments and text. Shutterfly photo books are available from $15.99 and can be put together with more simple or downright luxurious covers in either large or small sizes at a landscape or square shape.
MILK Books
MILK Books is more than ideal for getting your photo book created, and not just because a wedding is a major theme for this company. The online editor or the iPad app is as simple as a photo book builder can get, since it only allows you to switch between different layouts. However, you can leave notes in the would-be book for anyone who collaborates on the same project and you can include videos from the wedding that are burnt to a (pay-only) CD. But what really makes MILK stand out from the rest – aside from the approximately $60-$65 base price – is the finer materials it uses for covers and paper. Regular medium or large size books can be built using four different paper types alongside linen, buckram or Wibalin covers, but there is also the option to order stylish medium size photo books with genuine Moleskine leather covers, too.
Mixbook
The fact that the company offers 50 wedding designs in total – making wedding the third most popular subject – is not the only reason why Mixbook is an optimal choice for creating wedding photo books. With the simple and straightforward editor you can customize the photo book to your liking in virtually any way: layouts, backgrounds, embellishments, photo holders, text boxes and even themes can be modified during the editing by you or anyone else collaborating on the project with you. The best thing, however, is how the versatile the book’s appearance can be: for as low as $15.99 books can be ordered in small, medium or large sizes with 20-399 pages and six covers that include matte hardcovers, layflat hardcovers or leather covers with customized dust jacket.
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