How to Design Your own Wedding Album

So you want a wedding album? The most pain-free way of preserving your memories (for you, at least) is definitely ordering one from your photographer. Most professional photographers will have experimented with several suppliers before settling with the ones they love, and have a good feel for design and telling the story of your day.

So my first recommendation would always be to go to the person who photographed your wedding and let them finish telling your story (as a documentary wedding photographer I always see a wedding album as the natural conclusion to the wedding journey.)

But if you’re limited (let’s face it, usually by budget) and want to DIY your wedding album. Then this article is for you. There are lots of options for printing your own wedding album – including Blurb, Bob Books (I know several photographers who use Bob Books) or the Bespoke Album Company. Find a bookmaker you love and let’s begin.

Choose a style of album

There is so much available on the market – from DIY scrapbooks to coffee table books and full on albums. So shop around and decide what you want. Try to take longevity into consideration too though, as hopefully you and your family will be looking at this for decades to come.

Choosing photos for the wedding album

This is probably going to be the hardest part. I’d recommend starting off with a bigger selection than you’re going to need. This will help when it comes to the aesthetic stuff I’m going to be laying on you over the next steps. I’d budget for an average of 3-4 images per double page spread (maybe 5 if you’re printing at 12×12 or above) and try to choose the images that tell the story and get across the feeling of the day the best.

I think some wedding photos also belong on the wall – as large prints / canvases or smaller mementos. You can trim down your selection by pulling these out. I always want an album to tell the story of the day whereas I’d want the “hero images” on the wall.

It will still take forever picking the images, mind… Did your photographer make a slideshow for you? They’re probably the images they would have used for an album. (The album below was designed from this wedding at the West Mill, Derby)

Some artistic principles for good design

1. 1. Simplicity – I’m always a fan of letting each photo sit by itself and speak for itself. So if you’re looking for advice on laying portraits over flowers over table decorations, I’m not that sort of designer. I love white space and simplicity (you can probably tell that from the website). It’s timeless and classic and looks like a coffee table book you’d pick up at a bookshop (Top tip – go and browse a bookshop for inspiration!)

1. 1. Colour or Black and White – I always try to use only colour or black and white photos on each spread. It gives the wedding album a sense of harmony as you move from page to page.

1. 1. Think about size – each picture on a spread will have a ‘visual weight’ depending on the size of the image and the space it’s given. Images that are central to the story or have a lot of visual information tend to look good larger (sometimes filling the page, or spreading over a couple of pages)

1. 1. Think about the story – Try and divide the pages up so different parts of the story sit on different spreads. (This is actually trickier than it sounds, especially when working to a page limit)

1. 1. Mix up the rhythm – Sometimes you’ll want one image per page, sometimes it will work better with 5,6 or even 10 Mix it up and use your judgement to tell the story. (I once had a couple who wanted to fit 150 images into a 10 spread album – the result was chaotic, but totally suited the colourful and fun nature of their wedding day)

Software like SmartAlbums, Canva or Album creation software provided by your printer can help lay out album spreads in a pleasing fashion.

Extra Creative details

What’s the cover going to look like? Is there a font that ties in with your wedding day? I’ve had couples using the design from their stationary and incorporating it into their wedding album design.

You could also incorporate wedding readings or lyrics from the soundtrack of the day into the album design.

A quick note on Colour management

This is going to differ from supplier to supplier – but they will probably have different specifications and work in different colour spaces. Read their instructions to know how best to get your photos back in approximately the same colours that your photographer supplied them in.

When I got married, we got a proper album from our photographers, which is perfect. And one for grandparents from an online supplier, where everything is quite purple (including the black and whites). Maybe if we’d have educated ourselves on colour management first then we’d have avoided the pitfall. If your printer doesn’t provide information about colour management and preferred files – ask.