5 Tips for Creating a Wedding Photo Book
One of the important days in anyone’s life will be their wedding day. While it will no doubt be an unforgettable day, it’s often over before you know it and it can actually be quite easy to not remember all the finer details thanks to all the anticipation, excitement, and stress that goes into a wedding.
One way to ensure you can always fully revisit that special day is by creating your own personalized wedding photo book. No longer are you limited to a simple boring wedding album. Today’s technology allows you to create something truly special straight from the comfort of your home.
Your memories of your wedding day are often the only thing that remains after time, and even they can start to fade. A Wedding photo book will allow you to revisit those special moments whenever you wish, even as your hair begins to turn gray.
Half the enjoyment of a wedding photo book is the creation stage. You’ll be able to arrange photos however you like, choose from many different themes and layouts, add text, and choose from a variety of paper types and covers to suit your personality.
To help you get started on your wedding book journey, we’ve gathered our top five tips for creating a book that will preserve your special day for generations to come.
Consider Your Audience
When creating a wedding photo book, it’s first important to know who it will be for. A book you create for you and your spouse can be very different than one you would gift your family or friends.
Before you begin creating your book, you’ll want to first select and organize wedding photos that align with the mood you’re going for. Are you wanting to create a fun and possibly humorous wedding book for close friends or a more traditional and elegant design for parents or grandparents?
Furthermore, people that attended the wedding will have a much clearer understanding of the day’s events, whereas if you are creating a book for someone who could not attend you may want to add a backstory of text to images to explain what’s going on.
If the wedding book is for you and your partner, be sure to work together on it so as to create something that you are both proud of. Your wedding day was about the two of you and the love you have for one another and your book should showcase both of your personalities equally.
Choose Pictures that Tell a Story
Once you have chosen who the wedding book will be for, it’s then time to start thinking how you want to arrange your photos and which ones make the cut. It’s common to start it with a large grouping of photos and then slim them down to allow more focus to be brought upon those moments that were truly special.
While some photo books will allow you to include a large number of images, remember that more isn’t always better. The key is to tell a story with your images rather than just a collage of random photos thrown together like you’d find in old wedding albums.
You may want to organize your photos into online folders to aid you in locating specific images such as saying your vows, cutting of the cake, exchanging of the rings, or throwing the bouquet. Decide if you want to tell a story that flows in chronological order or if you want to organize your photos in a different way.
The important thing to remember is to have some kind of order to your photos. It’s also wise to mix and match vertical images with horizontal images on pages since it will keep your book more engaging to the eye.
You will want to focus on grouping photos that complement each other in terms of color and lighting. You should also choose to make images different sizes to make your book more visually appealing.
Choosing a Design
The next important step is finding a book design that suits your style or personality. There are endless possibilities at your disposal during this stage. There are often countless themes to choose from when creating a photo book online, many of which are specifically suited to weddings.
You can select from many preset themes and designs that can save you time and stress if you aren’t much of the creative type yourself, or you can create something more unique and personalized.
Ask yourself if you’re looking to create a more traditional and elegant wedding book or do you want something more casual and fun? You may want to match your book to the style of your wedding, or you may want to stir things up a bit. The choice is yours.
Think of each page of your book as a separate work of art, while also making sure each page flows into the next smoothly. The design stage allows you to get creative with placing frames or borders around photos, adding text using a wide range of available fonts, and maybe adding designs or other artwork that complement your photos.
And don’t be afraid to add photos that don’t strictly pertain to you, your spouse, or others that attended the wedding. You may want to include artistic shots of the church or wedding venue, close-ups of wedding flowers, or in the case of a destination wedding photos that showcase where you were.
Choosing images beyond your traditional couple photos and wedding party photos will allow you to add more color and variety to your book which will make it even more interesting and visually stunning.
Choosing a Paper Type
Now that you have chosen and organized your photos onto pages, having created a story you’re happy with, it’s then onto selecting a paper that will do your pages justice. The paper type and quality you choose can surprisingly greatly alter the look and feel of your images.
The difference between choosing a low quality paper and a higher quality one can be likened to reading a cheap magazine or a work of art that you would be happy to show off much like a professional photographer would show off their well designed portfolio.
There are of course multiple choices to be made in regards to paper including the shape and size as well as the material. Do you want square pages, rectangle pages, or special lay-flat pages that are ideal for larger images that are to be spread across two pages?
When it comes to types of paper, once again there are a wide variety of choices for you. There is linen or silk which is quite ideal for wedding photo books, as well as matte, high gloss, and even paper with a shimmering pearl finish.
Each type of paper offers its own benefits whether you’re looking to produce smooth skin tones, vibrancy, richer shadows and colors, or a multitude of other effects. Your choice of paper in some way acts as a sort of filter that can enhance the mood you are after.
Whichever paper you choose, you can be assured these days that your book will be printed on archival photo paper that with proper care and storage will allow your images to live on long after your gone.
Producing Your Book
Great work! You’ve made it to the final leg of your photo book journey which is to produce your masterpiece. Now is the time to carefully look over all the finer details of each page to make sure there’s nothing out of place, no mistakes, and that you haven’t left anything important out of your book.
Make sure images are not blurry or misaligned. Make sure any text is spelled correctly. Make sure you haven’t inadvertently duplicated any images. Feel free to move around images and make any alterations at this stage. The goal is to make your book the best it can be.
When you are happy with your work, you will then be able to choose from a range of different book cover types whether it be leather, cloth, simple hardcover or paperback, or possibly even something like wood or bamboo.
There may also then be the option to get fancy with engraving your cover, having metallic edge gilding placed on your pages, adding a dust jacket or slip cover, or including a pocket in the back to house special wedding mementos like your wedding initiation or reception menu.
Final Thoughts
You put a lot of time and thought into making your wedding day perfect and the same should apply to your wedding photo book since it is something you with have and hold for the rest of your life in sickness and in health.
Take your time with your book. There is no need to rush. You will likely have a generous amount of time to start thinking about your book well before your wedding photos are event sent to you by your photographer after they go through their editing process.
And don’t be afraid to include images you have taken and ask others to share their images as well. Just because you or your friend and family members may not be professional photographers doesn’t mean you can’t take special professional looking images that are more than suitable for your book.
You may even be able to download a digital version of your wedding photo book as a backup. And don’t limit yourself to creating just a wedding photo book when there is the opportunity to design engagement and honeymoon books as well!