Wedding Album Cost

The package we chose with our photographer included ours. But I believe she has them listed à la cart for $1000

Our photography package included ours so we paid less, but our photographer's prices for professional albums started at $1100.

I think the a la carte cost for an album from our photographer was $1000, and then supplemental parent albums were $500. Parent albums are smaller versions of the couple's album, but the layout work, etc is the same, so some of the labor costs are built into that first album, which is why it is so much more expensive.

I'm a photographer, so skipped ordering an album from my photographer because I already have a working relationship with a professional print lab for my own work. The albums from our photographer were so beautiful I was tempted to order one, but the cost was quite prohibitive and I felt pretty confident in my ability to edit and arrange the photographs we received. Additionally, we had a Covid elopement, so I felt like we didn't have all of the extra detail, getting ready, guest, and reception photos that would normally help complete an album, and I knew we'd want a separate album if/when we ever got to have our wedding celebration as we had originally intended.

I ended up designing our own album from the high resolution files supplied by our photographer as part of our wedding package. The wholesale cost for me purchasing albums from my lab was still a couple hundred dollars per piece (depending on number of spreads, cover options, and size) and probably 2-3 hours worth of labor or so, and that was just for our elopement, which is probably 1/3 the number of images we will have from the full wedding celebration. I also made two smaller parent albums (with fewer images and larger spreads of the family photos) for our families, which I think they really appreciated, since we otherwise didn't share our photos on social media at all because we wanted to keep the dress and setting secret so it was still special to our guests if/when we ever had a bigger event.

If you have your pro photographer create an album for you, there will be a bit of back and forth between you and them as you select which photos to include and they perfect the layout to perfectly tell your story and fit an aesthetic to your liking. The work is not insignificant, even though all of the images already exist and have been edited. So you are paying for both the produced piece, as well as their time and labor.

We did get to finally have our wedding celebration this spring, and haven't yet received our wedding celebration pics yet (it was just 2 weeks ago), but I know I will probably design another album for them. Because of our unique situation, doing two separate albums and then parent albums for both families for both events would have more than doubled our wedding photography budget and was completely out of the question. But if we had just had the one wedding we wanted and I didn't have the knowledge and editing tools to make my own album, I think I would have upgraded our wedding package to include one in a heartbeat. Your wedding album is one of the few everlasting things you will have from your wedding that most completely captures the story of your day AND can be appreciated for decades to come and passed down to future generations.

I would see if you can see a completed album from your wedding photographer before making a decision, and I would caution against doing your own album unless you are particularly experienced in photo editing, graphic design, or other printing and have an eye for quality. A lot of the inexpensive consumer marketed albums out there really don't compare to a professional album can get from your experienced, professional wedding photographer and a professional print lab. Often times the color reproduction isn't accurate, lesser quality materials are used, and the quality standard is inconsistent, so you could end up spending several hundred dollars on an album where your faces look orange, the photos are too dark, and five years from now the images have faded and the binding is coming apart. Good quality albums should be very consistent, have lay flat bindings with seamless spreads, and the paper itself should be very thick, almost like a board, that cannot wrinkle, ripple, or bend.

I haven't seen or tested every brand out there obviously, but a lot of the inexpensive products are junk and unlikely to stand the test of time. There is a company called Artifact Uprising that appears to have really beautiful, affordable albums but I have yet to see one in person for a real accurate assessment. However, if you are going the DIY route, that is the brand I'm most curious about and would cautiously recommend based on their marketing.

Our photographer offered photo albums close to 800 dollars a la carte. We already paid around 3,000 for our photo package alone, so we’re going to do our own photo album through Artifact Uprising.

Our photographer offers three different packages and the most expensive package includes a wedding album. It is $300 more than the middle option without the album which is the package we selected. Had we selected the package with the album it we would have received a a thick-page leather 8 x 10 wedding album with 20 pages (40 spends). She also offers the ability to purchase an album separately later on, but the cost would depend on what options you picked because there was a choice of different sizes, pages, cover types, etc. We ended up making a DIY album through ZNO that I love. I wanted more control over my album as I am very particular.

We're doing the album ourselves since it would cost over $1200. I think it'd be more fun to pick out the photos together and place them in an album over a bottle of wine

I am wondering the same thing! The photography company I’m working with starts theirs at $1375 up to $4565. Feels extremely high to me but may e I’m not understanding what all goes into it?

View Quoted Comment Here’s why they are expensive: Dozens of hours of editing and retouching, hundreds of images additional hours of album design and redesign . Professional print lab technology, archival museum quality paper guaranteed te last at keast 100 years. Handmade flush mount binding. Extra thick pages, premium linen and Italian l leather covers. That’s what you are paying for. If you order through groupon or Shutterfly you get a photo book, not an Heirloom Album. You get faux leather ot coated paper cover, thin pages and ink jet printing. I spend $300 each fir my my college textbooks , so $1000 for a heirloom quality album that. Csn pass on to my grandkids isn’t really that much. After the party is over your photos are what you have left. I don’t understand why ppl pay thousands on pro photography then spend peanuts to get those images produced. Anyone can take a picture. A photographer is an artist.