View our wedding album options and prices
You’ve had the thrill of seeing your wedding photos and now it’s time to read our advice on how to choose photos for your wedding album.
Picking photos for your wedding album is fairly easy and straightforward and won’t cost you anything other than your time.
The more effort you invest in this process, the happier you will be with the end result.
So make your favourite drink, sit down, relax and get ready to help create an important memento of your family history.
We would usually advise you to choose your images using a desktop or laptop computer, access to a mouse and keyboard can make the photo selection process quicker and easier.
Alternatively, if you prefer to use an iPad or similar device, it is usually easier to write your selection down using a pen and paper.
View our album options and prices
On this page:
Storytelling vs Favourite Photos vs Pleasing Everyone
The main to decide is whether you want to tell the story of the day, have a collection of your favourite photos, or try to please everyone who will see the album (parents, grandparents etc.) or a mix of these options.
But what exactly do these options mean?
Method 1: Telling The Story Of Your Wedding Day
Telling the story of your wedding day is literally choosing photos from each part of the day to show a comprehensive and compelling start-to-finish story of the day.
Tip: Break the day down into logical parts and allocate a number of photos to each part. For example, you could divide your wedding day as follows:
- bridal preparations
- guests arrivals
- wedding ceremony
- drinks reception
- family pictures
- newly-wed shots
- speeches
- cake cutting
- dancing
Then allocate a few photos to each part of the day. For example, there are 9 parts in the list above, so you could allocate 10 newly-wed photos plus 4 photos to every other part of the day; this would total 50 photos which is ideal for a 30-page wedding album.
Adjust the parts of the day to suit your own wedding day and allocate the number of photos to each part based on how many pages/photos you would like in your wedding album:
Use the following as a guide to how many pages your album is likely to contain; the more pages in the album, the more the album will cost.
Our albums can contain a minimum of 30 pages and a maximum of 80 pages.
- 30 pages = approximately 50 images
- 40 pages = approximately 65 images
- 50 pages = approximately 80 images
- 60 pages = approximately 95 images
- 70 pages = approximately 110 images
- 80 pages = approximately 125 images
Using the ‘storytelling method’ to choose your photos ensures anyone looking at your wedding album for the very first time would have a really good insight into your wedding day; the people, the clothes, the setting and all the little details which made your day unique.
Pros: Your wedding album will detail everything about your wedding day, showing off all the various aspects of the day. Over the coming years, you can look at your wedding album and clearly see what made the day so wonderful.
Cons: It’s easy to get carried away and end up choosing a lot more images for your album than any other method. If your wedding album budget is limited you might need to be ruthless in culling photos from your selection!
Method 2: Choosing Your Favourite Photos
Choosing your favourite photos for your wedding album literally means choosing your favourite photos of the day.
Your selection might not necessarily ‘tell the story of the day’, but you have chosen your favourite photos to appear in the album.
For example, you might decide that although you like the photos of the bridal preparations, they aren’t your favourite photos of the day, and you would rather dedicate more pages to your newly-wed photos.
The end result is an album which might not contain photos of ‘detail shots’ (rings, flowers etc.) or photos of guests, but what matters is you have picked your favourite photos.
Pros: Your wedding album is entirely created with your favourite photos with no compromises.
Cons: At a later date you might regret not including a few photos of other parts of the day.
Method 3: Pleasing Everyone
This option is really for anyone who has an extended family and would like to keep parents, grandparents etc. happy.
Perhaps you want to include mini-albums for friends or family and you feel obliged to include a few pictures of the family or friends.
Every family is different and sometimes designing a wedding album means remembering a wedding day is often about the gathering of family and friends and your album can reflect that.
A wedding album can also be an important family document, something you can show and be proud of for years to come.
The emotional value of your wedding album will increase as time goes by, especially if you have children or if your grandparents are elderly and you want to be able to view pictures of them in years to come.
Pros: Including photos of family and friends will bring a smile to their face when they see the album. That can be priceless.
Cons: Pleasing everyone else can mean not pleasing yourself. It’s your wedding album, and pleasing everyone can be a compromise.
View our wedding album options and prices
How To Choose Photos For Your Wedding Album: The Selection Process
Now you’ve got an idea of the purpose of your wedding album (telling a story/favourite photos/pleasing everyone) it’s time to choose a process of how to choose photos for your wedding album.
Most of our clients will have a folder of photos containing several hundred wedding photos. How do you narrow this number of photos down to a collection suitable to fit into a wedding album?
There are 3 ways that we recommend, 1. Culling, 2. Picking and 3. Writing Down.
Pick which method you feel most comfortable with.
Culling
Culling photos is straightforward. You are going to delete all of the photos you do not want to appear in your wedding album and the final group of photos left will be used by us to design your wedding album.
- We suggest making a backup of the folder of wedding photos on your device. Create a new Google email address and you receive enough free storage to store all of your photos ‘in the cloud’. Once your Gmail account is activated, you can upload all of your wedding photos into the free storage that comes with your Gmail account (the storage is called ‘Google Drive’). You now have a secure backup of your wedding photos which can be accessed via any device with internet access. Don’t use the backup photos for choosing your wedding album photos.
- On your computer or laptop, create a copy of the folder containing all of your wedding photos. Name this copied folder ‘Wedding Album Photos’.
- Within the folder Wedding Album Photos, delete any colour photos you do not want to appear in your album. Leave the black and white photos for now. Be sure to compare similar photos (for example, there may be many similar photos of you with your immediate family – pick your favourite photo/s within that grouping, perhaps look for what facial expressions you prefer most and delete the rest. If you are unsure between a few photos, leave them for now and move onto the next photo.
- Once you have been through all the colour photos, repeat Step 3 for all the black and white photos. If you do not want any black and white photos in the album, delete all the black and white photos.
- Repeat Step 3 and Step 4 until you are satisfied you have removed all of the photos you do not want in your album.
- Choose the cover for your wedding album and any upgrades to add to the album order. These options can be viewed here: Luxury Wedding Albums
- Send us a list of the number part of each photo left in your folder, plus your album cover choice and any upgrade options. Either email a spreadsheet with the list of numbers or email us the list of photos.
For example:Cover: Acrylic front cover with Navy Blue Leatherette Spine and back cover + 2 Parent Albums with Navy Blue Leatherette covers
Photos:
1000
1010
1015
1030
1080
Picking
Another way to choose the photos for your wedding album is what we call ‘picking’. This method involves picking your favourite photos from one folder and putting them into another folder.
This second folder will contain all of the photos to be used to design your wedding album.
- We suggest making a backup of the folder of wedding photos on your device. Create a new Google email address and you receive enough free storage to store all of your photos ‘in the cloud’. Once your Gmail account is activated, you can upload all of your wedding photos into the free storage that comes with your Gmail account (the storage is called ‘Google Drive’). You now have a secure backup of your wedding photos which can be accessed via any device with internet access. Don’t use the backup photos for choosing your wedding album photos.
- On your computer or laptop, create a copy of the folder containing all of your wedding photos. Name this copied folder ‘Wedding Album Photos’.
- Create a new, empty folder and name this folder ‘Picked’.
- Now go through the folder Wedding Album Photos and move any colour photos you do want to appear in your album into the ‘Picked’ folder. Leave the black and white photos for now. Be sure to compare similar photos (for example, there may be many similar photos of you with your immediate family – pick your favourite photo/s within that grouping, perhaps look for what facial expressions you prefer most. If you are unsure between a few photos, leave them for now and move onto the next photo.
- Once you have been through all the colour photos, repeat Step 4 for all the black and white photos. If you do not want any black and white photos in the album, ignore all the black and white photos.
- Repeat Step 4 and Step 5 until you are satisfied you have chosen all of the photos you want in your wedding album.
- Choose the cover for your wedding album and any upgrades to add to the album order. These options can be viewed here: Luxury Wedding Albums
- Send us a list of the number part of each photo in your ‘Picked’ folder, plus your album cover choice and any upgrade options. Either email a spreadsheet with the list of numbers or email us the list of photos.
For example:
Cover: Acrylic front cover with Navy Blue Leatherette Spine and back cover + 2 Parent Albums with Navy Blue Leatherette covers
Photos:
1000
1010
1015
1030
1080
Writing Down
If you don’t have access to a computer (desktop or laptop) and you are choosing the photos by viewing your online web gallery, or are viewing a folder of photos on an iPad or notepad, you might find writing your selection of photos down on a piece of paper is most convenient.
- We suggest making a backup of the folder of wedding photos on your device. Create a new Google email address and you receive enough free storage to store all of your photos ‘in the cloud’. Once your Gmail account is activated, you can upload all of your wedding photos into the free storage that comes with your Gmail account (the storage is called ‘Google Drive’). You now have a secure backup of your wedding photos which can be accessed via any device with internet access. Don’t use the backup photos for choosing your wedding album photos.
- Access your wedding photos. You can view your photos on your computer, iPad or phone.
- Now go through the folder containing your wedding photos and write down the number part from the name of the colour photos you do want to appear in your album. Leave the black and white photos for now. Be sure to compare similar photos (for example, there may be many similar photos of you with your immediate family – pick your favourite photo/s within that grouping, perhaps look for what facial expressions you prefer most. If you are unsure between a few photos, leave them for now and move onto the next photo.
- Once you have been through all the colour photos, repeat Step 3 for all the black and white photos. If you do not want any black and white photos in the album, ignore all the black and white photos.
- Repeat Step 3 and Step 4 until you are satisfied you have chosen all of the photos you want in your wedding album.
- Choose the cover for your wedding album and any upgrades to add to the album order. These options can be viewed here: Luxury Wedding Albums
- Send us a list of the numbers you have written down (the number part of each photo), plus your album cover choice and any upgrade options. Either email a spreadsheet with the list of numbers or email us the list of photos.
For example:
Cover: Acrylic front cover with Navy Blue Leatherette Spine and back cover + 2 Parent Albums with Navy Blue Leatherette covers
Photos:
1000
1010
1015
1030
1080
View our wedding album options and prices
What Happens Next
Once we have received your email detailing your selection of photos for your wedding album and any upgrades, we will advise you of the estimated time to complete the album design.
Use the following as a guide to how many pages your album is likely to contain; the more pages in the album, the more the album costs.
Our wedding albums can contain a minimum of 30 pages and a maximum of 80 pages.
- 30 pages can accommodate approximately 50 images
- 40 pages can accommodate approximately 65 images
- 50 pages can accommodate approximately 80 images
- 60 pages can accommodate approximately 95 images
- 70 pages can accommodate approximately 110 images
- 80 pages can accommodate approximately 125 images
Please note that the figures here are for guidance only.
We won’t know exactly how many pages are required until your design is completed.
For example, if you choose 50 images, your album could require additional pages to accommodate your selection of images; we can usually fit about 50 images into a 30-page album, but occasionally require 2 – 4 extra pages if you choose lots of images which look better spread over one or two full pages (group photos, newly-wed shots etc. usually look better spread over one or two pages, whereas details shots of the rings/flowers etc. usually work better as smaller images 4 to a page).
If you wish, you can increase the number of images and pages and pay a little bit extra to accommodate the increased number of pages.
When we have finished designing your wedding album we will create a PDF of the design.
This will allow you to check the design before it’s sent for printing. Minor further editing is usually fine and can vary between albums depending on the scale of editing required.
Once the design is approved by you it is sent for printing and at this stage, it’s too late to make further changes!
Your wedding album is printed and hand-finished right here in Scotland.
This means fast turnaround, with completed albums usually being ready to ship within 10 working days.
Your completed order is shipped direct to you, and we usually add your mobile number and/or email address to the order so you can receive shipping updates.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you require any additional information or advice about how to choose photos for your wedding album, we’re always happy to help!