DIY Photo Album or as part of the photographer package?

Make one yourself. Groupon have deals for this all the time. Photobox do too...

The cost depends on the number of pages but will be lower than getting the photographer to do it as you're not paying for his/her time. BUT obviously it may not look quite as professional as you're not an expert.

Our tog does provide albums but they bumped up the price of the package considerably so we just went for digital only and we made our own album using Photobox. Their Premium Photobook is brilliant quality and it cost us about £70ish for 120 pages (this was an offer they had on at the time). I've also heard good things about Snapfish too. These places often have different offers on at different times so you can easily get one done without costing a fortune.

Unless an album is a deal breaker for you, or you have a fairly large budget, personally I wouldn't advise opting for an album package. Professional wedding albums are not cheap even at cost price so they will likely eat a fair chunk of your budget up, especially once design fees are factored in as well. Usually for a professional album (fees included) you'd be looking at approx £400+.

You'd be better off investing as much as you can getting the best photographer you can afford, over (possibly) a not as good photographer with more "stuff" included in the package.

You can always get an album at a later date, whether a professional one, or one you can DIY. We always say to our couples that it is much easier to commit to an album, how many spreads etc once you've actually seen your photos. Otherwise it's educated guesswork really.

For us, nothing quite compares to the quality and finish of a professional album so we'll definitely be looking to get one (one day) but it'll be at a later date when we've had the chance to put some money aside for one.

As above, we're getting an album from our tog (it was posted yesterday !) but I've made up my own too and although it's a bit of a faff getting all the pics where you want them, they look pretty good when finished. Keep an eye on Groupon, livingsocial and discount vouchers, there are loads of offers. Try and get one from the big companies like snapfish or photobox as the quality is better.

We got an album in our wedding package as it was part of the package, and it's superb, but for my parents ruby party i'm doing the album myself. i find photobox to be really good with every day pictures, so with professional i expect it's likely to be just as good if not better. the tog offered albums at £150 extra, but photobox is only costing me £87 and it's designed by me so more personal.

unless you're heart set on an album don't think it should be a deal breaker as there are plenty of companies to choose from when making your own at a fraction of the cost

Thanks for the responses. We are on a tight budget but don't want to compromise on the quality of the photographer, so we will go down the route of doing our own album at a later date.

The best obviously should be from your photographer but not all photographers sell quality albums so be careful. If you have the time to design the album then great but I have had clients come back years afterwards telling me they tried to design the album and gave up?

Hi!

It depends on your budget and what you're looking for. Having said that, the quality of a proper wedding album has nothing to do with a press book. Personally, I provide high-end wedding albums as part of my packages. I'm sure you will find this post on my blog about wedding albums vs digital negatives helpful. Also you can find more info about wedding albums on this other post.

I've toyed with this idea - our tog does a gift registry and as it's our 2nd marriage each and we don't really want any presents I thought we could tell guests they could donate to that if they really wanted to give us something, but now I'm leaning towards our own album through Snapfish. I've used them before and the quality is great for the price. If you do it in the run up to Christmas they usually do huge discounts so you pick one up for up to half price. I might still stick with the tog fund though to get a canvas print as I don't feel Snapfish are as good at those

Our album arrived yesterday and the quality is fantastic, take a look:

https://www.hitched.co.uk/chat/forums/t/490203.aspx

Bear in mind getting an album at photobox isn't the same as a professional album service. The print accuracy is often off, more contrasty and saturated with lower print detail. Does your photographer not offer an album at all? Most decent album services you'd need to be a professional photographer to buy from them. I'd prioritise getting the photographer you prefer, but see if they'd help me at least access an album provider afterwards.

Hi all, this article may be of some help:

The Wedding Album - DIY or Leave It To The Photographer?

Regards

Marc