Wedding Album Prices

To be honest ours are included in the photographer price so I'm not sure of the prices for just the albums but photobox do these type of books, might be worth seeing what they can do?

Folio are a fantastic album company - one of the best in the UK. If the equivalent is of similar standard then you've got yourself a great deal.

We've been quoted about £400 for the 10" by 10" and £80 for the small one if we buy another album.

If we want a 12 x 14 inch it will cost us £450. The small ones are £150. Not sure we can really afford to pay £300 for an album each for the parents so thinking of using photo box for them and just buying our larger album

I do a 30 page 12x12 matted Jorgensen for £495 and a 9x9 version for £395.

There's not much money made on that either to cover the time involved in proofing it, but it's my most popular album.

It depends on the manufacturer too, a Queensberry Musee album costs me around 2k to buy in before I even put a design fee on top. A Photobox album is about £100.

You get what you pay for in most cases really. Albums cost a lot of money for photographers to buy in as most of us use higher end professional manufacturers. As a result we wouldn't go anywhere near Photobox, Blurb or Bob books in quality or price. ?

I supply a different brand but I've heard of Folio and I think that's a reasonable price. Professional quality albums are much more expensive than clients realise!

There's no comparison between a Folio album and a Photobox album, they are completely different products.

To be honest I used Vistaprint to make albums for our families and the quality was superb!! Really unexpected how well they turned out and you wouldn't know from looking at it them that they weren't professional ones, plus we got to completely personalise them how we wanted.

We got 2 large ones and 5 medium sized ones for about £120. I would recommend possibly making a small one (which I think is £8) and seeing for yourself what the quality is like before you dismiss them

We're in the process of making up two XL sized ones for all of our wedding photos (including guest photos) and Honeymoon photos for ourselves, taking so long because we have so many pictures to include!!

I've got a large lay flat style photobook for £50 from photobox and the quality is fantastic. I'm also doing some for family from bonusprint because I can get them half price. I know they're never going to be the same quality as a professional photographers book but I couldn't justy £400 on a album when I love the one for £50 and so does everyone else I've shown.

That sounds like a good deal! Our 16x12 inch album is included in our package, but when I asked our photographer about albums for the parents he said probably around the £250/£300 mark each, depending on whether we ordered one or two. They're absolutely amazing quality though, I've literally never seen anything like them, so I'm going to stump up for the albums for the parents if they want them.

Hi

Yes, these prices sound 'normal'. Quite similar to what we charge for albums. As Chris pointed out earlier, it makes a huge difference what album is actually included in the price.

As far as the cheaper options go - they are usually photo books rather than albums and also, while they may look good now, they are far less likely to age as well as a 'proper' album. I'm not trying to criticise, just pointing out one of the reasons why albums are quite expensive ?

Andy

Thanks everyone. It's reassuring to know that the prices are realistic.

I've had to put it back now until the New Year as we would only have a couple of days to choose our photos which is a bit too pressured - plus it's a lot to spend at this time of year.

We will go with the professional albums though - I think we will regret it if we don't.

Now to find something else for the parents for Christmas....!

Thank you ?

Hi Andy- what is the difference between a photobook and an album?

Hi

Two main differences - type and quality of pages and paper used and quality of print/ink used. In general a photo book will have much thinner pages (which may not look great after say 10 years and few dozens of times flicking through them), seam/binding is likely to be of lesser quality and the print method and quality of print is often lower, which may result in worse colour and contrast reproduction. Or the print may look good, but it will fade or discolour after a few years.

To make things a bit more confusing, many album suppliers also offer photobooks. These are cheaper than albums, but more expensive than photobox or blurb books. Pages and binding is more like a book rather than album, but photographic paper and archival grade inks are used. So in other words, the photos will look great for years, however it won't have quite the same feel like a 'proper' album. Hope this helps a bit ? It's much easier to explain the difference when showing both side by side ?

Andy

There are loads of different names for "albums" and it varies from photographer to photographer and also between suppliers what each of them will call them.

The cheapest ones are ink print onto thin print paper and glue bound.

Then you get thicker pages with better binding, book binding

Then next up are ones that are not printed at all but use actual photographs for the pages and no inks are involved

And then again those too have their own lower quality glued and the higher quality book bound pages and also the more expensive ones will have thicker pages. Sometimes it will be the photo pages glued back to back and sometimes it will be a piece of card in between the page sides to create a thicker page.

All of the above are flat page books, mostly known as Coffee table books, photo books,digital books

Then there are the ones that use separate overlays with cut apertures that have separate photographs behind and are usually the highest quality book bound and always known as "albums" and not known as photobooks.

Not often associated with the lowest cost albums but with most of the others the album or book cover can add a massive amount to the whole cost depending on the materials used, leather, perspex, then there is the quality of the leather used which can also effect the cost, faux leather, bound leather, full leather.

So when you are offered an album in the package price what you get can vary massively.

The good aspect of all of this is that there is something out there for everyone's budget and tastes

Hi again

After deciding not to pursue the albums until after Christmas, I thought I'd tinker about a bit!!

I had some wedding prints done at DS Colour Labs and was happy with them so I have just spent a good couple of hours putting together a 'luxury' album for the MIL on their website.

Please can one of you lovely photographers tell me if these are any good?

http://www.dscolourlabs.co.uk/category/69-new-luxury-photo-book

I know they won't be Folio quality but would they be better than the photobox type. The books are leather and can be embossed and the pages lay flat but very hard to tell without seeing in the flesh.

Not sure whether to take a chance and order it - its under £60 for an 8x8 with 22 pages.

Any advise welcome - thank you ?

For the money they're OK. I had a look at them at the last trade show where DS were. I don't think they'll be worrying the competition a lot but they seem OK.

I dare say they will be significantly better quality than Photobox. I think that's one of the other points. Your wedding album should be sturdy enough to stand the test of time. It will hopefully still be in great condition when you get it out of the loft and show your grandkids.

Lastly bear in mind that if you order through your photographer he/she will spend a fair bit of time designing the album for you, using the latest design software that will give you a better result than the freebie template software the DS labs & Photobox use. The latter drives me insane.

Thank you Martin.

I'm still undecided though! We just want a nice looking album/book for the parents but really don't want to spend £130 each on them. I don't think it's as important to have a Folio one for them (sorry if that sounds mean).We will definitely spend the money for our own one though.

I will mull it over a bit longer.

Would DS labs be as good as you could get without going into the next bracket? Or could you recommend any others where you can do it all yourself?

Thanks so much - sorry for all the questions.

Argh so annoyed now!! Just logged into account for DS Labs to have a quick look at the album I put together last night and there is nothing there! I did save it last night but it's all disappeared.

Just thought I'd share that - sorry

This is so true.....Additionally, there is the issue of longevity........Professionally sourced albums with professionally printed images are guaranteed longevity....the "cheaper" options available, cannot guarantee this........It would be a shame to look at your album on your silver wedding anniversary, to show your kids and possibly grandchildren, simply to see faded and miscoloured images.....

Of course, if you keep the digital images safe (if provided) you can always have an album reprinted.....although in reality, the album should be like a heirloom for you and your children......

Peter