Reflecting on Seven Years - Your Wedding Album

My husband and I just celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary a few days ago. Getting out without the kids is harder now, but we managed to squeeze in a meal for two at a local restaurant we hadn't tried before. We got there right at opening so we had the whole place to ourselves for a while before the lunch crowd came in. Ahhhhhhh...peace and quiet. Having a meal where you're not managing two squirming kids and fishing for dropped toys under the table is definitely a nice change of pace!

Our anniversary is not only a time for thinking back to our wedding day and the journey we've gone on together since then  - it's also a time when I reflect on how this blog got started in the first place. Some of our loyal readers (thank you by the way!) may recall me writing how Photobookgirl.com came about. It would not have happened but for our wedding.

Weddings have become more personalized in more recent years. The big day has become a way to express the bride and groom's personalities, it's not just pick your color, your flowers and chicken entree any more. Our wedding was truly a reflection on our personal style - I did a lot of DIY. I made all the centerpieces for the tables, table numbers, escort cards, place cards, favors, programs, invitations and thank you cards. All custom - just the way I envisioned it.







With all that DIY, naturally a photo obsessed girl like me couldn't hand over an important project like a wedding album to anyone else - even our awesome wedding photographer (who would have done a beautiful job I'm certain). One of my main criteria in selecting a photographer was one who would provide us the digital files. (I even asked our videographer for the raw unedited video footage of our wedding. One day when all my kids are grown and I'm old and grey, I will have time to do a bride's cut of the wedding video!) It's just been in more recent years - maybe the last decade when photographers started to provide brides and grooms with digital files of their wedding photos often for an additional fee or as part of a package. When it came time to pick a company with which to print my album, although I had made several vacation and family photo books by that time, I had not made anything on the level of a luxe heirloom wedding album. I went online to research the options but didn't find any resources that brought it all together. Pro-centered sites - even if they did work with non-professionals did not cater to the average consumer. I decided to share the knowledge I had gained with other brides and grooms and thus Photobookgirl.com was born! Then as we were blessed with a baby boy, my posts naturally evolved into photo books about baby and family. The rest is history as they say.



Is it your 1st, 7th or 17th wedding anniversary and you still don't have a wedding album yet? Okay I guess if you got married more than 10 years ago you probably don't have digital files but for those that do.... Did you know that over 80 million photos are uploaded to Instagram per day? Facebook users upload 350 million photos per day! Yes, this is per day folks! Read more fun facts about our social media usage here. The point is we all know that our world is increasingly digital and online and that's where are photos are too - on our smartphones, on Facebook, on memory cards and hard drives. But if there were any photos that deserve to be plucked from digital oblivion it's most certainly your wedding photos!  And if you haven't backed up your photos yet - please I urge you to do it! (Check out my multi-part series on how to back up your photos.)



I field questions almost daily from readers about how and where to make their wedding albums. I often get asked, "Who makes the best quality wedding album?" That's always a hard question because as with most things, you get what you pay for. You can spend $1000.00 or you can spend $100.00. I always point them to the Wedding section on my site. A review of every wedding album I've made is linked there at every price point. One always needs to consider individual budget as well as how many photos you're looking to fit in an album. You can get a very high end album for a reasonable price but if you want to put 300 photos in it, it's likely going to be pretty cost prohibitive unless you have no budget! I specifically suggest looking at my Ultimate Lay Flat Photo Book Comparison Guide as one of the best places to find information on book types, price comparisons etc. Please don't let the original posting date of that blog post deter you, I update the handy dandy comparison chart you'll find in that post, every time I do a review of another lay flat or flush mount album.

Do I look at my wedding albums often? Actually yes! Most definitely every anniversary I like to pull one out and reminisce.

Well, these are just some musings from me your Photo Book Girl - always encouraging you to make that next (or first) photo book and most definitely your wedding album. Just think what an awesome anniversary present it will make!

Happy Photobooking!