I have to be honest with you about something…something I’m embarrassed to admit.

I am a wedding photographer who doesn’t own an album from my own wedding.

Whew…it feels so good to get that out.

Let me tell you why.

When I was planning my own wedding, I didn’t know anything about the wedding industry as it currently stands. I thought that an album was one of those binders that held 4×6 prints in laminated pages. I’m pretty sure several of my clients have had that misconception about albums as well (which is why I wanted to write about these products). So, when I saw that albums were offered by the professional I hired to photograph our wedding day, I thought to myself, “well, I can just make my own album later, so I can save costs by skipping this step now.”

The second reason why we don’t have an album is, well, you know what happens after you get married? Life! You merge your things into one home, have jobs, responsibilities, and if you are like Matt and I, get two puppies, try to finish a Master’s degree, start new jobs, buy a house, and launch a business simultaneously.

Yeah, ordering an album was put on the back-burner since I didn’t order an album initially from my wedding photographer.

There are several things I would change about my wedding day (that’s a post for another day). One of those things would be I would have ordered an album because I now know how important these heirlooms will be to our family one day. And let’s be honest, that day was amazing, and I wish I had my images around other than on my computer so we could reminisce  with my husband without digging through digital folders to get to them.

Last year for my wedding clients, I offered albums through KISS. I love their customer service, the ease of the creation process through their online interface, and the integrity of their products. While I’m not sure if I will use KISS forever because I’ve been researching some other companies whose products are a better fit for the direction of my brand, KISS was great to work with during my first year in business.

Here’s a peak at the album I recently designed for Mariah & Forrest. Mariah chose to have a leather-bound album, and this one specifically contains 20 spreads on flush-mounted pages. The printing of these albums is much like an actual book, the pages are bound through the same process. I just love the quality and thickness of these pages!  If ordering an album is something you’ve been debating in your wedding planning process, I urge you to consider displaying the quality images you are paying to receive in an equally elegant way!