Creating the Perfect Wedding Album

1. Have more than one person photographing everything. This will be beneficial for many reasons. First, if an important moment is missed by one shooter, another one can catch it. Second, capturing the whole day is a lot of work and your friends and family also want to celebrate with you on the day. Dividing the work will ease the burden on each individual. Third, multiple angles on a moment provides more options for your final album. Fourth, each individual will capture the people around them and you will get more images of your guests this way.

2. Don't leave it to chance. It's tempting to be casual and just allow whomever brings a camera to shoot what interests them and hope when you get all the images back you have a complete story of the day. Sit down and make a list of all the moments you'll want captured. Look at wedding albums you like and see what your favorite images are. You may be surprised that, for instance, the getting ready shots as the bride and groom are arriving in their street clothes, the bride having hair and make-up done, getting assistance and goofing around with their friends and so on are what draw you into the story of the day and are at least as important as the cake-cutting and first dance images. Make sure your loved ones who will be recording the day know what is important to you.

3. Take "point shots". Professional photographers know that you have put thought into every aspect of your day from the location, to the flowers, to the favors, to the cake and centerpieces...everything. Amateur photographers may be so caught up in what the people are up to, they will forget their surroundings. Remind them to record everything. Get a shot of the table with the guest book, a few close-ups of the cake, a good look at the toasting glasses, the rings before they are on your hands and after, get right up next to the bride's bouquet, etc. And look around! If it's a garden wedding, find the prettiest flowers. In a church look for stained glass or interesting architecture. How about a pen-level view of the witnesses signing the wedding license? At the reception what makes the location special? A chandelier? The parquet floor? The table settings? The buffet table? These are the images that a good designer can use to tell a fully fleshed out story in your wedding album and later will help call to mind every aspect of your day. You will also find them useful if you scrapbook your day.

4. Think about lighting. When you group up for the all important traditional family and bridal party shots, choose a well lit location. Your amateur photographer may not have the equipment to correct for poor lighting. If the images are taken outdoors, don't stand with the sun in your eyes (you'll be squinting!) or shining directly into the camera. The best lighting is ambient rather than direct sunlight. And remember, these portrait style images will make nice keepsakes, but they aren't all that interesting. The action on the day tells a better story, so keep the number of formal shots to a minimum. You'll have a better time and get better photography if you focus on enjoying yourselves with your loved ones.

OK, so now you have your photography, what do you do with it? There are lots of options these days from creating your own drag-and-drop album online, to scrapbooking. If you hire a professional wedding album designer you'll have the benefit of Photoshop experience to correct for color, do some touching up, and create some great effects that will add style and interest to your album. They will also bring a story telling ability that will make your album a work of art. Be sure you check out the work of designers to be sure you have a compatible style.

Here are some tips for preparing your images and communicating with your designer.

1. Don't over think it. You are hiring a professional and that means you're paying for the hard work to be done by somebody else. You don't have to select every image you want in the album, in fact, it's better if you don't because an image you don't think too much of may end up your favorite in the album when you see it all put together. The best way to select images to pass along to the designer is just to remove everything you never want to see again. Don't worry about duplicates, just weed out the ones where you don't like your expression or are rejects for any reason. If you are especially in love with a handful of images, go ahead and highlight them to be featured, but chances are the designer will recognize the amazingness of the exact same images anyway.

2. Don't despair if a picture you love has something wrong with it. It's possible that effects, cropping or Photoshopping can save the day. Do you love that picture of you laughing with your friends but there is a big wad of gum showing in your mouth? A designer can't reasonably Photoshop every detail of every image, but they would be pleased to use their skill to save a favorite photo from the reject pile. Just ask.

3. Identify the important (and unimportant) players. In many cases it will be obvious from the photography who the maid of honor and the father of the groom are, but sometimes there are special circumstances. Do you have two maids of honor? Are there remarriages that make family relationships unclear to the designer? It's possible that someone you'd prefer not to feature is all over your photography. Did your cousin bring a really good dancer as a date and he was all over the dance floor having a great time, but you don't know him from Adam? A designer will select images of people having a lot of fun because usually the people having the most fun are the ones most happy for you, so that unknown guy could end up featured in your album. A heads-up that he's a minor player will help the designer make the best album for you.

4. Communicate your preferences. Do you like lots of black and white? Sepia tones? Tinting? Do you like things sleek and modern or more traditional? Is there an effect your designer has done in the past that you definitely want in your album? You'll be happier with your results if you're open about your preference, so don't hold back. At the same time, don't worry! You chose your designer for a reason and you can trust them to use the same artistic sensibility they have used in the past on your album design.

5. Make an informed choice about the size of your album. You can either choose how many pages you want and the designer will fit the story into those pages, or you can allow the designer to choose the number of pages that will best tell the story. A good designer won't want a cluttered album, so you don't have to worry about them over-selling you for profit. Or together you can agree on a minimum and maximum number of pages so you can be sure your album fits into your budget.

6. The end isn't necessarily the end. You have the finished design and it's wonderful...except that one page really bugs you because your cousin's dancing date takes up half the page. Your designer wants you to be happy with the album and will work with you to make changes.