Heirloom Wedding Albums: What They Are + Why You Need One

What is An Heirloom Wedding Album?

Before we dive any deeper, what even is an heirloom wedding album?

An heirloom wedding album is simply a high-quality photo album that tells the story of your wedding day in a thoughtful, intentional way, allowing you to experience the narrative in a much more palpable way than you ever could through your iPhone’s camera roll.

Are wedding albums still popular?

Heirloom albums are nothing new—they’ve been around forever, telling the stories of momentous occasions in the lives of human beings who want nothing more than to treasure their memories. Like I mentioned already, you might remember being at a family member or friend’s house and sitting at their coffee table, flipping through photo albums that tell the tale of their favorite memories, days, trips, celebrations, etc.

Now while photo albums have been around forever, I would say they’ve gotten a bit of an upgrade in recent years. Gone are the scrapbook-esque albums that feel like they’re about to fall apart at the slightest touch (though I do love the vintage charm of these types of albums!); albums nowadays are designed with the utmost care, quality, and intention in mind. There are SO many amazing companies that specialize in crafting high-quality albums that are meant to last for generations, using only the most premium materials to ensure long-lasting memories. We’ll get into materials more a little bit later, but just know that the albums I’m talking about here are top-notch products that will last you a looong time!

What type of album is best for wedding photos?

While you could absolutely hand make your own wedding album using supplies from your local craft store, I always recommend investing in premium albums from professional companies simply because they’re built to last. Years down the line, when your kids, grandkids, great-grandkids are looking through your wedding album, you want to ensure it’s still in one piece; that the pages aren’t falling apart; that the photos are still rich with their original, vibrant colors rather than faded due to age. This is why I offer albums from a professional company that I work with and have had only the best experiences with: so that you can be confident your album is being created with the utmost care and excellence, rather than spending your time trying to find a company that you can trust.

Are wedding photo albums worth it?

Yes, yes, a million times yes! I’d say wedding photo albums may just be more worth it than receiving a digital gallery—hot take from a photographer, I know. But think about it: if, in the future, your loved ones ask to see your wedding photos: how different would the experience be pulling out a stunning, physical album that they can thumb through versus handing over your phone for them to quickly scroll through?

The feelings and emotions conveyed by looking through a physical photo album are completely different than those that come from rushedly swiping through a digital gallery, or hitting the arrow key on your computer to go to the next photo. It’s a totally different viewing experience, and on that, in my opinion, should be one you take your time with; I personally would much rather flip through a carefully-designed, handcrafted photo album with thick pages, seeing each photo appear in full view on the next page than squint my eyes to look at the details of an image on my phone. While the ease and portability of a digital gallery is incredible and so helpful when sharing photos with loved ones from afar, the experience of looking through a physical album is one that you’ll treasure.

How many wedding photos should be in an album?

The limit does not exist! Just kidding—it kind of does, but I’ll be the first to tell you that you actually don’t need hundreds and hundreds of photos in your wedding album. That’s kind of the beauty of it, honestly; when you’re limited in the number of images you can include in your design, it forces you to be more intentional with the ones you do choose to tell your story; to convey the narrative and the emotions of your day. It’s sorta like film photography in the way that you can’t just snap a bunch of photos at once; it requires more careful attention!

But here’s the thing: it can be super difficult to narrow down your photos to just a handful when you’re so emotionally attached to them. After all, these photos do depict some of the best, most memorable moments of your life! That’s why I offer complimentary album design for each and every one of my couples: as the person who captured these images for you, I already have a close relationship with the narrative they tell, and it’s much easier for me to narrow them down in a way that tells a thoughtful story. You won’t have to worry about spending hours picking between this photo of you kissing and that photo of you kissing—that’ll be my job!

How do you lay out photos in a wedding album?

Again, this falls on me as your photographer! There are multiple different ways to lay out the photos in an heirloom album, including full-spread images, collages. . . the opportunities are endless. Which is incredible, but also a tad overwhelming—so I’ll take on that job for you. Every elopement comes with a complimentary album design for that heirloom-quality coffee table masterpiece. I’ll design your wedding album in a way that best & most authentically tells the story of your special day, from beginning to end, both the big and the small moments featured. The image of your first kiss as a married couple will be just as highlighted as the image of you sharing an emotional hug with your best friend; no important moment will be left out.

Designing Your Wedding Album

There are quite a few elements that go into the logistics of designing a wedding album, you’d be surprised! I won’t bore (or confuse) you with all the intricate details, since we’ll go over those more when you decide what you want your unique album to look & feel like—but I will give you a quick overview of some of the options you’ll have.

Sizing

Photo albums come in endless sizes, but for the sake of ease and simplicity, I offer three album sizes: 8×8, 10×10, and 12×12. The larger albums are perfect for your own wedding album, while the smaller 8×8 size is an amazing option for duplicate albums to gift to others—which I’ll talk about more in just a minute.

Materials

The two most common materials used in wedding albums are linen and leather; both beautiful options that offer different experiences. Linen albums tend to be slightly cheaper than leather albums, but it depends on the company and what type of linen they use. Most of the time, the feeling of holding and touching a linen album will feel very simple and minimal in the most beautiful way, thanks to the textured, woven fabric. Leather, on the other hand, often feels sturdier due to the thick, often genuine leather used by professional companies. I personally love both options so much, so it really just depends on the type of aesthetic and tangible experience you’re going for.

Each material also comes in multiple color options—ask me about these and I can provide you with some swatches!

Cover

One thing I love about all of my albums is that they come with an embossed cover, with a personalized design! Embossing is a type of design that prints letters into the cover using a stamp-like technique; it creates a really beautiful and seamless effect that doesn’t distract from the clean aesthetic of your album. Many couples will emboss the covers of their wedding albums with their first names, new shared last name if applicable, and/or their wedding date/location.

Duplicate Albums

This isn’t technically a part of the design of your album, but I did want to mention a really great option that many of my couples love: adding one or more additional albums to gift to loved ones! These albums share the exact same photo design and layout as your own, but are often printed in a smaller size (such as the 8×8 size I offer) to gift to family members, friends, etc. I personally think this is such a fabulous way to share your thanks with guests (either ones who were there to share the day with you, or maybe ones who couldn’t be there for any reason).

What About Other Wedding Prints?

If you’re loving the idea of investing in a wedding album, you may be following that train of thought and wondering if I offer other sorts of wedding prints, as well: the answer is yes, yes, and yes! I have a variety of options for prints, announcement cards, and wall art that you can purchase directly through your gallery delivery system.

Heirloom Wedding Album Investment

So, what do you say? Is an heirloom album a must for you now, like it was for me for my own elopement? 😉 We’ll get more into the specifics once it comes time to start designing your album, but here’s the gist of how it works: you’ll receive a complimentary album design from me, and then it’ll be up to you to decide on some of those aesthetic options (which I’m more than happy to help you with + make recommendations on). I offer an 8×8 album with a linen cover, a 10×10 album with a leather cover, and a 12×12 messenger journal-style album, all of which are incredible options. Again, as your elopement photographer, I’ll be here to help make sure your album is as gorgeous as possible, telling the story of your day via an artistic masterpiece that will live on for generations and generations.

Get in touch now to start chatting about your elopement + heirloom album, which I know will become such an important piece of your lives to treasure forever!

For more elopement planning resources, browse the Blog—or make it easier and check out a few of my recent faves below:

Heirloom Wedding Albums: What They Are + Why You Need One

Table of Contents: