This is a commonly asked question from brides who approach me to create their bespoke Actual Day (AD) Wedding Albums. I thought it might be helpful to share my tips and advice so that future brides might find it easier to narrow down their choice from hundreds of photos from their big day.
Enjoy the Process
Your Wedding Album is a beautiful keepsake of your memories of your big day. It is absolutely important that you should take your time to choose your favorite moments and images that you would want to relive time and time again. Choose them together over a glass of wine, whiskey or sake, have a few laughs and reminisce your wedding day all over again as you go through and select your favorite captures of the day - you will be surprised at effortless it seems.
Tell A Story
When I design the layouts for AD albums, I enjoy arranging the images chronologically (as much as possible) to help the story of the day flow through them. It's super helpful when photographers also provide the brides with detail shots which can be incorporated as the small moments amongst the larger emotional and big moments captured throughout the day.
Have Photos From Different Parts of the Day
Try to select a good balance of images from the different part of the day/night. Here are a few key moments of the day that you might have favorite photos from:
- Detail shots of behind the scenes setup, dress & ring for both bride & groom
- Gatecrashing activities (with bridal party)
- Traditional ceremonies with family
- Leaving the first venue
- Wedding car
- Wide shot of the venue and detail shots of cake, floral set up and others
- Entrance into the new venue / Aisle shot
- Exchange of vows and rings
- Exit from the venue as Husband & Wife / Confetti Shot
- Mingling with guests
- Speeches
- First Dance / 2nd change of dress
- Champagne shot
- Evening fun, dancing and farewells
These would usually take around 60-80 images to give the perfect recap of the wedding day. While it is tempting to choose many photos, fitting too many images on one page would result in really small images to fit them in. I usually come up with a clean and uncluttered design, to allow focus on the images and storyline - which will not be possible with too many photos on each page.
TIP: I always suggest to my brides to select their favorites rather than eliminating those that they dislike. They usually end up with fewer pictures that way! If one round of selection still does not narrow it down to your ideal number, take a break and do a second round of selection any time with the smaller set of images. It is better to choose soon after your wedding, while the memories are still fresh in your mind.
Choose a Variety.
An album with variety (different scenes, in landscape, in portrait, B&W and color etc.) would be more interesting to look at! Try to avoid too much repetition in the images unless it's part of a series. And if you really cannot choose between similar images, leave them in and let your album design select the best one for you.
Think about getting Parent Gift Albums too.
Parents would really appreciate a mini version of your keepsake album to remember your day too – this makes a very special gift.
Display your Album where it can be enjoyed.
Keep your album where it can be enjoyed often (but away from direct sunlight, water & liquids of course)! Great places to display your album would be on your bookshelves, drawer in the coffee table or your bedside table (that's where I keep mine as do many of my brides!) - it is always close at hand for you to take it out for reminiscing good times or to share it when guests come around.
Consider Wall Art too.
There is always this one or two photos that you absolutely love. Imagine it fully blown up on canvas to be displayed on your bedroom wall or displayed around your living space?
I hope that this has been helpful as you choose the pictures for your album! If you would like to learn more about what bespoke photo keepsakes (albums, photobooks and canvases) we offer, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me at hello@lovestills.sg and I will be more than happy to chat about how we can be of help to you.
I’m looking forward to creating a one of a kind keepsake for you
