john at storybook pages

We design wedding albums for brides and ask our clients to post reviews on Wedding Wire/The Knot magazine. It's a good place, we thought, in that lots of prospective clients go there to shop for wedding album services, and it's a good place to host the reviews. We put a referral medallion on the website to link to the Reviews on WeddingWire.com.

From what we see, there are fewer and fewer album companies who offer quality matted albums... Specifically, Zookbinders dropped matted albums several years ago (still one of the leading flush mount sources), and Leather Craftsmen, one of the oldest and most respected matted and flush mount album makers (since the 1940s) went out of business at the end of 2022. We've found Finao Albums a great source for matted albums - both "overlay" and "page mount". The way Finao makes the album pages allows us to design the page layouts any way we want - no longer bound by precut mats. They're expensive but they're gorgeous.

<p>I agree that an album of 100 pages is...probably way too much! <br />In our typical album designs, we average between 2 and 2.5 images per page...so 100 pages would use about 200-250 images. We suggest getting the images down to 50 - 150. And an album that big would, in my opinion, be far too big to be enjoyed in one sitting.<br> <br />If you could be happy with an album of 30 - 70 pages, for example, you've got choices:<br> 1. Flush mount albums: stiffer, hard pages, normally designed with multiple images per page. Page surfaces are photographic prints bonded to stiff substrate and lay flat when opened. Hard covers of leather, photo-wrap, fabric, metallic, or other materials. Examples are Zookbinders ZookBook, West Coast Albums, PictoBooks, Graphistudio, Finao Albums, etc.<br> <br />2. Press-printed albums: high-quality paper pages and hard covers. Pages designed in magazine style similar to flush mount albums. Printing typically using 4 or 6-color print press technology. Less expensive that flush mount albums. Cover options similar to flush mount + soft cover options. Examples are Blurb, AsukaBook, etc.<br> Most of the albums we create for bridal or photographer clients are flush mount albums. We design the page layouts and offer printing and binding from 11 album companies. It's another way for client to get pro album otherwise not available.<br> There are other services, of course, and we always suggest doing a free sample design with whomever you're considering to design your album before you sign up for a high-end album.<br> Best,<br> john givens</p> <p> </p>

<p>An approach that might be helpful - and a sanity check on prices - is to see what other professionals charge.<br> We create custom albums for "orphaned" brides who are no longer working with their photographer and have hi-res images and a photo release. Clients upload their images and we do the page design for their approval. Then we have the page layouts printed and bound in their choice of books from 11 top wedding album makers (Leather Craftsmen, West Coast, Finao, Zookbinders, PictoBooks, Album Crafters, etc.). <br> We have an online album catalog with pictures and prices of all the albums we offer and we refer the client to the online catalog to choose their album. Take a look at our catalog and you can get some good ideas of what we charge our bridal clients.<br> We're more expensive than many custom designers, less expensive than some, I'm sure. Check out several to get a better idea. <br> Best of luck,<br> john givens</p> <br><br> <p><i> Mod. Note: Links to business websites and telephone number removed.<br> Please do not use business details as your sign off <br></i></p></i>