We live in the age of Facebook, blogging and zillions of other online photo sharing sites that allow our clients to share their photos in all kinds of ways.  This is one of the reasons we choose to include a disk of images with all of our wedding packages.  Sharing photos in digital format is something that’s important to everyone these days.  So you may be asking yourself, if I have a disk of photos, why do we need a wedding album?  We’ve put together some thoughts that may give you some answers to this very common question:

1.) A wedding album tells your story.

After your wedding day, how often do you think you’ll sit down at your computer and look through a disk of 600-800 images?  Probably not too many times.  That many images can be a little overwhelming.  While it’s so important to capture all of the moments that take place on one of the most important days of your lives, looking through all of them can be a little tedious.  Individual images may have the ability to capture a moment, but a wedding album tells your story by focusing in on the highlights of the day.  A disk of photos lacks the narrative effect of a custom designed album.  The whole reason you have a photographer document your wedding is to share it with others.  Your album is the perfect way to do that. 

2.) It’s a work of art.

Photos are meant to be printed!  When weddings were shot using film, can you imagine what a client would have thought if their wedding photographer just handed them a roll of negatives?  That’s basically what a disk of images represents – undeveloped negatives in digital form.  Your wedding photos are intended to create beautiful printed works of art that will serve as a lasting symbol of your love.  A professionally designed, high quality album is the perfect work of art to preserve your most cherished memories.

3.) It’s your first family heirloom.

You will be so excited the day your wedding album arrives.  You’ll look at it over and over again, and it will probably feel like one of the most valuable things you’ve ever owned.  But the true value of your album will come into play many years down the road.  Imagine showing it to your kids!  Imagine being able to show them how amazing you both looked and tell them all about how the story of their family first began.  That’s when it’s really worth the investment.  Your album truly is your very first family heirloom, meant to be shared and past along for generations.

4.) It’s made to stand the test of time.

With constant changes in technology, we don’t even know if the average computer will read your DVD of images 50 years later.  Your wedding album is made with archival materials intended to last a lifetime.  These images will not fade – and neither will the beautiful memories of your wedding day.

5.) You’ll wish you had.

Every time a new album arrives in the mail, we get SO excited to share it with the couple.  Seriously, these albums are AMAZING!  We never invested in an album from our big day, and it’s always been something we wish we had.

We custom design every wedding album to tell the unique story of each couple’s wedding.  We also give our clients the option to order a wedding album up to a year after their wedding day.  That way if things are a little tight right after the big day, they can wait a few months before making another big purchase.  We even offer a special 20% discount if parents or other family members want to purchase a duplicate copy of the couple’s wedding album.  If you have any questions about albums, feel free to check out the pricing section on our main website or send us an email at info@simplyknotphotography.com.

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A couple weeks ago, we finished the guest book design for Rachel & Manny and I completly forgot to post it!  Opps :-)  Well, better late than never, right?  We had lots of fun shooting this cute couple in old town Gilbert back in early February.  They’re getting married in late April at Val Vista Lakes in Gilbert.  Can’t wait to be a part of their big day!

This album is meant to be used as a guest book at their wedding so there’s lots of blank space left where their guests can leave them special notes.  These books are a great alternative to a traditional guest book and make an awesome memento of your engagement photos too!  Keep in mind, the actual book is 10×10 inches when closed so the pages will look A LOT bigger in real life.  Click on the slideshow button below to view the entire design.

(no loves yet – be the first!)

Back in December, we shot an awesome engagement session with Lauren & Chris in downtown Scottsdale.  They were such a fun couple to work with and we can’t wait for their wedding in March!  We just finished designing their engagement album which they plan to display at their wedding reception so their family and friends can check out their super fun photos!

CLICK HERE to check out a slideshow of the entire design.  Keep in mind, the album will be printed as a 10 inch by 10 inch coffee table book so all the photos will be A LOT bigger!

(no loves yet – be the first!)

We just finished up the album design for Elizabeth & Kevin’s Wedding!  This gorgeous couple was married back in September at the Mesa Temple.  We had such an awesome time shooting bridal portraits with them the week before their wedding too!  They had so many great portraits between the bridal session and their wedding day it was SO HARD to choose which ones should go in their album.  Seriously!  A standard 40 page wedding album usually has about 100 photos in it, but man we probably could have easily done a whole second album with the photos from these two!

CLICK HERE to see the rest of their album design and keep in mind that the actual book will be 10 x 10 inches when closed so the photos will be A LOT bigger in real life.

*** A quick note to future brides and grooms: doing a bridal portrait session BEFORE your actual wedding day is SUCH a great way to ensure you’ll have plenty of beautiful images of you and your beloved.  You spend a lot less time in front of the camera on your big day AND you get to have an endless choice of great locations for you and your sweetie in your formal wear!  Besides who DOESN’T want an excuse to get to be that gorgeous for TWO days instead of just one!  Something to think about . . .

Both of our new wedding album options have thick, lay flat pages with virtually NO gutter so the page designs can stretch over the entire spread without interruption.  The Park Avenue line comes with a supple, Italian leather cover, giving it a classic, high-end look and feel.  (My other favorite feature is the chic cloth carrying case!)

The Manhattan line also features the thick, lay flat pages, but offers a full color image on the cover.  Produced with fingerprint and stain resistant material, this album has the outer look and durability of a coffee table album with the beautiful interior typically found only in a premium leather album.  It combines the best elements of modern style and traditional quality!

The other new option is the proof book.  These 8 x 10 hard cover books include every image from your wedding laid out in a simple six-images-to-a-page layout.  The image names are printed below each photo to make it easy to identify your favorites.  The cover includes a custom dust jacket with a full color image from your special day.   We do of course, still include an online proofing gallery in each of our wedding packages, so once your friends and family have selected their favorites you can simply send them to our website to place an order.  We don’t want our brides to have to worry about collecting a thousand post it notes full of image numbers!  Here’s an enlarged sample of what a page design would look like:

In addition to these new fabulous options, we have also made some changes to our wedding and portrait packages.  For all of the details, visit SimplyKnotPhotos.com!

*** A note to our current clients with upcoming wedding dates: you can also take advantage of these great new products!  We’re happy to apply any album credit from your package towards the purchase of one of our new album options.

(no loves yet – be the first!)

We just finished the design on Earl & Nicole’s guest book album.  This super fun engagement shoot took place back in June on a day trip to Sedona.  (Click here to check out more photos from their session.)  We were so happy with the way their album turned out we just had to share it with the world!

Their album is a great example of what our guest book designs look like.  Each page (except the first and last) is a two page spread which includes photos from the couple’s engagement session with plenty of space left for their guests to write them advice and personal messages on the day of their wedding.  Normal guest books get used once after the big day (to write thank you cards) and then they are usually stashed away in a box somewhere.  With a custom photo guest book design, your guest book can be a wonderful keepsake to cherish for years to come.  You’ll want to take it off the shelf over and over again to share photos from your e-session and to remember all the wonderful words of wisdom and love left by your guests on your special day! 

CLICK HERE to view a slide show of the entire design.  Keep in mind, this album will be printed as a 10″ x 10″ coffee table style book so all the images will be A LOT bigger in real life!

 Thanks Earl & Nicole for being such great subject matter!  Can’t wait to be a part of your big day!

Ryan and I shot engagement photos for Matt & Ally back in March and just finished up their album design.  We had so much fun with this couple and I think that their album came out as a great reflection of our time together!

Normally for engagement shoots we put together a fairly simple guest book design with room for the signatures of the guests at their wedding.  This couple will be using a photo booth at their reception so their guests will have the chance to take pictures and write them a special message instead.  When they told us about the photo booth I figured that they would simply opt out of an album, but they ended up loving their photos so much they went for a full album design instead!  YAY!

We can’t wait to shoot Matt & Ally’s wedding in December and in fact, we even have our own fun plans for the photo booth!

To view their full album design, click here.

WEDDING ALBUMS   Our new wedding albums are high-quality magazine style books that will showcase the unique story of each client’s wedding day from start to finish!  Each album will be custom designed by Ryan or myself (or a combination of both).  The albums have a full-grain leather cover that comes in six fun colors.  AND each book comes with a swank, cloth carrying case.  SO MUCH BETTER than a boring old slip album full of 4 x 6 photos!  These old style albums are nice, but a custom magazine style album doesn’t just show of your photos, it tells your story in a beautiful, artistic fashion. Can you image a better way to look back at your special day!