Wedding Albums

[PGD5]

I'm looking to put a Wedding Album together for both myself and a client, but as this is new to me can anyone recommend printers/binders that do this sort of thing well? (I'm new to wedding albums, but not the print process)

We'd like to see samples too really to give them the once over and see how they feel etc. But without trawling through wedding fairs whats the best way to do this?

I've been told about Blurb and I'm working on borrowing a sample of theirs from a friend - I'm not sure if they are quite smart enough on the cover materials tbh but we'll see

The budget is open at the moment. I'm comfortable with picking the images and laying the books out myself in Indesign..

[GetCarter]

If you want the full on wedding album thing, then Blurb are not for you.

I've done 2 weddings with Blurb books, but the recipients were not too bothered about padded covers and silver embossed writing, and a box - etc

Both were very happy with the regular type, large scale book though.

Edited by GetCarter on Tuesday 3rd July 14:50

[Gad-Westy]

Heard very good things about these guys:

http://loxleycolour.com/albumsbooks.aspx

[MartinP]

I use Queensberry of New Zealand for albums for my clients. They're widely regarded as the very best you can get. You're probably going to have to make it along to a big industry event for them to be exhibiting though.

I'd rate SIM2000 as the best UK offering out there, they have a showroom in Hatfield where you'd be able to see their products.

[Cheib]

MartinP said:

I use Queensberry of New Zealand for albums for my clients. They're widely regarded as the very best you can get. You're probably going to have to make it along to a big industry event for them to be exhibiting though.

Ours is a Queensbury album....fk me it was expensive but it's certainly very,very high quality. Luckily the photo's inside it are too !

[gingerpaul]

I went to a photography show last week at Windsor Racecourse that had a whole load of suppliers of these there. I made some notes on them so I'll give you my thoughts on them a little later. Sim 2000 and Loxley had the most complete offerings.

Interestingly Sim 2000 are the only people to have contacted me after the show having after I had given out at least 5 cards so I'm leaning towards doing a test album with them at the moment.

[PGD5]

Excellent, thanks for the responses

I've looked at those and they do indeed look superb, just what I'm looking for anyway but I don't know about the client just yet.

I've registered with SIM2000 for pricing info, shame they and the others don't give you a clue about a price without it though. Anyone any rough examples on price to get us started?

[CY88]

gingerpaul said:

I went to a photography show last week at Windsor Racecourse that had a whole load of suppliers of these there. I made some notes on them so I'll give you my thoughts on them a little later. Sim 2000 and Loxley had the most complete offerings.

Interestingly Sim 2000 are the only people to have contacted me after the show having after I had given out at least 5 cards so I'm leaning towards doing a test album with them at the moment.

I would also be interested to see any comments if you are willing to share.

thanks

CY

[gingerpaul]

Oops, forgot about this thread. I'll be back over lunch!

[gingerpaul]

Probably the easiest thing to do is a list with notes underneath each company.

• Loxley

A good range of albums as well as other items. Not the cheapest but nice quality. Typcially looking at £150-£300 as a ballpark for a "normal" sized fold flat album. Quick to deliver for many products.

• Sim2000

Also a good range of albums and other bits. I don't have their pricelist yet unfortunately but they were similar to Loxley.

• Photostorie

Their albums are competitively priced compared to Loxley and Sim2000. They have a great deal of customisable materials and options. They come with a presentation box.

• Lush Albums

Hand made fully customisable albums with self adhesive pages. You put your own prints in. Means you can have a quick turnaround or allow the couple to lay out their own if they are creative types. Long lead time.

• Blurb

Books only so no fold flat pages but good quality at what they do.

• Aperture

As with Blurb they only do books, although they do fold flatter than an ordinary book. They believe themselves to be very competitively priced.

• Graphistudio

Lovely quality but only deal with full time pros. They had an album on their stand that must have easily been into the thousands!

• Mario Acerboni

Lovely Italian made "traditional" albums with sleeves where you put the photos in, except with lots of modern styling options. Nice if you like your prints to be mounted.

My thoughts having done the rounds are that I would give Aperture a try for a photo books and Photostorie a try for a fold flat album. Between Loxley and Sim2000 I am leaning towards Sim2000 as a one stop shop but I think I would like to try them both at some point. I suspect that'd come down to who was offering what I was after. The price lists might help me make my mind up there.

I hope that's helpful. If anyone is after some clarification I can elaborate. I didn't want to give anyone information overload!

[PGD5]

Excellent writeup gingerpaul, many thanks for that

I registered with SIM2000 this morning and they just emailed back with login details so I can now see their prices.

[CY88]

thanks! very helpful

[gingerpaul]

Loxley and Sim2000 can both integrate into your website for printed sales directly through your site if that is something that interests you. Loxley work with Smug Mug and Sim2000 with The Image File.

In a Smug Mug Pro account you apparently get unlimited upload space so useful for backups etc as well as a place to host images for people to purchase. I didn't get a chance to speak to The Image File so I don't know what their arrangement is.

[ps24]

PGD5 said:

I'm looking to put a Wedding Album together for both myself and a client, but as this is new to me can anyone recommend printers/binders that do this sort of thing well? (I'm new to wedding albums, but not the print process)

We'd like to see samples too really to give them the once over and see how they feel etc. But without trawling through wedding fairs whats the best way to do this?

I've been told about Blurb and I'm working on borrowing a sample of theirs from a friend - I'm not sure if they are quite smart enough on the cover materials tbh but we'll see

The budget is open at the moment. I'm comfortable with picking the images and laying the books out myself in Indesign..

I recently attended Photovision Windsor and have just ordered a flush mount sample album from Lush Albums.

Having used Graphistudio albums previously, they are definately worth a look at. www.lushalbums.co.uk

I chose a 10x10 with white real leather cover and I'm having this really cool purple stripe along the edge of the pages (as it will suit the images in my sample album perfectly).

I can't wait to receive it...... I'll let you know what it's like when it gets here !

[PGD5]

Sounds good. Lets see some photos of it when you get it