11 Reasons Why Brides Want a Custom, Flush-Mount, Storybook Album

© 2011 by Van H. White

1. TELLS THE STORY
Your album is a storybook, telling the story of the most important day in your life in a beautiful way. There is no equivalent in a stack of prints, or in a computer slide show. Yes, there is an immense difference between a stack of pictures (often out of order) and a luxurious, custom-designed album. Its sequence flows wonderfully as it unfolds the story of your special day.

2. ARTISTIC & BEAUTIFUL
A custom designed, flush-mount album is an art book because of how the images look and how they relate to each other.

This is not a simple template into which you drag and drop images. Templates are of a fixed width to length ratio and rarely fit the image ideally. Therefore, images do not look their best. I make a custom frame to fit each image. I size them for proper impact.

I place images on the two-page spread to relate to each other well and create a flow. In fact, each spread is designed to look so good individually that it can be printed and framed as a separate piece of art for your wall. That means the left and right sides go together and actually meld into one.

3. IMPRESSIVE
Your family and friends will delight in the luxurious leather cover and the heavy binding. They will be impressed even before they open the album. Once inside, they will see the magnificent images and the story's flow. Your guests will rave about what they see. Most likely, they will say, it is the most beautiful book they have ever seen.

4. EMOTIONAL
The tactile input from touching this exquisite, heavy, leather album is an important element for stirring your emotions to relive your wedding day experience. Then, seeing your artistic page spreads, of course, completes the emotional experience. Mere digital images on a computer cannot adequately replicate this experience.

I do not hire an album design service, nor do I hire a graphic designer or other stranger. They were not at your wedding – I was. Therefore, I can better recount your story. I know how the events unfolded, the interpersonal relationships, and what is important from the wedding. The result is an album that has an impassioned impact on you.

5. MOST IMPORTANT POSSESSION
Your album will be a prized possession of your family, and will be passed down to your children, and grandchildren. As time passes, it will become the most valuable of all of your possessions. You know that when there is a house fire, victims rescue their pictures first because of their value. Therefore, an album is not an expense, but rather, an investment in your family's future enjoyment.

6. PRESERVATION
The album is typically leather bound and is the highest quality. It will last for generations. Despite modern digital technology, this is the best method for preservation of your important images.

Many brides ask to purchase digital files. Digital image files are usually provided on DVDs, CDs, or USB drives. However, those degrade and fail after a period of time. Also, technology changes and they may not even be readable on your future computer 30 years from now. Furthermore, you must manage, organize, and back up those files securely. How will you find those images in your computer in 30 years? Will your computer get stolen or its hard drive crash? At a minimum, they should be backed up onto an external hard drive and also onto an off-site server.

It was not very many years ago that off-computer storage meant using floppy disks. Your computer does not even have a floppy disk drive today! Can you still play your old VHS home movies? The photographic print and album is not obsolete and never will be. Artists made drawings thousands of years ago and we can still view them. Likewise, your wedding album is a tangible piece of art, never to be obsolete.

7. QUALITY AND CRAFTSMANSHIP
Caress the impressive leather cover and lift the heavy binding. Its quality is apparent. Turn the thick, flush-mount pages made from card-stock. The album is no ordinary book.

Examine the images with a magnifying glass. You will love the detail that you see. The photos are actual photographic prints. They are not made up of little dots, like a newspaper uses for its pictures. You get those dots with coffee table books.

Digital computer images are typically 72 dots per inch. On the other hand, prints are based upon 300 dots per inch, producing an impeccable image quality.

The printing and binding company that I and many other top photographers use is called H&H Color Lab. http://www.hhcolorlab.com/create/albums

8. CONVENIENT
An album is the most convenient way to re-enjoy your wedding day. You merely pick up the book and instantly savor its pages. You do not have to turn on the computer and look for the files or the DVD. Also, you can easily locate a particular image when desired.

9. TRADITION
Albums have traditionally been the proven medium for displaying images of weddings and other important events and family milestones.

10. UNIQUE
Your custom designed album is exclusive to you. No one else has one like it.

11. BRIDES RARELY MAKE THEIR OWN ALBUM
In the vast majority of cases, when brides don't invest in an album, they have good intentions of making one themselves. However, in practice, they never get around to it. They do not fully appreciate the huge undertaking. Typically they are overwhelmed and it becomes impossible to complete. I have never met a bride that successfully got around to making her own wedding album. A new family, and job create urgent priorities, and the album never gets made. If she does, it is a cheap over-the-counter album in which she slips prints. There is no art or design involved. No guest is impressed by seeing this. It has no artistic value.

In summary, you need a professional to custom design your flush-mount album. It is your family's legacy.