How to choose the photos for your wedding album

Nowadays, it’s pretty much the norm to receive circa 1000 photos from your wedding photographer which is amazing right!. Until you realise you can’t possibly include all of them in your wedding album and you need to choose which ones will make the cut…….severe brain ache and confusion ensues! I’ve done it myself; not only for my own wedding album, but for several clients who couldn’t face the task themselves and it’s hard, even without the personal and emotional attachment to those photos. So, just where do you start and what’s the best way to make sure you include the best photos to truly portray and capture your perfect day? Read on for some of my top tips for choosing those photos that make your wedding album…

Organise your photos into sections

Given that a wedding is easily broken down into various parts of the day, this is an easy win in starting the photo organisation process. Create folders for each section such as pre-wedding prep, ceremony, couple portraits, group shots, reception etc. You can then handle each section as a separate chunk of photos which isn’t quite so daunting.

discard photos that are similar to each other

Wedding Photographers will tend to produce several similar shots of each scenario, so once you’ve broken them down into sections, this is a great next step to tackle reducing the number of images. For instance, there may be several photos of the first kiss so choose the shot that you think best captures that moment. Now, you might be staring at your wedding photos thinking “but they all look great.” Well, I’m afraid you do have to be pretty brutal and decisive here. There’s absolutely no point in having more than one photo of the same moment…best to let that one image shine!

think about how you want your wedding album to tell your story

Ultimately, every wedding day is essentially about a couple declaring their love and commitment for each other…but how each couple chooses to celebrate that, and what is important to them differs. So before delving deeper into choosing those photos, have a think about how you want to remember your day. Do you want to focus on those precious moments shared between the pair of you? …..if so, you may want to choose mainly shots of you both during the ceremony and include quite a few of those beautiful portrait images where you crept away from the throng of the post-ceremony drinks. Or was your wedding a fantastic celebration of all your family and friends together? You might then decide to include some images capturing your guest’s reactions during the ceremony and a variety of shots of everyone having fun during the canapes or dancing the night away. No matter what you decide, I do suggest making sure there’s a decent balance of photos from throughout the day. There doesn’t have to be an equal number of photos from each section of the event but make sure you represent everything properly so the wedding album story has a nice flow to it.

Aim for somewhere between 80-150 photos

Your final number of photos really does depend on a number of factors such as your wedding album budget – the more photos included, then the more double page spreads you will need which can bump up the cost – and in particular, the type of wedding you had. An intimate elopement means less photos of guests, group shots and the reception and more of a focus on you as a couple. At the opposite end of the scale, a large traditional Asian wedding can spread across different days and events with many guests and family being an integral part of the celebrations; so you may need more photos to capture the whole of the wedding story in your album. But for the majority of weddings, I would suggest working towards somewhere between 80 and 150 photos as a good starting point.

cover all the special moments

This probably goes without saying but don’t forget any of those extra special parts of your wedding day however you celebrated it….and lets face it, a wedding is littered with them! Make sure you’ve included at least one photo of the big moments such as the bride’s entrance, exchanging rings, the first kiss, speeches, the cake cutting, first dance etc etc etc! It might be a good idea to write a quick checklist to make sure you’ve not missed anything out.

make sure you've included all the important people

It’s not only the moments you need to capture but all the people that are precious to you too; those family members and friends that you could not have celebrated without. But it’s not just about making sure everyone is included, it’s also about creating a balance…whilst those eight images of Uncle Ken making everyone laugh with his antics are hilarious, you don’t want to open your album further down the line and realise you didn’t include your partner’s Nan!

Earmark your favourites and make a 'maybe's' list

Whether it’s a stunning photo of the pair of you with your venue in the backdrop, or a tear-jerking moment when you enter the ceremony room, there will be certain photos that you absolutely love. Make sure you note down these images as it’s perfect information for a designer like me to work with…I can make sure those images are made prominent in the wedding album design and also form a central focus to work around on a particular wedding album spread.

Similarly, it’s good to have a back up list. There might be some photos that you like but can’t quite decide whether you’d definitely put them in your album, or photos of particular guests that you’d like to include but not at the expense of other images. These are all great ‘maybe’ images for me to have just in case there is room on an album spread to include these.

Hopefully that’s given you a few pointers to help sort out your wedding photos in the first step to creating your bespoke wedding album! If you are really struggling though, I can do the job for you with my photo organisation service. I have worked with clients in the past, choosing the initial photos for them and it’s definitely a big help if you can see the photos laid out in a wedding album layout. Feel free to get in touch via the form below for a quick chat or more information where we can discuss your needs. 

On 26/02/2022   /   Uncategorized