WANTED: Your Best Advice for Starting & Finishing a Wedding Album

[angiekey]

Hi, all! I'm looking for your very best advice for starting (and actually finishing) a wedding album.

I've got 3 weddings to scrapbook - my own in 2008, my stepson's in 2018, and my other stepson's in 2019 - and a 4th coming up in February 2026 when my stepdaughter gets married.

I've scrapped a page or three here and there, but nothing cohesive and certainly nowhere close to a complete album.

So, for those of you who have been successful with this kind of project, what advice do you have for me?


Here's a page I did for Michael & Micaela...



...and this one for Jay & Lindsay...



...and I've got Veronica's engagement pics so I did this one to start off an album about wedding prep...



...but you can tell I'm kind of scattered and all over the place.

So bring on the advice, stat! And, in advance, thank you!

 

[jacinda]

In all honesty, these days, with my lack of free time I would go super simple like this:

I actually love the clean look, and I think most people would just be happy that their wedding is recorded/scrapped. Do a nice scrapbook title page, but keep the rest simple. Let the photos be the hero. If you really wanted to you could choose a few key photos to highlight and add embellishments, or pop a scrapbook layout in there every half dozen pages.

 

[Romajo]

In 2022 my cousin got married (for the 3rd time) and their wedding photographer made their book as well.
It just wasn't what the couple expected and certainly not to their taste. There was no 'story', no feeling, no connection. Just a bunch of photos in a printed album.
My husband had filmed that day and when we visited my cousin to give them the film, we also talked about their photo album. I offered to re-do their album. It took me quite some time, but decided that I needed a plan as well...

This was my plan:
1. Just one background for the whole album. I used a white paper.
2. I picked 1 main color and a few extra colors. The main color was red, I also used black, dark grey and a dark green. The main photo got a red line or mat, the drawn lines were mostly black or grey.
3. I used straight lines and simple (pocket style) templates and not many elements (just 1 or 2 per page).
4. Most important: I tried to tell the story of the day, without using words (except for their names and the date).
5. I also made a mix of pages with a ton of photos (to get the impression of the atmosphere and what happened on the day) and with pages with just 1 or 2 photos (of those important moments, like their 'I do's' and the blessing they got).

Anyway, following these rules I gave myself, it really helped to keep the focus and made the process easier.

 

[Romajo]

Here are a few examples:

 

[angiekey]

In all honesty, these days, with my lack of free time I would go super simple like this:

<SNIP

I actually love the clean look, and I think most people would just be happy that their wedding is recorded/scrapped. Do a nice scrapbook title page, but keep the rest simple. Let the photos be the hero. If you really wanted to you could choose a few key photos to highlight and add embellishments, or pop a scrapbook layout in there every half dozen pages.

Jacinda, this is brilliant - I love the clean look, too, but I struggle with also wanting to do the creative scrapbook design stuff with all the pretty goodies. What a great way to mix the two concepts together! This would really speed up my project. I'll have to give it a try!

 

[angiekey]

This was my plan:
1. Just one background for the whole album. I used a white paper.
2. I picked 1 main color and a few extra colors. The main color was red, I also used black, dark grey and a dark green. The main photo got a red line or mat, the drawn lines were mostly black or grey.
3. I used straight lines and simple (pocket style) templates and not many elements (just 1 or 2 per page).
4. Most important: I tried to tell the story of the day, without using words (except for their names and the date).
5. I also made a mix of pages with a ton of photos (to get the impression of the atmosphere and what happened on the day) and with pages with just 1 or 2 photos (of those important moments, like their 'I do's' and the blessing they got).

Anyway, following these rules I gave myself, it really helped to keep the focus and made the process easier.

Marieke, what a wonderful gift you created for them! Those layouts are absolutely lovely, and brilliant in their simplicity. I think I need to give each project a good think and come up with a list of rules like you did to keep myself focused and on-task. Thank you so much for sharing!

 

[Sherly]

I would go with a pack of album templates and 2-3 choices of kits and start scrapping one page a day(?) or every 2 days? By setting a requirement like that, at least I feel like I am supposed to make a progress, even it is just a page each time, on daily basis.

 

[Romajo]

Marieke, what a wonderful gift you created for them! Those layouts are absolutely lovely, and brilliant in their simplicity. I think I need to give each project a good think and come up with a list of rules like you did to keep myself focused and on-task. Thank you so much for sharing!

Thank you and you're welcome. I loved working on this, but had to stop for a while sometimes, because it got a bit boring using the same things and styles all the time. But in the end it was worth it, seeing the end result and that everything worked so well.
When I had made the first few pages, I had sent the couple those layouts to hear if this was the style they were looking for and if they liked it.

Just looked at your own pages you already created and saw that Micaela and Michael got married on my own (16th) wedding anniversary.
If you like to keep these pages, you can always use them as your page 1 or cover page.

 

[Romajo]

Oh, and one last tip: if you've decided on what style you want to go for and what kit(s)/templates you want to use, make a folder on your computer and create shortcuts to everything. This makes the proccess of finding what you want/need easier and quicker as well.
Also, make sure you have enough 'white space' around your layout, so nothing will be cut off once you can print. So don't scrap too much on the edges (esp. with people and/or text).

Anyway: good luck and have fun creating those albums. It will take a while, but the result is rewarding.

 

[lovely1m]

I got lucky, and WendyP made an entire kit to fit my Las Vegas wedding, which made it way easier to scrap.

 

[SeattleSheri]

I've only done one wedding album (as a suprise gift for a friend) and I actually went through my stash of previously scrapped pages and used them as the basis for new pages. I save all of my layered files, so it significantly cut down on the time it took me to pull it all together. I swapped out photos, changed titles / jouranling, and in some cases recolored things. I also alternated "scrapped pages", with pages like Jacinda referenced. My friend liked it so much, she had me order 5 more for her family. Good luck!

 

[angiekey]

I would go with a pack of album templates and 2-3 choices of kits and start scrapping one page a day(?) or every 2 days? By setting a requirement like that, at least I feel like I am supposed to make a progress, even it is just a page each time, on daily basis.

Sherly, I absolutely love this idea of setting myself a specific page goal to really make sure I'm working towards finishing the albums. I have an awful habit of starting a project with a plan for a bound book and running out of steam before I finish.

 

[angiekey]

Oh, and one last tip: if you've decided on what style you want to go for and what kit(s)/templates you want to use, make a folder on your computer and create shortcuts to everything. This makes the proccess of finding what you want/need easier and quicker as well.
Also, make sure you have enough 'white space' around your layout, so nothing will be cut off once you can print. So don't scrap too much on the edges (esp. with people and/or text).

Anyway: good luck and have fun creating those albums. It will take a while, but the result is rewarding.

This is great advice - thank you! I should probably also figure out what printer I'm going to use and look into their bleed requirements before I get too far down the path of creating pages...

 

[angiekey]

I got lucky, and WendyP made an entire kit to fit my Las Vegas wedding, which made it way easier to scrap.

Okay, now that is freaking cool! I think that while I won't have any custom-created kits to use for these books, I'll probably create my own custom "frankenkit" for each album by combining several kits to get exactly what I want and need. Adding this step to my checklist...

 

[angiekey]

I've only done one wedding album (as a suprise gift for a friend) and I actually went through my stash of previously scrapped pages and used them as the basis for new pages. I save all of my layered files, so it significantly cut down on the time it took me to pull it all together. I swapped out photos, changed titles / jouranling, and in some cases recolored things. I also alternated "scrapped pages", with pages like Jacinda referenced. My friend liked it so much, she had me order 5 more for her family. Good luck!

How lucky your friend is to have that album! I'm actually making each of these for myself and my husband to keep here at our house. Our grandkids are at the perfect age where they're interested in photos and they've begun asking to look at our albums when they come over. Having completed, bound books of their parents' weddings will be extra meaningful since I don't think either of my stepsons and their wives printed a physical album with their wedding pics. They view everything digitally.

But giving them the option to print a copy - or even a smaller copy, since 12x12 resizes so nicely as 8x8 and 6x6! - without any extra work on my part will be lovely.

 

[Brendazzle]

I usually have a section of my scrapping spreadsheet set up for when I'm tackling a whole album at once. Any notes I need (ex: double page spread, make sure to include x detail, etc). If I'm going to scrap out of order, I have empty files as placeholders so I don't accidentally put a double page spread where it messes up my order. I also usually put together a Frankenkit.

Sometimes I get all the photos in templates and add journaling first, batching the priority parts so I can just play and make things pretty when I have a few minutes.

 

[lovely1m]

Okay, now that is freaking cool! I think that while I won't have any custom-created kits to use for these books, I'll probably create my own custom "frankenkit" for each album by combining several kits to get exactly what I want and need. Adding this step to my checklist...

Yes! I find that planning in advance so that when I open to scrap I already know what kit, what photos, and what templates I plan to use, and then check off my list as finished when doing an album, I am so much more productive.

 

[aussiegirl]

The only Wedding album I've ever scrapped was my own, with paper scrapbooking.

I did make a list of all the pages I wanted to include first, and then I could check them off as I did them (would be even better in our digi world!) I started with dating, engagement (bridal showers), Our album was also our guest book, so there's those couple pages (all in one spot), getting ready, photos before, the ceremony, reception, throwing the boquet, driving off, and honeymoon. I think the last couple pages are our 1st apartment (either that or they started my next album). I wanted everything in order to detail the whole process. Good luck! There isn't a right or wrong way to do it! Mix and match sounds good!

I would start with your own album 1st, since you are emotionally tied to it! (you could even turn some of the layouts you do for anyone one album, into a layout for another, just by changing some elements or colors and the photos.)

When I was working on my daughter's school album, to get done by her Grad Party, I kept some layouts super simple and quick. Others were dressed up and fancy. The quick ones were more ones that just checked a box and I didn't end up printing most of them. They look nice, but I just wanted to get them done, for me and her! I didn't need to keep track of my supplies or make sure they impressed someone. They were just for us!

 

[laurabobaura]

for my own wedding album and my sister's, i found like 3 kits to mix and match for cohesiveness and snagged a handful of templates, sometimes duplicating for several pages but making slight placement or color changes like for the individual wedding party member pages. i'll tag you in a comment on fb to show you mine xo

 

[GraceJ]

I need to scrap a friend's wedding album, so I'm gonna follow this thread, so many interesting advice so far.

Angie have fun scrapping those albums, for sure they will be amazing!