There are a lot of factors to consider with DIY and professional studio albums - so lets take a look at some of them in detail.
Cost (Winner - DIY Album)
This is pretty much a no brainer. DIY albums can start around $50 and that price is hard to beat when compared to the hundreds or thousands of dollars you can end up spending on a professional album.
Time Commitment (Winner - Professional Album)
The time you spend picking out the photos is going to be the same regardless of which album you choose. However, once you start the process of creating a DIY album, you are committing to spending a lot more of your time on creating the book (instead of paying your photographer for their time creating the album.) In my experience, newlyweds don't tend to have loads of free time. In fact, I've had clients come to me years after their wedding telling me they found they just didn't have the time to do the album themself.
Layout Flexibility (Winner - Professional Album)
Most online album printers have set templates that you have to fit your photos into. If you want to create your own unique page layouts, start adding to that time commitment category. Your studio will likely create a custom layout based on your photos and your input as to how you would like the album to look.
Image Quality (Winner - Professional Album)
Most wedding photographers now provide clients with digital copies of their photos. However, the amount of color correction, lighting adjustment, and general retouching varies widely. Optimizing photos for printing is included in the cost of most studio albums. Unless you want to spend the loads of time that retouching your own photos would require, and you have the software and the skill to do so, the photos most likely won't be the same quality that your photographer will produce.
Durability / Longevity (Winner - Professional Album)
Some DIY albums are printed on archival quality papers, ensuring that the pages will not fade or discolor over the years. Some, however, are not! Research carefully before choosing a printer for your DIY wedding album. You will also find that regardless of the archival quality, the pages themselves are very thin (like a magazine page) and are highly susceptible to tearing. Many DIY album covers are also made from cheaper, thin, lightweight materials to decrease cost. These covers can warp or bend over years of storage if you are not careful.
In most cases, professional album pages (or photographic prints in the case of traditional matted albums) receive special treatments to ensure longevity. The books are bound with covers made of high grade materials including leather, metal, or acrylics. While using these higher-grade materials and treatments increase the price of the professional album, they add decades to the life of your wedding album.
Why can't I just get a professional album on my own?
Most wedding album companies will not sell you an album unless you can prove you are a professional wedding photographer or studio with at least 3 years in business. Why? Because they are not looking for individual clients. They are looking for continued, steady business.
Conclusion
You know how much money you can spend. The money you save is directly related to time - either time you spend putting the album together or time before your album starts to fade or deteriorate. Consider that this is the first tangible heirloom of your new family - how long do you want it to last?
Casey Fatchett is the owner of Casey Fatchett Photography and has been photographing weddings and events in the Tri-State area (and nationwide) for over 10 years. He is an 
active member of the WPJA and WPPI.
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|76.15.100.xxx |2010-04-26 13:31:45 Katie
My husband and I didn't purchase a professional album, and while sometimes I am jealous when I see another bride's pro album, I am happy that we were able to save so much money. In addition, I noticed my two other favorite parts of my DIY album are not included in this article.
The first is the number of pictures you get to include in the album. Most of my friends with professional albums had to narrow their pictures down to their favorite 50 or 100 shots. My album includes over 500 pictures and is about 120 pages long.
Second, I am happy to have ALL of my wedding photos in one place. I mixed both professional and non-professional pictures (mostly gathered via a photo sharing site from my guests) in my album. This means my album contains far more pictures of my guests than others I have seen.
I don't think a DIY album is for everyone, but as a bride who is very happy with her choice, I just wanted to point out a few more "pros" for a DIY album.
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I agree... This is so true...
If you make an album through Shutterfly or similar... they are good enough for a "vacation" album, but their quality/layouts, never compares to Professional Companies...
Only Pro Photographers are to order from those Companies !!!
Ida
from Al Ojeda Photography
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I hate to tell any bride what to do. I can only speak from my own experience. When we got married, Jeff and I were newbie DJs just in the business. We didn't even hire a professional photographer, let alone get an album professionally done. The horror!
The result? Almost 9 years later and I still don't have an album together! I didn't even think about how much time it or consider my complete lack of craftiness. (I went to a scrap booking party one and came home mad as heck with a bleeding finger for my efforts.)
I've spoken to a lot of brides about regrets after the wedding and the #1 regret is NOT hiring a professional photographer or having a pro album done. When the day is through, photo and video are all you have to assist your rapidly fading memories of that amazing day.
Katie, I'm so glad you are happy with your album. I'm sure the diy option works great for many brides. It just wasn't me!
I'm in favor of exploring ALL the options, pros and cons so that you can r...
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One thing to remember about Professional Albums is that they are heirloom quality. They will be around for many generations if they are done correctly.
What you see inside are actually real photographs. Meaning they were done on real photographic paper and they are mounted to a thin archival board. This is what creates the stiff pages. The bindings are usually hand sewn and the covers are also put together by hand.
Take a look at the books by Leather Craftsman, Renaissance, Kiss Wedding Books and Queensberry to name a few.
These books will be around for your children to have, and their children and their children's children providing the books are stored correctly and are taken care of over the years.
The other option for professional albums are books that use archival inks printed onto museum quality archival paper and board. These books will also last for generations. Take a look at books by Vision Art Books to get an idea of that style of book.
For DIY books, you'r...
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|86.5.195.xxx |2010-10-15 16:30:07 TracyB - Guests Pictures
Whilst i agree that professional albums offer higher quality the options available for DIY are so many these days its hard to resist the price and personal touch.
Couldnt agree more with post #1 (Katie) about including guest pictures in albums. We knew these would make up a big part of our album (100% DIY) so we used http://www.guestsnapper.com to give them an online wedding album to upload their pictures to. Worked really well for us