What’s the purpose of a wedding album? It’s more than a keepsake from an expensive and important day. But it means something a little different to everyone. And it means something a little different as life changes. It evolves into something totally new as the next generation wonders about its meaning to them.
It used to be that a wedding album was the only way to get your wedding photos. But today, most people want them digitally, which is fine. But a physical album, that exists in your real, tactile existence, is still the best way to keep those images and feelings in your life.
In the digital world, there’s near infinite space. Your wedding photos are just a tiny drop in a massive, data deluge. But In the real world, there’s only so much space. And you only have so much energy. Choosing to own a physical wedding album and keep it on your dining room table is to commit a real life resource to keeping the images and feelings from your wedding day present. Carefully packing up your album up when you move isn’t as easy as syncing your iPhone. Putting your album in storage during the life-blender–otherwise known as the toddler years–so that you can take it back out again when they start dating, means committing real life energy and resources to the quality and influence of the experiences you had on your wedding day.
Choosing to own a wedding album is a little like making a promise to the experience on your wedding day. It’s a day when you made crucial choice to commit, regardless of feelings you might one day have, and that altered the course of your life forever. And because of that choice, you had a consolidated experience the depths of which are scarcely rivaled throughout life. Feelings ebb and flow as life progresses, yet we are still likely to treat them as if they represent objective truth. Your wedding album, requiring some energy from you throughout your life, does not ebb and flow, its message remains truthful. The commitment you made, gave you an experience worth treasuring.
So I encourage you to invest in a wedding album, whether it’s provided directly from your wedding photographer, or you make one yourself. But if you agree that a wedding album is a worthwhile investment, don’t default to making one yourself just because it’s cheaper. For a lot of people, the far more important thing is that it gets done. Life has a way of rushing back in really fast after your wedding day and a lot of people who plan to make a wedding album themselves just never get to it.
So having your wedding photographer design and deliver your wedding album has the advantage of guaranteeing that it gets done. But it also has other advantages. For one, professional wedding photographers typically work with photo labs that have special professional divisions, or work exclusively with professionals. That usually means higher quality materials and stricter quality control. From a design standpoint, your photographer is also the best suited to lay out your album, and will have a keen eye to the meaningful chronology of the event.
If you have any questions about Petruzzo Photography Wedding Albums, we’d love to hear from you!