Who makes the best wedding storybooks?

[Phate]

do they offer a bulk discount?

The supplier? Yes, I don't know the exact figures but they may offer some, not much though...they cost a lot to make.

we have already had a "pre-wedding" shoot which we managed to get 50-60 really good pictures from 4-6 hours worth of shooting. the photographer was only aiming to get 15, but he spent some extra time with us, was only meant to be 3 hours but turned into a lot more.

Thats a lot! To get 50-60 really good shots he must've taken a lot...especially over 6 hours!

the photographer has also been booked for 2 small pre wedding parties (50-100 guests each), 3 small functions, the wedding day and reception.

so roughly 6 separate day's in total when you add them all up.

I'm now jealous of this photographer lol.

big album/book - for wedding day (2 copies)
big album/book for reception (2 copies)
big album/book for pre wedding shoot (2 copies)
smaller album/book for each pre wedding party (2 copies of each party so 4 in total)
same size as above album/book for her functions (2 copies)
same size as above album/book for my functions (1 copy)


so that's 13 albums/books in total

That is a bit, excessive...in my eyes. But then again it isn't your typical wedding. Is the wedding completely separate to the reception? Or is it on the same day? Reason I ask I can't the point in having a separate wedding album...for the reception. Unless its an event of its own with its own day?

does the above look right to you? how would you do it? obviously i will speak to my photographer for their view, but i just want to make sure i know what i'm talking about before doing so.

My thoughts are just above...I wouldn't say you need an album for the reception if its on the same day and event as the main wedding. They will just be pictures of guests, with all due respect...copy them off the dvd and slap them on facebook, they'll get more use there.

also what is the difference between an album and a story book? does the book just have the pictures printed on the pages? whereas an album is the classic style of photo's stuck onto card.

That depends on the supplier really...they are basically the same thing, a story book though is typically smaller than a wedding album, doesn't have the group shots either so as you flick through it it quite literally tells the story of the day.

Photos either stuck on or printed on are down to the supplier and album/book in question. Loxleys Classico range which I use are printed onto the pages themselves, many people comment on it. I don't like the photo stuck on look personally.

what size of album's / books would you recommend?

Personal preference, but 12x10 seems to be a popular size, one client has opted for a 14x10 and that was lush...pricey though! I wouldn't go for a square one...bit much the same as your TV to be honest.

the photographer was skyping with us talking about coffee table books, etc and we didn't have a clue.

Ask him for samples and links to give you a better idea, as terminologies vary between photographers

i'll tell you why we need 2 copies also, the wife to be will be moving in with me and my family, so we need 1 copy for us and my family, the other copy will be for her parents.

possibly could make her parents copies smaller to save money i suppose.

You probably wouldn't save THAT much money if you go for smaller copies as they will need to be redesigned to make the pictures fit in the layout, so the photographer may charge for that, ask him though!

also what would you guesstimate as a price for all of the above? the photographer has already allocated £500 of our quote to the albums but just wondering how much on top of that it would take.

£500 could be spanked one ONE album to give you an idea, depending on size and spreads. It's varies too much to give a more accurate answer on that.

But if you're looking at 13 albums with each one costing on average between £300-£500 you're looking at roughly £3900 - £6500 and that is just for the cost of the albums to buy, for the 6 days work I would be looking at charging about £1200 per day (before anyone goes 'zomg' you have to take into account the sheer amount of time thats going to be needed to process all the photos afterwards. It's not uncommon to take upto 3000 per day. So roughly £7000 in photographers fees, with albums you're probably looking at atleast £10,000 all in.

Hope that helps, I'll be very interested to know what he quotes for it all.

 

[Phate]

http://www.i-maani.com/#/special/splash/welcome-to-i-maani-photography/

Ah didn't see this, so this is the guy eh. Hmm looking at his site his work is good, nothing that I couldn't produce tho, I'm confident of that

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Ah didn't see this, so this is the guy eh. Hmm looking at his site his work is good, nothing that I couldn't produce tho, I'm confident of that

well i'll give you an idea of the break-up of it all

day 1

pre-wedding shoot (supposed to be 3 hours was much longer, we had to stay in London for an extra day because of how long it took)

day 2

bride's pre wedding party (3-5 hours in the evening)

day 3

bride's function (2-4 hours in the morning)

i was supposed to be having my pre wedding part in the evening on this day, but it has been moved, but he has been booked to shoot for 3-4 hours in the evening on this day which is no longer required, so i was thinking of doing a mini stag doo type thing, where me and all my mates go to the best nightclub in glasgow (the corinthian, it is a casino, bar, lounge and nightclub in one type deal), it is simply stunning inside the building is really old some pics of it below, the architecture is out of this world.

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/eb/38/c7/tellers-bar.jpg

http://www.johnjohnstonphotography.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/Salon-Platinum-2.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3193/3036610208_84666d1f35.jpg

http://www.foodtripper.com/images/articles/large/609_10.jpg

http://www.halcyoncornice.co.uk/prestigeimages.png

as you can see it is simply fantastic, with it being a thursday night it shouldn't be too busy, hopefully the club will allow me to use a professional photographer on the premises, will need to phone/email them and ask, so this is an idea to use up the few hours he had been booked for this night.

day 4

groom's function (in the morning 2-3 hours)
brides function (in the mid afternoon-evening 2 hours)
grooms pre wedding party (3-4 hours in the evening)

day 5

wedding day (no idea about times as sikh weddings can take ages, preparation at house's will be photographed before the actual wedding as well, so let's say 6am - 5pm)

day 6

reception (party 6-12)



all in all i think we were quoted around £7K for the 6 day's above, but £500 of that is to go towards albums.


i see what you mean about the reception, also since we will be getting all the shots anyway on DVD, etc i think even if we didn't get album's printed straight away for certain functions, then we could always get them done at a later stage, when we have more cash to spare. but the bride and groom are the focus at the reception, speeches, first dance, etc so i really do not know what to do. also the amount we have spent on outfits, etc and the wedding as a whole, it would just seem wasteful not to make an album of the day. most of the guests will be close friends and family anyway.

surely if the dimensions of the album are proportionate, they would not need to be re-edited simply printed at the smaller size? for example if we get a wedding day album made at 14x10 for us and 7x5 for her parents, then simply everything is the same, just half the size?

 

[Psycho Sonny]

there are 2 main indian and pakistani wedding photographers in glasgow

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Impressions-Photography-and-Make-up-Studios/306892991143

that is supposedly the better of the two, as you can see his work imo is of poor quality.

the pictures you see are the same ones he puts into albums albeit not as high quality, the whole use of colours, effects, etc look tacky.

 

[Phate]

all in all i think we were quoted around £7K for the 6 day's above, but £500 of that is to go towards albums.

Ah now with that break down 7k is good going, I'd be charging a little less than that, but not much.

i see what you mean about the reception, also since we will be getting all the shots anyway on DVD, etc i think even if we didn't get album's printed straight away for certain functions, then we could always get them done at a later stage, when we have more cash to spare. but the bride and groom are the focus at the reception, speeches, first dance, etc so i really do not know what to do. also the amount we have spent on outfits, etc and the wedding as a whole, it would just seem wasteful not to make an album of the day. most of the guests will be close friends and family anyway.

Absolutely, a full wedding album of the day itself is an absolute must! What an album basically does is tell the story of the day, so it will start of with bridal preps and then go on from there...the idea is you can almost see the wedding happening, just by looking through the album. I was meaning I don't see the need of full albums (especially as you've broken it down now as each event are not really more than 5 hours) maybe mini albums? That would save you an absolute fortune!

surely if the dimensions of the album are proportionate, they would not need to be re-edited simply printed at the smaller size? for example if we get a wedding day album made at 14x10 for us and 7x5 for her parents, then simply everything is the same, just half the size?

Didn't think of that - I'm tired you see!

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Ah now with that break down 7k is good going, I'd be charging a little less than that, but not much.



Absolutely, a full wedding album of the day itself is an absolute must! What an album basically does is tell the story of the day, so it will start of with bridal preps and then go on from there...the idea is you can almost see the wedding happening, just by looking through the album. I was meaning I don't see the need of full albums (especially as you've broken it down now as each event are not really more than 5 hours) maybe mini albums? That would save you an absolute fortune!



Didn't think of that - I'm tired you see!

anyway cheers for the help and ideas i will obviously speak to my photographer about it all, but at least i sort of know now what questions to ask, etc.

the problem with sikh weddings is that you really do need an asian photographer so he knows all the customs, etc, what to shoot and what not to shoot, etc.

all the ones in Scotland are ****, huge gap in the market for a really good asian photographer up here, this guy is going to go down extremely well when everyone see's the pre-wed pictures at the reception. his business is certainly going to prosper, with a lot of people wanting to book him up.

seriously if you saw the asian photographers up here, how much they charge and the quality of their work, you would be disgusted. one charges £6K for 3 days and i wouldn't pay more than £500 for the quality of his photo's.

 

[Phate]

I can imagine, its the same with most people advertising to be photographers, it's rather annoying.

I might have the opportunity to make my way into the Asian wedding market...would certainly be an interesting turn of events.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

I can imagine, its the same with most people advertising to be photographers, it's rather annoying.

I might have the opportunity to make my way into the Asian wedding market...would certainly be an interesting turn of events.

oh and another thing i noticed was our photographer had 4 camera's, i was shocked when i saw his equipment case thing, i was like WOW 4 camera's, he then goes yeah i basically got tired of changing lenses and missing shots, so i just bought another 2 camera's.

this way he doesn't need to fiddle with lenses and chances are he doesn't miss as many shot's like he used to, whilst changing lenses.

i've been very impressed so far, very professional and very friendly guy.

 

[Phate]

Indeed, I've used dual camera before, got sick of it tbh...bought a shoot sac (a bag which allows me to change very quickly on the move so I miss less)

 

[Raymond Lin]

Mini books that is basically a smaller scaled down version of the large version are call Parent Books in the trade.

By my math, roughly speaking, you are looking at between £5,000 to £7,000 in costs including labour (design time, admin) for the extra books. Depending where it is sourced.