Ali Girl Photography » Scottsdale Wedding and Portrait Photography

As my business has grown leaps and bounds in the last year I have decided to change the business name to be more in-line with my branding and who I am as a photographer.

Ali Girl Photography is now Suzanne Melissa Photography.

Same photographer…just a new name and website.  Please check out the new site for current work and pricing information.

Thank you!!

I am so excited to share Jasen and Lisa’s wedding album.  I just love all of the colors, details and the gorgeous sky!

Here are a couple of my favorite layouts, but be sure to view their entire album here (Jasen is a Cold Play fan so turn up your speakers!).

If you need a little refresher on albums check out my Albums FAQ post here.

Warning: This is a loooong post.  You might need an energy bar or extra shot of coffee to get thru it all.

This week’s Friday FAQ is all about albums.  Every package that I offer includes a flush mount 20 page album printed by Graphi.  Some photographers don’t offer albums with their packages or offer them for an additional charge.  I think 20 years from now your album is going to be one of the few, if not only, tangible things you have from your wedding.  So, everyone should have one!

I have covered some of this information before in my post Albums 101, but I think it bears repeating here.

A little album terminology that we should cover is “Layout”.  A layout is simply the terminology that we use to describe the left AND right page combined since we don’t design each page separately.  So, in a 20 page album there are 10 layouts (every 2 pages counts as 1 layout).  Is your head spinning yet??

Flush mount album…what does that mean.  Well, this means that each album image is printed and then mounted to the page.  The page has a thickness around 1/16 of inch.  It makes for a really thick and sturdy album.

Now that we have the basics down let’s chat about album sizes.  I offer two standard album sizes (8×8 or 10×10) with my packages plus parents albums.  You can always upgrade your album size, but I think these are a good starting point.

The parents albums are exactly the same design as the larger album, just smaller (6×6).  These are GREAT for parents, grandparents or even the bride to stick in their purse and be able to show-off their wedding day.

Okay, so we have covered that everyone gets a flush mount album with 20 pages (10 layouts).  Let’s talk about design and how soon you get your album.  If you keep up with my blog you know that I not only design my own albums, but I also design wedding albums for other photographers.  So, would you believe I’ve been married for 2 years and still don’t have an album of my own wedding!  The reason being I can’t seem to pick the pictures.  I am too attached to EVERY picture.  This is so common for brides and it results in them getting their albums much later.  My solution to this is I pick my favorite images from the day and design the album.  This is merely a starting point for you to get an idea of what your album could look like.  I will post the design on-line just like I have done here and here.  You can review your album and make any changes that you want.  If you want to swap out different pictures, add pictures, delete pictures that is totally fine, but at least we have the process started.

I also design several additional pages so that you have plenty to choose from.  If you love all of the pages your can upgrade your album for $30/layout.  If you don’t want the additional pages that is totally okay.  All you have to do is decided which pages you don’t want to keep.

Your album design is on-line ready for you to review 4-6 weeks after the wedding.  Once you have approved the design it takes 4-6 weeks to print and be delivered to you.  Typically you have your album in your hands within 2-3 months of your wedding.

Some of the photographers I design for wait for the bride to pick their images for the album.  We typically don’t start the design on these albums until 6-12 months after the wedding because we are waiting on the bride.  You would have already had your album 9 months ago!

Your albums come in these nice white boxes.

Yeah, not to exciting…I know.  I originally thought I would invest in some really nice boxes with my logo all over them.  But I decided to go green.  You see, your album is shipped to me in these white boxes and they actually do a pretty good job of keeping the album safe.  If I re-boxed the albums then I would just have to trash these boxes which I didn’t think was too cool or too green.

This has been a very long Friday FAQ, bonus points if you made it all the way to the end without falling asleep!

Ben and Kristin’s wedding album is done and I wanted to share a couple of my favorite layouts.  In the layout below I love the deep purple in contrast to the black and white images.

You know I love details.  I also love when couples use their engagement pictures at the wedding for guests to sign.

I’m not sure if either Ben or Kristin actually ate any cake, but they sure had fun painting it on each other!

You can view their entire album here.  Because albums are always better with music be sure to turn your speakers up (or down if you’re in the office!).

P.S. I know that I have slacked on Friday FAQs for the last two weeks, but be sure to check out this Friday’s FAQ.  It will be all about albums (size, pages, choosing pictures, prices etc).

I wanted to post a quick note that I will be on vacation (yaaaaahooo!) next week. To all of my loyal blog followers hang in there as I might be a little slow with new postings.

Of course no post is complete without a picture or Studio News, so here you go!

Paul and Sue’s album is complete and I wanted to share a couple of my favorite layouts below.

You can view the full album here (FYI-there is music so turn your speakers up/down).

Sue’s father was a total hit on the dance floor!

Not to be outdone, Paul had some dance moves of his own.

Paul and Sue thank you so much for allowing me to capture your special day. I wish you all of the happiness in the world in your life together.

Kamanu & Chrichell’s album is complete! Below are a couple of my favorite pages from the album, but you can click here to view the entire album (FYI-there is music to this album, so turn your speakers up/down!).

Friends and family can click here to view all of the images from the wedding (you will need the password from the bride or groom).

I am so excited to post Stephanie and Kevin’s wedding album. I have done tons of albums in the past (I actually do wedding album designs for several other photographers), but this is the first that I have show cased here.

From now on all of my albums will be posted here!

There is music to this so turn your speaks up (or down if you are in the office!) and click on the play button.

Click here to view the show.

In my current pricing (click here) you will notice that I offer a Flush Mount Album by Graphi Studios. This is a beautiful wedding album produced in Italy and offered by many high end photographers.

There can be a lot of confusion when it comes to wedding album terminology so I thought I would try to explain the difference in wedding albums. I would highly recommend that whatever photographer you choose you confirm what type of album is included in your package. Of course, if you choose me you will already know after reading below!

Magazine wedding albums, flush mount wedding albums and coffee table wedding albums typically all mean the same thing. For sake of consistency I will call these type of albums flush mount wedding albums.

Each page is custom designed and can incorporate an infinite number of variations in background pictures, colors, detail pictures and much more. One of my favorite characteristics is the ability to have a panoramic or a two-page spread. This means that the right and left side of the page is printed as one continuous page. Notice in the picture below there is no seam in the middle of the album.

The two examples below (called a layout) is an example of a two page spread.

Flush mount albums are drastically different than your parents wedding albums which were typically matted albums with 1 to 4 prints behind a mat.

The “flush mount” terminology refers to pages that are printed and mounted with a clean edge often on thicker backing (usually 1/16 of an inch). This give the album a very contemporary and sturdy look. The sturdy construction also prevents the album pages from warping and bending.

Many photographers offer a Photo Book which is printed thru websites such as Picaboo, Shutterfly and many other on-line stores. These books offer a less expensive option, but can be limited in their design options. These are often designed by using the website’s “drag and drop” software. Panoramic and two-page spreads are typically not available for these books as each page is printed individually.

Photo Books are a great option for parent albums, grandparent albums and proof books.

A proof book is a thumbnail print of each picture from your wedding with the picture number underneath. This is great for passing around to family and friends that want to order pictures. Below is a sample of what a proof book would look like (sorry for the tiny tiny picture).

As mentioned above I offer the Graphi Album, but proof albums and photo albums can always be added to a package a la carte.

I hope this provides a little bit of clarity to the wedding album options. If you found this helpful feel free to leave some blog love (I just learned that terminology myself…it means leave a comment!).