Your Wedding Album

One of the things we decided to prioritize in our budget was our photographer. I was bent on getting Mimi and Karl, not only because they are awesome photographers but because we know them already and are good friends with their whole team. Mimi and Karl is one of the most sought after wedding photographers in the country and, of course, quite expensive (hehehe), so we decided to just hire them for photography, minus the trimmings.

Anyway, after almost 18 months I finally had the time to make our wedding album. Here it is:

Here's how I made it:
1. Download the Picture Books application (go here).
2. Layout your wedding album using the application.
3. Save the file into a CD (or USB drive).
4. Bring it to a Picture Books stall (I went to Glorietta).
5. Pick up the book after 2 weeks.
*You can also opt to upload and pay via there website and have it delivered at your doorstep.

Making your own wedding album allows you the freedom at put in as many photos as you like. I ended up with 70 pages and also added our wedding invitation and save-the-date. On the last page I also made a list of our suppliers (minus our bridal car supplier!).

I had so much fun making our album I also made a 20-paged photo album of our first year together.

Price depends on the size, number of pages and whether it's hard bound or soft bound. I'll have to update this post later coz I couldn't find the flyer with the prices hehehe.

Twisted Tips: Choosing a Photographer

If there’s one supplier you should have a great relationship with among your wedding suppliers: it’s your PHOTOGRAPHER.

And monster bride’s be warned. Be very warned! You don’t want your gorgeous self to look like a basing sisiw in your wedding photos do you?

I remember a friend of mine hired a photographer that I didn’t recommend. I thought his photos were kinda bland and I had this funny feeling about him. I wanted them to get another photographer whom my amiga used for her wedding. Well, the bride scrimped for the wrong reason and got that photographer. It was a total disaster since a few days before the wedding the bride and the photographer had a shouting match about payments. Geeez! I wasn’t happy myself with the photos he took of me.

On the other hand, my best friend, Tappy, decided to do away with a videographer and just hired a photographer to take black & white photos of her wedding. One of her colleagues, Boggs who is a professional photographer, also took photos of her wedding. Guess who had the better photos?

Establishing great rapport with your wedding photographer is key to having great photos. Why?

Because he will treat you like a friend and will make sure that your photos will look great.

I’ve been spending a lot of time with photography hobbyists and these are the things I learned:

(1) The rapport will help because it would be easy for you to relax in front of the camera. When I started out hanging with these photography hobbyists, I was quite uncomfortable with the fact that their lenses were up my nose all the time. Until I got used to it.

(2) Friends know your nuances. They can actually determine when you’re about to give an impish smile and capture that in your camera.

Check out the photos below by Sasha Manuel and Abe Olandres:

*Please take note that they are photography enthusiasts/hobbyists and they don't do this for a living. I just want to illustrate the fact that photos get better when you have great rapport with the photographer.

Photos by Sasha Manuel

Photos by Abe Olandres

And remember:

Make your photographer your best friend.