We love Love LOVE this album design of a Southern California wedding by Austyn Elizabeth Photography, a wedding/lifestyle photographer serving Colorado, as well as Chicago, and California's central coast. The wedding takes place at a beautiful vineyard and winery and includes so many sweet vintage details. Austyn's photography of this event is stunning -- especially those oh-so-romantic portraits within the grape vines.  
 
Austyn sent us some phenomenal photos of the printed album -- we love when our clients do that! It's so fun to see the final product! She ordered this natural linen album from Design Aglow.

To view the full design, click below: 
 

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Design by: Kari (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Denise

Anna of Anna K Photography is a talented wedding photographer based out of Atlanta, GA (but she loves traveling!), a proud wife & doggy momma (check out her sweet family portraits), and an Align client of almost a year. We have previously featured two of her designs on the blog: this lovely Georgia wedding and this pretty Florida beach wedding. Today we're not only posting another one of her gorgeous album designs, but Anna also wanted to share a few words about how outsourcing has allowed her to better serve her clients. 
 
So to start off, here's the lovely Anna:

Anna writes: 
 
"When I heard from a fellow photographer about Align I knew that I had to try it out. I love the design process, but it was becoming a bottleneck in my workflow. More often than not I would drag my feet and I knew that wasn't working for my sweet couples! When things get busy, albums get pushed back and I knew that it had to change!  
 
After I send my clients their wedding gallery I can immediately send the highlight selections to Align and they get to work! It's so nice to know that things are getting done while I continue to work on other projects! My clients love getting a proof shortly after their gallery and it's been such a time saver for me! Win, win for everyone! Not to mention they are pros at getting those revisions back asap!  
 
My main priority is to provide an amazing experience for my couples from the first meeting to the final album delivery and Align helps me do that! Running a business isn't about filling your time with "busy" tasks, it's about finding ways to grow and serve your clients best while still having time for your friends and family." 

Thank you so much for sharing that great advice, Anna! We feel so honored to partner with you to serve your clients! 
 
Here are some photos of one of Anna's recent client albums that was designed by Align and printed and bound by KISS Books. SO pretty!

You can see the full design in the slideshow below! 
 

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Design by: Andrea (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Denise

We're so excited to share the album design for this San Francisco wedding photographed by Nate Fong. While we love the gorgeous SF portrait locations and the creative personalized details, our favorite thing about these images is how Nate perfectly captured the personality of a couple apt to high five before their first kiss. Simply flipping through this album design will give you a sense of how their wedding day felt. 
 
Nate is a San Francisco based photographer who specializes in weddings and events. On his website he says, "I am influenced by good style and great design, both modern and classic. As long as it looks pretty and functions well, I'm a huge fan." No wonder we love working with him! His personal design preferences allow us to design his albums with the clean, classic, storytelling style we love best. 
 
Here are some of our favorites spreads from this design:

Click through below to view the whole album design! 
 

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Design by: Andrea (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Denise

I was tempted to start this post by singing Alanis Morissette lyrics or quoting some cheesy superstition, but instead I'll let the beauty of Selena Sorensen's photographs in this album design be the proof that "raAAAaaAAAin on your wedding day" brings good luck! ;) 
 
Selena Sorensen of Sorensen Studios is a talented wedding and portrait photographer based in Arizona. Throughout the 2+ years she's been an Align client, her designer has learned the "Selena Style" which includes requests such as adding more full bleed pages into the album. We love learning our clients' preferences and utilizing that knowledge design after design! To view more albums we've designed for Sorensen Studios, check out this sweet family affair and this beautiful church wedding. 
 
Here are some of our favorite spreads from this design:

BONUS! Selena was sweet enough to photograph the final album after it was printed! Check out this beauty she ordered through Finao Online, LLC. We LOVE seeing Align designs in their final format!

And a peek inside!

To check out the full design, click through the slideshow below! 

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Design by: Sarah (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Denise

Today one of Align's sweetest clients, Sharon Elizabeth, shares how outsourcing her album design allows her to focus on what she does best! Sharon is a talented photographer based in Virginia who specializes in weddings and boudoir portraiture. 
 
Here she is:

(Photo credit: Justin & Mary) 
 
And here's what she has to say: 
 
Did you know that I spent a couple of years trying to be an album designer?!?! Probably not, because I try not to talk about it very often... it was ugly. I think it was a little over a year ago that I came across Align... insert huge sigh of relief here. 
 
I am not an album designer.... I am a photographer. I am a photographer of love and beauty. I am a mother to the most adorable little girl, Ava Lynn... and I am a wife to one-heck-of-a HUNKY man. Okay maybe I'm a little biased on those last two things, but I say these things to tell you that I want to do the things that I 'am'... and not waste time trying to do things that I'm 'not'.

I started my business back in 2008 and the reality that I've spend the last six years as a photographer is crazy to me. I started out as the jack of all trades, as most of us do. I was a lawyer... an accountant... and a photographer for everyone. After a few years of losing myself to so many things... I realized that specializing in Women's Beauty and Couples would help me find myself again! But not only that... realizing that I'm not a lawyer or an accountant helped relieve SO much stress once I started outsourcing the legal and financial aspects of my business - and the same goes for album design! I'm just not very good at it and I was wasting so much time trying to figure it all out.

Align Album Design not only offers a timely service.... And they not only offer a reasonably priced service (they totally deserve much more than they charge), BUT they offer AMAZING customer service. A little over a year ago I remember getting my first email back from Align that began with: 
 
"Yay! Thank you so much for entrusting Align with your album design needs! It is an honor to serve you! I hope this is just the beginning of a long partnership working together to make your business efficient and profitable...." 
 
Wow. Not only did they say that it was an HONOR to work with ME (who am I?), but I believed them... AND they began the email with "YAY" which is pretty much my life-word. 
 
My response then would still be my response today... "Y'all are already doing amazing simply by communicating so quickly and by being so friendly =)"

I truly can't imagine working with another design company. Their passion for serving the industry and their excitement for working with ME (again... who am I?) is contagious and I genuinely enjoy our partnership. My clients LOVE their albums and I LOVE being able to send them their designs so quickly. While Align is over there working endless hours on designing my albums, I'm able to spend SO much time with my little 'bean' - my little Ava Lynn... and to me... that makes EVERYTHING worth it.

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See! I told you she was a sweetheart! 
 
Sharon, thanks SO much for your kind words and willingness to share your experiences with other photographers. I'm sure most small business owners can relate to your jack-of-all-trades dilemma! We love helping you out and giving you that extra time with your adorable family! 
 
Sharon also took some photos of a recent album we designed for her. This beauty, a Leather Craftsmen album with Premium Japanese Book Cloth, is going to be her studio sample album going forward! Take a look:

To view the full album design, click through the slideshow below: 
 

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Design by: Denise (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Denise