Detroit Wedding Photographer Jean Smith is SUCH A PRO!! We have designed over 180 albums for her and each one is just so interesting and fabulous! Her eye for composition, use of light, and how she clearly connects with and sets her subjects at ease make her work a total stand-out! We're so inspired by Jean's beautiful images! 
 
The album design we are sharing with you today took place in downtown Detroit and one of our favorite parts of the day was the rooftop reception complete with fireworks! It's definitely worth clicking through the full slideshow at the end of this post to see it! 
 
All of Jean's album designs are exactly 20 spreads, which is a great length to tell the story of a wedding day. This design was finalized in less than a month from start to finish and the client used two revision rounds to make it perfect. We are smitten with how it turned out! 
 
Here are a few of our favorite spreads from this stunning album: 

To see the design in full, click through the slideshow: 
 
 
 
Thank-you, Jean, for trusting us with your images and clients all these years! xo

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Design by: Rachel (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Melissa Jill

We have had the honor of being the album design company of choice for Wyoming wedding photographer Cassie Madden for a full decade! And in that time, we have designed 60 albums for her and her clients! She has had such an incredible photography career and we have been so blessed to work with her stunning images for so many years. Cassie is also one of our beloved Client Advocates. Click here to watch a short video where she talks about how she used albums to make the leap to serving high-end clients. It's definitely worth a watch! 
 
The album design we are excited to share with you today took place on an expansive ranch in Wyoming. Wait until you see the wide open views and rustic barn that Cassie made good use of for some stunning portraits she created! 
 
This design is a good example of a slightly busier design -- what we produce when a client wants to include more images per spread than our popular Classic Design Style. Note the use of a lot of collage layouts with larger focal point images sprinkled throughout. We love how this design turned out! 
 
Here are a few of our favorite spreads: 
 

To see the design in full, click through the slideshow: 
 
 
 
Thank you, Cassie, for trusting us with your clients and images for all these years!

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Design by: Shannon (View More) // Design style: Classic (View More) // Blog post written by: Melissa Jill

The number one rule in album sales is:

If you want to sell albums, you have to show clients physical studio samples. This can be a tough pill to swallow when albums run anywhere from $300 - $1,200 in costs for the photographer. And that's just the printing and binding. That doesn't take into consideration the costs and time investment in getting it designed and ordered. Yes, studio sample albums are an investment. But they are an investment that will pay off. 
 
A few years ago I decided to start offering Queensberry Duo albums as an option for my high end clients. These albums are gorgeous -- high end mat paper surrounds images that are inset in the pages, and images can even be mounted flush to the edge of the page. So it is a more contemporary version of a matted album combining both matted and flush-mount features into a high end custom product. The album I chose to offer is 18x10 inches horizontal with a dark brown micro-leather fabric. The cover material is so soft, I am tempted to use it as a pillow. The album is INCREDIBLE. But it's not cheap. The studio sample I wanted to get was over $1,000. Yikes! Not only does that money come out of my bank account, but that means I have to charge my clients $3,500 for an album of its kind. All sorts of fears went through my head. What if no one else loves it as much as I do? What if my clients don't see the value and aren't willing to pay the high price tag?

I swallowed my fears and took the leap. I ordered my studio sample and said a prayer right before my first client meeting in which it rested on the ottoman in my office. Kari, the bride, came in and we started out the meeting chatting about her upcoming wedding. When it came time to share my two album options, I showed her the standard, lower-priced album that comes in all of my packages, then I showed her the Duo. I explained its features and told her the price. She fell in love with it as she turned each of the textured mat pages and felt the micro-leather. At the end of the meeting she told me that she didn't have the budget for the Duo but that she wanted to see if she could move some things around to be able to increase her photography budget and include it in her package. And that's just what she did.  
 
The expensive Duo is not for everyone, but it does appeal to a certain segment of my clientele. And if they see it and love it, they are often willing to increase their budget, even though they never intended to spend $3K on a wedding album when they first walked into my office.  
 
You can't sell it if you don't show it. But if you DO show it, you might be able to sell something that your clients didn't even realize they couldn't live without until they touched it. That's the power of a studio sample album. 
 
Not sure where to start with creating a sample album? Read up on 5 features that should be included in every sample album in order to win the hearts of your clients and get them to say YES to their very own album! 
 
To help even further with your sample album needs, we've created this Resource List for the Top 10 Most Popular Album Companies used by Align clients, along with testimonials from photographers who use each of them. Also included on the list is a general idea of what each company charges for a standard 10x10 album. You can download it for FREE today by clicking here and signing up for an account with Align -- no order necessary! Or if you already have an existing Align account and want a copy of this resource guide, you're welcome to email us for a copy.

Take the leap. Invest in sample albums. Make them beautiful, unique, and exactly what you would want if you were a bride or groom. Then show them to your potential clients and see the investment pay off.

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Blog post written by: Melissa Jill

Today we have such a fun engagement album design to share with you! We have had the pleasure of working with Hudson Valley New York Wedding and Portrait photographer Nidya Lloyd for the past 7 years on over 50 albums! Her loose editorial style makes for beautiful images to fill out the pages of an album and of particular note -- the clear skies and perfect skin tones in her images are superb! 
 
The sweet couple in this design love hiking and exploring and opted to do their engagement shoot at the picturesque Perkins Memorial Tower at Bear Mountain overlooking the Hudson River Valley.  
 
We love how this design turned out! Nidya chose our "Simple" Design style -- which is perfect for engagement and portrait albums as it includes 1-4 images per spread and clean white backgrounds. The design came out to 10 spreads (20 pages) and was approved by her client after just one revision round! Nidya used our Hands-off Service, which allowed us to communicate directly with her clients and streamline the revision process. 
 
Here are a few of our favorite spreads from this fun engagement album design: 

To see the design in full, click through the slideshow: 
 
 
 
Thank you, Nidya, for trusting us with your clients and your gorgeous images for so many years!

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Design by: Rachel (View More) // Design style: Simple (View More) // Blog post written by: Melissa Jill

Jamie and Javier recently tied the knot at the picturesque Vine Hill House in Sonoma County, bringing together the cozy charm of a backyard wedding with the sweeping beauty of vineyard views. Jamie, a Sonoma local, and Javier, originally from Spain, chose a natural and intimate setting to reflect their personalities and love story. From the moment guests arrived, it was clear this wouldn't be your typical wedding day. 
 
The couple's non-traditional style came through in every detail-from the relaxed vibe to the intentional celebration of their surroundings. Their wedding day felt both effortless and deeply meaningful, anchored in the love they share and the people they chose to celebrate with. Guests enjoyed a lively dance floor and a perfect fall evening capped with s'mores roasted under the stars-what could be better? 
 
Well, we'd argue the only thing that rivals experiencing this wedding in person is reliving it through the pages of their album. Is there anything better than a wine country wedding on a cool fall day? The spreads of this wedding album make a strong case that there is not. 
 
We had so much fun working on this stunning 30-spread, 60-page album for Eileen of Buena Lane Photography. Eileen's work beautifully captured not only the golden vineyard setting and thoughtful details, but also the genuine connections and joyful moments shared throughout the day. Her clean and minimal aesthetic -- favoring fewer images per spread -- let every photo truly shine. 
 
Designing this album was a joy. It's never easy to fit the full story of a wedding into a limited number of spreads, so we were thrilled to have the space to let each image breathe. Eileen's storytelling through photography made our job seamless, and we're so proud of how this album came together. 
 
Here are a few of our favorite spreads from Jamie and Javier's unforgettable day. We hope you love them as much as we do.

To see the design in full, click through the slideshow: 
 
 
 
Thank you, Eileen, for allowing us to work with your gorgeous images!

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