If you're anything like us, you are going to swoon when you see today's featured album design! 
 
Florida wedding photographer Ailyn La Torre's style is clean, bright, modern and classic. And we might add -- consistent. Her images are beautifully shot and expertly edited. She was the perfect photographer to shoot this playfully colorful wedding at the Tampa Yacht Club! 
 
We've had the pleasure of designing close to 50 albums over the last few years for Ailyn. She loves to work with our designer Shannon who has worked hard to deliver album after album in Ailyn's preferred style -- a clean design to match her clean style that includes 4-6 images per spread, except for reception images which can be a lot more.  
 
Ailyn used our Hands-off Service for this design, which really streamlined the revision process, and the album was completed in just over a month with only one round of revisions. We can't wait to share it with you! 
 
Here are a few of our favorite spreads from this stunning design: 

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

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

The sweet couple in today's featured wedding album design got married in front of their closest family and friends at one of their favorite restaurants in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The oh-so-talented Jean Smith photographed their day so beautifully.  
 
When it came time to design their wedding album, the couple asked Jean to pick HER favorite images from the day for the album. And this is the result! The design was finalized within 5 days and printed by Miller's Lab as a 10x10 heirloom album that they will cherish forever!  
 
This album is one of over 180 designs we have had the pleasure of creating for Jean and her clients over the past decade plus. We are SO BLESSED to work with such a talented, kind human. 
 
Here are a few of our favorite spreads from this sweet design: 

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

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

Hey guys! Melissa Jill here! I've recently shared some of my strategies for solving common album workflow problems. But there are sure to be others that you've experienced that I haven't covered. No matter how hard I work on my photography business, problems inevitably arise. Welcome to being a business owner :). But the secret to really succeeding long-term in business is not just found in solving individual problems, but in systematizing solutions to each problem that arises so that you prevent it from happening again. That's how a business becomes more profitable and efficient over time. 
 
Think for a minute about an issue that you've recently dealt with in your business. Has a client been unhappy about something? Have you been frustrated that someone didn't understand how things worked or didn't get back to you in a timely fashion? Do you have that issue in mind? Good! I'm going to try to help you today to systematize a solution to it so you never have to go through something similar again. 
 
There's an analogy I like to use to help me explain systematizing a business, and help paint a picture of this effort as an ongoing process. I like to call it The Principle of Plugging Leaks. Let's say for some reason that you are in a dry river bed (just go with me on this). You know the water is coming, and you want to build a dam to help stop the water and protect something valuable to you on the other side. So you gather rocks and debris -- anything you can find around you -- to set up a sturdy dam. When you're done, you step back and admire your work. You look at it from every angle, trying to access where the holes might be. You do your best to build the dam well, but you don't really know how it will hold up until the water comes. You might even feel a little over-confident that it will be impenetrable. "No water is getting through this thing!" But when the water comes gushing through the river bed, you instantly see where the weaknesses are, because little streams of water are coming out the other side. For the most part, the dam holds up, but you are left plugging leaks. Occasionally another leak will crop up and you will need to plug that one, trying to make sure it holds up over time.  
 
Since this isn't a remarkably sophisticated analogy, you've probably figured out that the dam is the system you build for your business. Plugging the leaks will be an ongoing process -- we will never be completely done solving problems as business owners. But the goal should be to plug each leak or solve each problem by tweaking the system so that that specific issue does not arise again. 
 
Here are some of the common album-related issues that I myself have experienced and heard are common to other photographers: 
- Waiting forever for clients to pick their images 
- The client doesn't love the initial design and wants too many changes 
- The client wants to cram as many images as possible onto each spread, resulting in a cluttered design. 
- The client makes endless numbers of changes to the initial design. 
- The client is unresponsive and doesn't finalize their album in a timely manner. 
- The client is surprised or frustrated that the photographer designed their album larger than what they ordered and is trying to sell them additional pages. 
- After delivering a larger album design with the option to upgrade, the client doesn't respond quickly and ends up deciding against upgrading. 
 
If you continue to experience one of these issues, click on it and you will find another article with a solution I have systematized that has effectively solved it and removed this pain point from my workflow. If you don't see your issue above, or if you run into other non-album-related issues in your workflow, try to strategize a way that you can tweak what you do to prevent that same issue from happening again.  
 
1 -- Could you create a template email that you send out to your client at a certain point in their experience (or a .pdf you share with clients in your initial meeting) to better educate them and help you achieve the optimum result you desire? 
2 -- Could you create some type of incentive or deadline to help move things along and motivate your client? 
3 -- Could you change your contract to make something that a client has misunderstood more explicit so that expectations are better managed?  
 
Hopefully this gives you some ideas about how to systematize a solution to the specific issue you recently experienced. And next time a problem arises (and we all know it will), rather than beating yourself up or playing the blame game by being frustrated at your client or another vendor, you can use your energy to pre-empt that problem in the future by tweaking your system. 
 
Thanks for reading today! I hope you found something helpful here! As always -- this is a community and we love to hear from you and share a dialogue in the comments below. Have you had issues you've found creative solutions for? Share a comment so we can all benefit from your amazing wisdom!

If you found this post helpful and would like to receive tips like this straight to your inbox, click here to sign up!

And exciting news! If you're a photographer who wants to start offering albums without investing hours of guesswork and trial and error -- we have a solution for you! Check out the Album Start-Up Kit and start maximizing your profit today! 

-----------
Blog post written by: Melissa Jill

Austin wedding photographer Lucy Struve did a really smart thing.... She asked us to design a next-level sample album for one of her favorite Austin wedding venues -- The Arlo.  
 
Lucy is a preferred vendor at The Arlo and she wanted to provide them with an album to showcase the beautiful space, as well as her work. So we made sure to select images that would show off her best work and especially highlight the unique beauty of the venue. As Lucy shared with us, "The venue is such an important part of how a wedding day looks and photographs. My hope is that if a client sees this album and then chooses to book both me and this venue, then they are someone who places a high priority on photography!" 
 
This design was ordered and brought to completion in one week! It is a 15 spread design and Lucy chose to print it through RedTree. What a beautiful gift and smart marketing move on Lucy's part! 
 
Here are a few of our favorite spreads from this stunning design:

To see the design in full, click through the slideshow: 
 
 
 
Thank you, Lucy, for entrusting us with your beautiful images!

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

Today's featured wedding album design is SO special! New Jersey wedding photographer Samantha Glennon is uber-talented and we adore her dark and moody photography style! This album has it all -- sweet family moments, a spread dedicated to the couple's pup, rainy-day portraits that are magical, and minimal, cohesive spreads. 
 
This design is a great example of our Simple design style -- it incorporates 1-4 images per spread (with just a few spreads with more) with clean white space that provides room for them to breathe. The design ended up being 22 spreads, which is a nice size for telling the story of a wedding day without the design feeling too condensed and crowded. 
 
Another exciting fun fact about this design? It was approved with NO REVISIONS! We always do a happy dance when that happens! 
 
Here are a few of our favorite spreads from this lovely design:

To see the design in full, click through the slideshow: 
 
 
 
Thank you, Sam, for entrusting us with your clients and your beautiful images!

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