We not only got to design today's beautiful featured album, we also printed it! This is an Align Legacy Book with a Tweed leather cover featuring a cameo photo and blind debossing with Allura font. So pretty huh!? Our Tweed leather is one of three of our distressed leathers. These leathers can show scuffs, vary in tone, and give off a "weathered" patina. 
 
Morgan Wiggins of W Photography is a talented wedding and elopement photographer based out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We have had the opportunity to design a handful of albums for her clients over the past two years and we are so impressed with her and her work!  
 
This particular design was finished in about 2 weeks from the time she ordered it until it was approved -- and in the midst of our busy Christmas season! We love being able to help clients turn their albums around quickly! 
 
Morgan was so kind to send us some images of the printed album. We are so excited to share it with you today! Here are some images along with some of our favorite spreads from this stunning design:

Click through the slideshow to see the design in full: 
 
 
 
Thank you, Morgan, for allowing us to work with your beautiful images!

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

You guys!!! This sample album that we created for Maryland based wedding photographer Anna Lowe is TO DIE FOR!! It is SO GOOD! Not only did we design this album, but we also printed it! It is an 8x8 Align Legacy Book covered in our Parchment Linen.  
 
And get this -- after Anna shared this sample album on her Instagram stories, the client feature in it got in touch and asked to order one for themselves!! Wow! That is such a testimony to the power of a sample album! Having a stunning sample is the #1 key to selling albums! And Anna was SO SMART to share this beauty all over her social media accounts! When you share your passion for albums and show them off, clients see them and want one for themselves! Selling albums is really that simple -- share your passion for them, and show them off! 
 
Anna even included this beautiful sample album in her brand video -- check it out:  
 
 
 
Anna was so kind to shoot some photos of this album and share them with us. Check them out along with some of our favorite spreads from the design:

SO incredible, huh!? To see the design in full, click through the slideshow: 
 
 
 
Thank you, Anna, for allowing us to work with your beautiful images!

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

This week's featured album is just TOO PRETTY FOR WORDS!! We design albums that are printed by hundreds of other album printing companies, but today's album is extra-special because we both DESIGNED and PRINTED the finished album!  
 
Corinna Rose is an extraordinarily talented photographer based out of California -- her work always has us swooning. You just have to look through this entire album design to see how beautiful it is! We are so grateful to her for styling and taking these images of the finished 10x10 Align Legacy Book album in our Parchment Linen with gold foil debossing in Adelicia font. SO pretty!!

And here are a few of our favorite spreads from this album design:

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

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

We LOVE our professional photographer clients and our primary focus has been, and always will be, serving them well.  
 
But today we are excited to announce that we are NOW OFFERING CUSTOM DESIGNED WEDDING AND PORTRAIT ALBUMS TO CONSUMERS as well!! 
 
We often get inquiries from brides and grooms whose photographer either doesn't offer albums, or is no longer available to them (they're retired or out of business) asking if we can create an album for them. And now the answer is YES! 
 
We have two different products available to consumers: a wedding album, and a family yearbook album. These will be offered in standard packages that are all-inclusive of the design, revision rounds, printing, binding & shipping. We know there are options out there for consumers where they can DIY books themselves, but we want to offer those who don't want to go the DIY route an option to create a completely custom album.

We are VERY conscious of not wanting to undercut or take ANY business away from our current clients or professional photographers as a whole. So we will be doing two things to ensure this: 
 
1 - We will be asking all consumers who place a wedding album order who their photographer is on the order form. If they are working with one of our clients, we will refer them back to their photographer to purchase their album. We will also be asking them to provide proof of rights to print and use their high res images. 
 
2 - Our pricing will be more in line with what a photographer might charge for a custom album. Think of our pricing for photographers as "wholesale pricing"; our pricing for consumers will be "retail pricing." 
 
Our Family Yearbook Albums are something we are REALLY excited about! These come standard as 8x8 linen albums with either a cover photo or engraving on the front and with 40 spreads (approximately 150-200 images):

The idea behind these albums is to combine ALL of your family memories from one year in an album -- professional photos, photos you took on your camera phone -- EVERYTHING!

I had a couple of these created for my own family and I am IN LOVE! I can't wait to add one to my collection every year going forward! I shot a short 1 minute video to give you and idea of what these look like here: 
 
 
 
We are SO excited about these new offerings and hope you will keep us in mind and refer others to us if they are in need of an album! 
 
Click here to find out more about our albums for consumers! (Our Consumer Books can be accessed through the link in the upper right corner of our home page!)

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Blog post written by: Melissa Jill

above photos by Charity Maurer 
 
 
Justin Douglas was not only a client of Align's for the past 8 years, he was also a dear personal friend. I first met Justin when he reached out to me via email after moving to Phoenix from Austin. He was an up and coming film photographer who was eager to learn and network. We met up for lunch and I knew I wanted to be friends with him instantly. His energy was so positive, his smile lit up his whole face, and he was so encouraging -- a total charmer. Our friendship developed from there -- he assisted me and loaded film at my weddings for a little over a year, even though he was far too talented to do so. He came to church with me a number of times and we had many meaningful conversations about how God was working in our lives. When I was pregnant with our little guy Beau, he offered to gift us a maternity shoot on film in the desert. I will forever cherish those photos.  
 
The last contact I had with Justin was an email I received from him just 8 days before his death and it was a link to download the photos below for this album design feature. I can't believe he is gone. Justin passed away on a lake in a boat/swimming accident. The wedding industry has been rocked by the news. He was so young and such a bright light and he will truly be missed.  
 
It's so hard for me to even write this post because I so deeply don't want it to be true. But I wanted to honor Justin and his memory by sharing what I knew of him and how he impacted me. I believe this is one of the best ways to grieve. 
 
Justin was excited to share this album that we recently completed for him, so I want to do that now. He was truly talented.  
 
This album is a 12x12 Align Legacy Book covered in our Cobblestone Linen with clear debossing on the front. It turned out so beautifully and I know Justin's clients will cherish it forever!

To see the design in full, click through the slideshow: 
 
 
 
I will never forget you dear friend!

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