Wedding Album

I felt pretty compelled to share something which seems overlooked and no one ever mentioned it from all the forum posts I read.

I went to select my pre-wedding album layout for the 2nd round today. The designer was ok, edited the pictures to my liking as much as possible. The pictures were alright I supposed since I didn't really take my photoshoot with a theme in mind. The theme was 'us'. So photos turned out very us as well.

What comes after photo, layout and all those editing is of course the photo album and the wedding portrait. We were told to pick our huge photo frame, which the husband picked out this white frame with victorian sketchy gold paint prints on the sides. Pretty grand looking I thought, though I would have chosen a dark frame to contrast the sunset photo if it was me but well, the husband is quite particular about some stuffs.

Next comes the highlight which is the wedding album cover! Something which I asked the coordinators umpteen times and they just told me not to worry about it, I'll get to choose it after my photos are settled. But I kept thinking about it at the back of my mind because I didn't like what I saw at the bridal studio sample albums. They were all heavy plastic/acrylic with tiny photos and huge bridal studio logos stamped/plated on the album cover. There were about 20-30 covers for us to choose from, not varying much from:

1) single photo on cover, with bridal logo on the cover
2) multiple photos on cover, with bridal logo on the cover
3) plain white/black cover in textured fabric/synthetic leather, with 3D floral patterned plastic strip across and bridal logo on the cover

I thought the sample albums we saw had all those logos because they were supposed to be advertising tools for them while they showed it off to customers. But why would my own wedding album have to bear the bridal studio logo plastered on it instead of our own names or monogram? In my personal opinion, any item plastered with a company brand on it cheapens the value of the item. This album is paid for and included in the package, not a free gift from the bridal studio. I asked to remove the logos, designer told me not possible, which I think it's because the covers are all ready-made by the factory.

After repeated suggestions which I didn't like, the designer finally said if I wanted plain I could choose something from a range of synthetic leathers with different textured prints and he assured it will be plain but they couldn't do any embossing or printing either coz their supplier had problems with that in the past. I was almost back to my usual happy self at this point as this was obviously what we preferred. We picked out a black woven leather for the cover (think bottega woven) which looks rather classy.

End of the day, I left a happy bride knowing we managed to pick a leather cover. I am really anal about the photos and album as I think this is the whole purpose why we bother paying $4K+ to rent gowns, take the photoshoot, engage their pg, top up extra photos, go through the editing and layouts review, print the album with them. It is not the most expensive package but $4k is a lot to me. Doesn't make sense to spoil everything by having an album I want to just stash it away.

End of day, I got my wish. I had a nice black woven leather album with a metal plate on the front cover. The stainless steel plate was customized with our names on it at Bras Basah Complex.