It’s probably a habit with the majority of married couples that once they receive their wedding pictures, they will simply download those pictures to their phone, perhaps they will download and put on a USB (or several USB keys, which I strongly recommend) and make sure they will be stored away for safe keeping. Maybe putting the idea of a book on the long finger, or even not really wanting a book or album at all. In this digital age we are all guilty of putting to the back of or minds the idea of getting family prints done as regularly as we should, I know I am. Quite often I will have ideas to get a book of say family pictures done but I tend to let that skip by to the point of where I have lots of pictures but rarely the will to just get it done.
Where a wedding is concerned I personally think it is vital that a wedding book should be created, it is the ultimate way to see a concise record from a wedding day. I do sense that some find it difficult enough to go through the images and make a selection, it is probably easy for me since I will sit down and make sure that the final set will have a good pace given that I can view those images objectively, and I’ll make sure that it will ebb and flow and not just look linear and functional. Like any book, a wedding selection too must have a tight story, a start a middle and an end, and given the reportage wedding photography style I work within it gives this more credence.
“Honest I’m getting the book done very soon!”
I tend to meet past clients on a regular enough basis, at weddings or just out and about, on nearly every occasion they will mention a book, and wanting to get it done. I suppose what often can be the issue with procrastinating is due to the fact that you may have somewhere in the region of 500 images to select from. Bringing this down to a tidy set of say 80 must not be easy, but anytime I do meet a past client I will stress that they must be ruthless. Your pictures are not going anywhere, and the final book will give a good summary of the day, and that is what is absolutely important, that it gives a good tight story to the wedding day.
In my portfolio I have a very strong and broad selection of wedding work. While it is rare to give consultations given how busy I tend to be, those that do go through the work will come to one conclusion, and it is that each book does have a story from start to finish, with each absolutely unique to that given day.
In my opinion, your wedding is not done until you get a book created, I can tell you that the joy a wedding book brings is magical, once a selection is made turning those pages is always exciting.
