I'm curious as to how many of you allow your brides to actively participate in the production of their album. Do you only allow them to make the image selections? Or do they get to make x-# of changes before it's sent to the album mfr.? I'd love to hear some pros and cons, along with any horror stories. Thanks.
Christopher

So glad you posted this thread!!!!! This is a big issue for us right now. I would also like some ideas from you all on how much freedom you allow your clients in making changes/designing their wedding album.

This is how I see it. We are the proffessionals. We have the experience. And we are having our names represented by what is shown in those albums. Do I really want joe-somebody designing the album or making tons of changes to an album that is going to have my studio name on it?

The tendency is for our clients to want to make changes to our design, even to the extent of redoing the whole design themselves. I don't charge enough yet to be able to take the time and design every page WITH the client in our office, and yet it ends up being a waste of time a lot of times to design an album for the client ahead of time because the client is just going to change so much of our design anyway. (Have I vented enough yet? )

So, again, anybody with ideas on how to balance the whole situation? I would LOVE for our clients to say, "We trust your creativity and professionalism to design what will be the best looking album possible for us." Unfortunately, we don't seem to be anywhere close to that happening lately....

I usually let the clients pick 75% of the images they want on the album and I tell them that I will add the rest of the images to keep the timeline flowing throughout the book (I do all flush mounts). Then I show them an online slideshow of the "final design" (I tell them this rather than saying "first draft" to limit their change requests), and if they want any MINOR changes done or special requests, I give it to them. I never had any problems doing it this way, in part due to the client seeing and trusting my album designs - which I show to them at our initial meeting.

If your designs are solid, they will love it!

Thanks Bumatay! Anyone else out there???

We have a similar approach to Greg...

QUOTE

I would LOVE for our clients to say, "We trust your creativity and professionalism to design what will be the best looking album possible for us."

The best way to do this is to ask them if they trust you? Of course they'll say yes and then you just go through with it and they have no choice. This approach is straight from Mike Colon... "Either we can work on it together or if you trust me to put my creativity in it then I'm glad to take care of the design."

Have any examples of wedding albums to show??? I'm going to be getting into that sooner than I think and would like to see some ideas so that I can forumalate some designs of my own... Thanks

--- Gregg

Before we start designing (wait, whos we??? oh yeah .......me and the mouse in my pocket!) I ask them to know up front what their budget is (if they plan to only use their purchase credit in their package or invest more money into their album??) and if they want a traditional matted (only 1-2 brides a year choose those) or the magazine style flush mount.

Then I have them deciede on weather its squared or rectangle... then from their the size..... I won't start playing with a lay out until they confirm for me all the above. From there I have them put X number of images in an Album folder on pictage and start designing an album from there.

I will do unlimited number of changes via e mail, on the computer, from my home with out a visit from them. They get to come here once in person to make changes and approve the album. After that I charge $100 per hour to see them in person again. So far I have yet to charge anyone that fee, nor do I think I ever will, but it adds a price to my time to meet with them again making petty changes.

In the end, I try to remember that they are the clients and the "customer is always right" I want them to love their album and love showing off the album that I captured for them on their wedding day. But at the same time, I encurgae them to trust me too with the design, its why they booked me right????

I used to never make the album more than they can afford. I now usually go over a few more pages, hopefully adding a few more bucks in my pocket for all the extra (free) time I give to them via e mail.... so far it has worked out great!

Oh and when I get their e mail for changes I have them e mail me it with specificsides and image numbers and if the image is not in the folder, then they need to add it, so I am not having to make those changes.... I always reply ASAP that I have their request for changes and I will have the changes online for them in no more than 5 business days. If I have the time, I try to do it that day.....

Hopefully my suggestions helped you some!

I only let the client pick the x number of photos and then I do another edit on the photos that I think need it and then I send it off to my one of two album companies. That is what I love so much about my album companies. They do so much work so that I dont have to. Also what I have learned in the past is the more that you allow your clients to be involved the longer that it will take because this is (for most of them) the first time that they have ever designed a book so they have no idea what they are doing and also they are more attached to those photos than you are so you are looking at it from a design aspect and they may be attached to a photo that should not even be in the album. Sorry about that being the longest sentence EVER but I have had too many lost hours lost dealing with this subject. My company is very customer service driven but we also want to provide them with the best product on the market, so by me or my book designer being the one making the calls they are going to get a rocking book.
Shaun Austin
L.A. Photography
www.L-Aphoto.com