When was the last time you flipped through an old photo album? When was the last time you were cleaning house and found the box full of old prints from your childhood? What about the last time you printed any of the probably thousands of photos taken on your cell phone? Isn’t it so uniquely satisfying, holding a print or photo book in your hands?

We’re so accustomed to seeing photos through screens – and no doubt, having digital photos is an incredible gift that allows us to share the photos with friends and family, get inspiration from others who have shared their photos online, easily look through large amounts of photos in a short time frame, and especially save photos for future use by backing them up digitally in case of a tragedy that would otherwise have ruined/lost prints.

That said, these should all be supplemental reasons to love your wedding photos. To truly appreciate your photos, you have to print them and enjoy them in your day-to-day life! I can tell you that personally, I feel joy every time I look at the big canvas print of our wedding day above our mantle; I love flipping through my family’s wedding albums that sit like coffee table books in my parent’s living room; I even love flipping through our studio sample albums to reminisce on all the gorgeous wedding days I’ve had a chance to photograph!

We find it so important to encourage clients to print their photos that we always include a wedding album for clients who book at least 8 hours of wedding day photography. We want to encourage our clients to get these photos collected in an heirloom album, to be enjoyed in the weeks, years, and decades to come. While we understand that not everyone can afford to print an heirloom wedding album immediately after their big day, we want to encourage our clients to get a physical copy of their prints in their hands by including it in the wedding photography coverage they’d otherwise still be purchasing.

We’ve chosen to order Miller’s Signature Albums – a product that is well-regarded in the wedding industry for gorgeous results at the best price possible for the high quality album materials being used. We ordered a sample album before finalizing our pricing because we wanted to confirm for ourselves that the album’s cover, structure, paper, and print quality were all up to our high standard – and we were blown away by how beautiful this album is! When Miller’s updated their offerings shortly after to allow for a fully custom image-based cover (rather than a material cover like linen or leather), we also ordered a sample album to check it out and the resulting product looks and feels so luxurious no matter which option you choose. Take a look below to see the results and learn more about our album offerings.

We opted for the velvet cover option, and it is gorgeous! It comes in a bunch of colors and despite the unconventional texture, the stamping still looks beautiful (so you’ll get to personalize your book with your names, wedding date, a favorite bible verse, etc. – included in your purchase of the album through us). Don’t worry, though – if you’re not a fan of velvet but want the timeless heirloom look of a material cover, you can choose from an extensive list of leather, faux leather, and linen options. If you opt for a non-velvet cover, you also get the choice to fill in the stamped lettering with white, black, gold, or silver.

Take a look at these thick pages! The albums come automatically with 20 spreads (aka 40 individual pages like in a normal book) which is shown here. You can even opt to add more spreads if you want to really make this book impressive and show off your photos! The thick pages are a hallmark of modern heirloom wedding albums because they’re less likely to tear or bend. They’re also so satisfying to turn – and you don’t have to worry about whether you skipped a page while flipping through. I’ve found that it’s also very handy if you end up with little hands flipping through mom & dad’s wedding album, as it’s much harder for a curious toddler to bend the thicker album pages, and near impossible for them to rip.

Another sign of a modern high-quality wedding album is layflat pages. And I mean truly layflat. The Miller’s album has virtually no seam/bend in the middle of the book at all when you hold it truly flat. This is like getting a 10×20” collage print magically tucked inside a book, ready to look good as new when you reveal it between the pages. We’ll have no fear designing a gorgeous spread that features photos crossing that middle line because, really, that line doesn’t even exist.

One thing that makes our albums really stand out against the options you have available otherwise is that we’ve opted for the lab’s “silk” paper for the pages; in certain lighting situations these pages literally sparkle as you turn them. Believe me, when you see this album in person, this paper is swoon-worthy and feels so luxurious! This paper type also adds depth and warmth that compliments the Beauty of the Soul Studio editing style perfectly.

It’s also important to note that these albums include archival quality paper, expected to last 100 years on regular display and even 200 years in dark storage. Compare this to cheap prints that may last only a couple decades (some estimates say that ordinary machine printed lab photos can be expected to last only 12-25 years) and this is a great value to add to your purchase so you know your family will be able to enjoy the photos for generations to come. Plus, the album materials themselves are meant to last as well – professionally, individually bound so that your book is less likely to fall apart in the decades to come.