I've recently updated my website - well, really, my packages and pricing structure. I discovered that the majority of my clients were moving away from the Black Label and Platinum packages and opting instead for the Coffee Table Package. Then they were adding features from the higher priced collections. The very personal package they finished with was usually a bit less expensive than the Platinum or Black Label, but not that much...
It is obvious that tastes have changed, and in restructuring my packages, I found ways to do just what my brides were doing - designing high-end wedding packages for less money. The average price drop is about $500 compared with last year. That's pretty cool - in a market where many wedding photographers are having to increase fees, to be able to offer a lower price without compromising quality or losing money is a real win-win.
But just what were my brides building their packages around? Albums and Photo-books!
"Wall art" (canvas prints and "splits", framed enlargements and so on) is still very popular, especially the wonderful prints embedded directly into metal surfaces. But individual postcard prints and unframed prints up to A4 are not valued as they once were. And iPads and digital photo frames with wedding photos loaded are just not attracting the same interest as they were. They may again, and I still have them to offer, but the Album is the thing.
They can be expensive though - partly because of the materials needed to make such a heavy album last through years of handling, but also because they are all hand made and assembled. Every mask on every page has to be cut, the photos printed to fit (often at non-standard sizes) and the entire book then has to be assembled and sewn. We photographers don't make life easier for the album makers when we insist on designing highly individual albums for you.
Coffee Table books are somewhat less expensive. Since they are made on a printing press, with their images printed directly to the page in any format and layout that the designer desires, assembly is reduced to final binding and sewing. That cuts the price considerably, but the very best of these is still designed to last a lifetime, and the types of paper, the cover options and the quality of their spill and UV protection sets them apart from the many on-line and department store DIY copies. You would never mistake one of these for a $100 make-your-own-picture-book.
There are other options, too - Hybrid books that offer true, high gloss 1600 dpi printing on pages that lay flat when opened to display your wedding photos nearly a metre wide; "Duo" albums that mix press printed and matted photos in the same album, and metal or crystal or acrylic covers to complement the more traditional photo, linen and leather covers..
Is there anything better than a wedding album? I don't think so, and it seems our clients agree.
