What is an Heirloom album? An Heirloom album is the first keepsake for your new family and as such is the showpiece from your wedding photography. I offer various album options but the most common is a magazine-style album with approximately 100 images and about 40 sides. The pages are specially protected to resist scratches and fingerprints over time. They are archival and beautifully hand-bound with fine leathers. Some brides prefer a more classic, traditionally styled album, which is also available. How do I create my Heirloom album? Hopefully, by now you have your proofs to help in your final selections for the Heirloom album, so you have get a good idea of how the pictures look on paper. When creating the Pictage folder for your Heirloom album, remember that you want to choose a cross-section of images from the whole wedding, and have a visual variety of close-up and wide shots. Depending on your package, you may have anywhere from 45-150 images in the folder. Choose your first image for the album and click the “add to folder” link next to the picture. Name the folder, for example “Heirloom Selects”. After that, when you click the “add to folderʼ link beside an image you want, youʼll be able to select that they go into that folder. After youʼve made your selections, make sure they are in the rough order that you want them in the album. Unlike the Memento or proof albums, this is not written in stone, for when designing the Heirloom album pages, there is freedom to make several different, creative layout choices. You may want a certain picture to open (or close) your album and if so, put this in the beginning (or end) of your selections. If you want to rearrange your images, click the “rearrange images” link and drag and drop them into your desired order. Remember to save your changes when finished. Once youʼve finished your folder, email me the name of it and any other special instructions. At that point, I will begin your design. Upon completion of the design, Iʼll email you the layout as a slideshow for you to view - and hopefully love! At that point, two changes are allowed to the design, at no cost. Changing a picture from one page to another, removing a picture, changing an image from color to black and white, and adding a border are examples of changes that are done at no cost. However, changing a picture from black and white back to color, when it originally was delivered to you on Pictage in black and white, is an example of a change that would have a $25 charge attached. At this point, it is of the utmost importance to me that you love everything about what is essentially the showpiece from your wedding day. So, If you need to contact me about retouching a particular image, please do so now, before I have the pages printed! There may be additional costs, but itʼs unlikely. After youʼve accepted the design, which normally you will have notified me of in an email, I will send you the Album Design Acceptance Form, and ask you to initial next to each double page spread. Then you can fax or mail me the form. When I get it, the album pages will be ordered from my lab. When received, if all the pages are correct, they will be sent to the bookbinder for binding. This entire process can take 4-12 weeks depending on how fast you and I are moving through each step.

If you have any questions about any of the Heirloom album process, please donʼt hesitate to ask! What are my Heirloom album cover options? Heirloom album covers are made of genuine, high-quality leather.

There are also alternative leather types, “Rustique” and “Distressed”, for a slightly higher cost.

If you donʼt want leather, you can choose a linen-covered option.

Other things to consider are the font and placement you would like for the names and date on the cover, as well as the style of the names. Fonts are “block” and “modern”, and names can either be centered in the album cover or put in the lower right-hand corner. Names can be all lower-case (e.g. “jane and john”) or upper and lower-case (e.g. “Jane and John”). Some examples:

The date is stamped below the names in any case, but will follow the style of names, e.g. Sarah and John Sarah and John May 1, 2008 -or- 05.01.2008

How do I view Heirloom album page layout before itʼs printed? When you receive the initial email inviting you to view your design, you should be able to click on it and view the slideshow, or cut and paste the link into your browserʼs window and access it that way. If not, log in to your Pictage event and look under the “options” category. Under that, should be “album”. Click that and youʼll go to the slideshow page, and be able to see the flow of your album layout.