One of the best ways to say “thank you” to your parents for their love and support during your wedding planning (and more) is through a parent album. Your wedding day is such an important day for you and your spouse, but it’s just as important to your parents! As a parent myself now, nothing would make me happier after my daughter’s wedding than to have an album of her wedding day to re-live again and again, and I’m sure any parent would feel the same way. After all, I think you can agree that parents don’t want to sit in front of a computer looking at an online gallery. Parents, more than anyone, value tangible albums that you can touch and feel, and I don’t blame them! Looking through our wedding album is always so special to me.

If you’re wondering how parent albums work, you’re not alone. Some of the most common questions I get from couples is regarding just that. How big are they? How many pages do they include? Are they duplicate copies of the main album? Do my parents get to choose the images? Today I thought I’d share some insight into the parent album process.

Parent Album Options

To start, you’ll want to pick a size for your parent albums. There is no right or wrong size for parent albums. We offer albums in three sizes: 8″x8″, 10″x10″, and 12″x12″ and parent albums can be designed in any of those sizes. Most couples opt for a 10″x10″ or an 8″x8″ for their parents. The three sizes are pictured below in linen:

The Album Design

I like to design initial parent albums with 15 spreads, which means 30 pages facing each other. This size album typically holds about 75 images.

Once your own wedding album design is finalized, you pick 15 spreads from your wedding album design and I create a pre-design for your parent albums. Next, you would either work with me to customize the design even further (especially the family portraits spread) and we create a unique design that will be perfect for your parents. If you’d rather not be involved in customizing your parent albums, then you can have your parents do it by sharing their contact information with me so I can get in touch with them directly. I would then work with them to customize their design before it goes to print. If they happen to want to add on extra spreads, they can do so during the design process. Pictured below is a set of two 8″x8″ parent albums next to a 10″x10″ wedding album:

The Cover Options

Just like wedding albums, parent albums can be made with linen, silk, or leather covers and can include an inset cover photo and/or imprinting. Once your design is finalized, I would send over a questionnaire where you (or your parents) can choose their cover options.

The album design process is very easy and can be done within 1-2 weeks if you (or your parents) are able to work with me on the revisions in a timely manner. Once the design is approved and the cover options are finalized, I send the album to print and the lab takes about 15-20 business days to handcraft the wedding albums. You can have the parent albums delivered straight to your parents, or you can have them delivered to you so that you can give it to them in person and see their big smiles when they sit down to re-live your wedding day.

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