Choosing your wedding album yourself, or with us

The short answer

Pick by the size of the folder and how long the album has waited. A few hundred photos and the ones you love already in mind: do it yourselves. Thousands of photos and an album maker waiting: start from an album that is already made, and change it.

None of these is the wrong way. They differ in who does the first pass through the folder, and how long it takes.

Doing it yourselves

The usual way is two folders on a laptop, "album" and "not this time", and an evening at a time moving photos between them. Some couples use hearts in Google Photos instead, or a shared Drive folder both of you can open.

It costs nothing but time, and it is entirely yours: every photo in the album is one you chose, and you know the folder by the end.

Where it stalls is the size. Say it takes two seconds just to look at a photo. That is our assumption, not a measurement, but at that pace a 6,000-photo folder takes about 3.3 hours to see once, before choosing anything, comparing similar photos or finding everyone in the family.

• Works well: a few hundred photos, one or two functions, the ones you love already in mind
• Gets hard: thousands of photos, five functions, a family list of thirty
• Watch out for: the first function getting all the attention, and the album never being finished

Asking your photographer to choose

Many studios offer to make the first choice for the album, often with the album itself. It helps when you already trust their eye: they know which photos are their strongest, and they have done this many times.

Ask what it includes and when it will be ready, because it joins the queue of their other weddings. Check their choice against your family list before it goes to print: the photographer knows the light, but you know who Bua is.

Starting from an album we make

Phopho and Toto does the first pass. Bring the whole folder, up to 12,000 photos. We find the two of you, recognise your family, put every photo in its function, keep the best of each group of similar photos, and make the first album at the size you choose. Usually 35 to 70 minutes once your photos are in.

You still do the part that needs you: confirm who is who, choose how big an album and how many from each function, then keep, love, swap or set aside any photo. Nothing is final until you say so.

Side-by-side comparison

The same 6,000-photo wedding, both ways

Take 6,000 photos from a haldi, a sangeet, the pheras and a reception, and an album of 250. Shared by our rule of thumb that is Haldi 45, Sangeet 57, Pheras 91 and Reception 57.

Yourselves: copy the folder to a laptop, open the haldi, and move photos into "album" until it has its number, then the sangeet, then the rest. Find each family member by scrolling. Compare similar photos side by side. Then count, trim, and send.

With us: bring the folder, wait while we sort it, tell us who is who and choose the size and the split. Then look through an album that already has the two of you, your family and every function in it, and change what you want. The looking is the same; the scrolling is not.

A mixed way that works

You can combine them. Start from the album we make, then add the photos your photographer told you are the ones they love, and send the family one link to heart the ones they love. Or choose a small album yourselves and let us make the parents' album from the same folder.

Whatever you choose, keep the photographer's folder safe, and agree a number and a date with your album maker before you start.

Questions to settle before you choose

• How many photos are in the folder, and how many does the album maker want?
• How many evenings do the two of you really have before the album maker's date?
• Has your photographer offered to choose, and what does it cost?
• Who in the family must have a say, and when will you ask them?
• Is there a second album to make, for the parents or for one side?

If the folder is small, the evenings are free and nobody else needs a say, do it yourselves. If the answers are thousands, few and everyone, start from an album that is already made.

What we will not claim

We will not say software understands your wedding better than you do. We will not say you should skip your photographer or your album maker. We will say the first pass through the folder should not take months of scrolling.

Questions people ask