- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee Blog
The benefit of getting married? Among other things, you don’t have to hem and haw over what to get your parents the following holiday season. It’s obvious: A photo album. There are so many websites to go through (like Blurb and Snapfish and Shutterfly), but if you have a Mac, you can also order a book directly through iPhoto.
That’s what we decided to do. I checked out Blurb (because so many bees had given it rave reviews), but I was actually scared away by the design process. Instead, I opted for iPhoto’s super simple drop-and-drag process. You can customize every page to hold up to four photos and even set it to have just one image bleed off the page. Want to see my favorite layouts?
To be honest, I was pretty disappointed with my first round of orders from iPhoto. The prices were good (about $50 for 32 pages), but when I received the books, there were problems. And the time crunch to send these off before Christmas didn’t tame my stress level.
Within a few of the photos, there were random lines. See below:
I emailed iPhoto Books (there’s no phone number!) and, 24 hours later (the clock was ticking towards Christmas), I got a response. What I found out was that I needed to go to “File” –> “Print” –> “Preview.” If I did that process, there would be no lines on my book.
Really? They couldn’t tell me this the first time around? I was pretty unhappy, but Apple agreed to refund the shipping from the original order (as I’d had it rushed to get it sent out in time for Christmas), then they remade the books and shipped them overnight for free. I’d say that’s pretty good customer service. But not great, because they could’ve just told me to preview my book the first time.
In the end, the books came out so beautifully and our parents were completely in awe.
We haven’t ordered an album for us yet. And I don’t think I’ll go through iPhoto—I kind of want to invest in a really nice album—but for gifts, these are fantastic. Just remember to “preview” your book before you hit the “order” button.
Where did you get your album? Any good deals out there on professional-quality albums?
I love IPhoto’s photo options….we used this for our Save-the-Dates, and just ordered an album for our guest book as well.
Thanks for the tip about the lines though….I had no idea that you should preview your album before submitting it?! Here’s hoping ours comes through without any lines!
We got our albums through adoramapix.com and were TRHILLED with the product. SUPER thick pages that really do lay flat and a pretty simple design process that let us pick and choose the layout, backgrounds, size, etc that we wanted. Compared to any other site I found and checked out the quality and price were really amazing.
That’s so weird that you have to preview to avoid the lines! It makes no sense at all! How was the paper quality? I’ve ordered books from iphoto before and I found it to be quite thin, I was a little disappointed. Maybe it was just the type of book I ordered (spiral bound)?
Wow, that sounds like such a weird glitch in iPhoto! Glad to hear their customer service somewhat makes up for it!
Wow, you guys are such a stunning couple!
We haven’t ordered a wedding album yet (only getting married next month) but we did order a photo guest book from mixbook.com. Out of 10, I would give the quality a 6. The pictures themselves look great but there are a lot of little problems with the book itself such as this plastic layer peeling from the cover, a dent in the spine, and the string used to bind it shows through on all the pages! Hmm… after writting all that, I think I give them a 4!
We still need to order our album too. I spent a ton of time making parent albums on shutterfly and I got so tired of it that I didn’t want to make an album for us. I think we will just buy one through our photog, but I still need to let him know which photos I want. Our wedding was last October too. Hopefully we will have an album by our first anniversary?
Good to know! I have a feeling this will be a wedding present to our parents after we get married this fall. It is great to hear what other people’s experiences are. Hopefully we will be able to get out pictures back in a timely fashion so we can do this. I have heard horror stories of friends getting photos back like 6 months after the wedding.
That is odd though that you have to preview your album before ordering.
I’ve ordered little photobooks through photoworks before. We didn’t order the high end books, but the little paper ones made a great present for my parents. Perhaps I’ll do the little books for my bridesmaids post-wedding. Great idea.
This looks great! I love full page spreads, which you can’t do in Shutterfly - otherwise I’d vote for them quality-wise. I used Mixbook for our engagement pics and I thought it came out pretty nice although there was a small scratch on the cover. The editing features are awesome though.
We used MyPublisher.com. I was pleased with them but really wanted to post here because I had a similar problem. I previewed the entire book and everything looked great. When I got it in, there were weird line breaks in text boxes–like in the middle of a word. The tip there is to NOT copy/paste text. They ended up reprinting/shipping a replacement for free. Overall, I’m pretty happy with them.
We got ours through kodakgallery.com, since our photos are hosted there anyway. They do a lovely cloth cover that I think feels great.
I will never, ever, EVER get sick of looking at photos from your wedding!! Glad the book worked out in the end–it seems strange that they would know that little issue but haven’t fixed it!
This post lists a great review for various amateur photobook making. I think blurb is pretty good for casual gifts but will probably go for adoramapix for a higher-end product.
That is really random that you have to preview your pictures to prevent the lines. Thank goodness for good customer service.
I agree with Miss Socks, I could look at your pictures all day everyday.
That is so weird about the lines. I just made an iphoto book last week as a wedding present for my mom. I could see using it again for wedding albums for our parents…but I also think I would like a nicer one for us.
I had no idea that iPhoto could make photo books! That’s so cool! Thanks for sharing!
I’ve used iPhoto twice to make photo books and haven’t had the first problem!! I designed one for my mom’s 50th birthday filled with pictures from her childhood. And I designed one using our engagement pictures to serve as our guest book at the wedding. Completely happy with BOTH orders and will design and order more books for Christmas gifts this year.
Your book turned out lovely! (Your husband looks like such an Ian.) My husband’s friend is a semi-pro photag, and he gifted us an ibook crafted from his photos from the day. It was amazing –almost as nice as our what “real” album!
@Miss Jellyfish: Hola Jellyfish. I thought the paper quality was pretty nice and thick. I certainly wasn’t concerned that it was too thin. And the colors of the images came out perfectly. One of my favorite things was the piece of thick, textured paper that starts and ends the book. It gives it more of a formal, modern feeling.
your wedding has unexpectedly become an inspiration for mine. i just love it!
and that seems weird fixing the line problem would be that easy. its a shame they didn’t have that on their screen before you completed the purchase. i used mypublisher with fantastic results. they also have an easy drag + drop function that made it super simple to create. plus, their packaging is so much fun. if that’s your thing. 
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Mrs. Cowboy Boot, Santa Fe Age and Occupation: 25, Magazine Editor Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Artist and Whitewater Rafting Guide Engagement Date: April 28th, 2008 Wedding Date: October 2009 Venue: Devil's Thumb Ranch, Colorado About Me: I grew up in Los Angeles and have since lived in San Diego, Boston, Italy, Hawaii, New York City, and Santa Fe. I speak Italian and love pasta. My real passion is the outdoors, though. When I'm not at work, I'm snowboarding, hiking with my two dogs, mountain biking, surfing, cross-country-skiing, or boating New Mexico's rivers. Despite my boyish love for adventure, I'm a girly-girl at heart and am overly-excited to pull off the romantic, vintage-inspired, country wedding of my dreams.
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | 30 | 31 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
Latest Gallery Pics