Part of the fun of photographing weddings is using the pictures to create gorgeous albums for each couple. We're fortunate to carry several outstanding album lines to give our clients a range of choices on how to display their wedding photography.

New Zealand album maker Queensberry & Co. produces some of the finest albums available, and they offer the two most desirable album styles - Matted and Magazine - giving photographers lovely options for telling your wedding "story."

Queensberry revolutionized the matted-album concept with fully customizable mats, laser cut to the customer's order. Queensberry can cut whatever size, shape or arrangement of mat openings that we can imagine, which allows us to plan the page around the photos, and not vice versa. Click here for a Matted Style Queensberry album from a recent Kittery, Maine, wedding.

An equally-popular album is the Magazine Style digital album (the album posted is from a recent Southport Island /Boothbay Region, Maine, wedding). A Magazine Style digital album is designed much like a magazine page--we start with a blank page and few restrictions. Not having to worry about fitting photos into mats gives us incredible design flexibility.

Magazine style albums are available from many manufacturers, and page thickness varies from maker to maker. We like to compare Queensberry's solid construction to the thick pages used in a child's first picture book; when you turn the pages they are rigid. Below is a twenty-eight-page album; the pages alone are a full inch thick. Adding end papers and the genuine leather cover, the entire book is one and one-half inches thick. (Because the pages are so thick, we recommend that Queensberry Magazine style albums not exceed sixty pages.)

Another advantage of the Magazine Style album is that extra copies are more affordable than extra copies of Matted Style albums. So, parents can get copies (at the exact size or at a reduced size) of Magazine Style albums at very reasonable prices. Also, because the magazine-style album is designed digitally, you can get copies of the album on CD to circulate to out-of-state relatives or friends, which avoids wear and tear on your actual book.

With both albums, images captured in color can be converted to black and white, or sepia-toned.

If you choose to use your credit cor a Queensberry album, you receive a twenty page, 12-inch by 12-inch Queensberry feature album in your choice of Matted Style or Magazine Style. (Additional pages or larger albums are available for a charge.) "Feature" means that your album will be Queensberry's top-of-the-line library-bound album with a cover you have chosen from Queensberry's wide array of fine fabrics and rich leathers. Several wood and metal cover choices and even a photo cover (seen above) are available as upgrades.

Queensberry has many other products and album styles (with and without mats), which make lovely additional products for the couple, parents or gifts. As a retailer I can help you with any Queensberry product.

The most recent addition to our album line is the Flush Mount 8x8 album. It's a smaller product which is a good fit for intimate weddings, parent albums and for couples who want a more affordable alternative for their own album.

The Standard Flush Mount album has a black leather cover with a window that will accommodate a small photo. The Premium Flush Mount album also has the window, but it's cover is slightly padded and comes in your choice of black plus eight other colors.

The biggest difference between the Flush Mount album and the Queensberry Magazine line is that you design the Flush Mount album yourself by picking from a menu of templates. By doing the design work yourself you eliminate much of the labor on our end, reducing the overall album cost.

Click here to access a gallery showing the exterior of the Standard (black) album, the choices for page templates, photo borders, photo choices (color, black & white, or sepia), and swatches for Premium covers. Click here to see a studio sample where we've tried to use a wide variety of templates and border options to demonstrate the variety possible.(Scroll down to see all page spreads, or click on thumbnails to see pages one at a time at actual size.)

If you choose to order a Flush Mount album, we will send you an order sheet to help you plan your album. You will pick one template for each album page, then pick the pictures for each template space, the photo edges, and whether you want the photo in color, black and white or sepia. You turn in the design for the book, then we digitally manipulate photos and assemble the book for you

Standard 8x8 Flush Mount Albums are $600 apiece for 20-page albums, $800 apiece for 30-page albums, and $1000 for 40-page albums. Premium covers are a $50 upgrade per album. There is a $50 discount on each additional book ordered at the same time. (The books do not have to be duplicates of each other, they simply need to be ordered simultaneously.) There is a 33% discount for additional books ordered at the same time which are exact duplicates.

Flush Mount albums are also available in 10x10. A premium cover is included in the price of $1000 for a 30-page 10x10 album and $1275 for a 40-page 10x10 album. Click here to see templates choices for 10x10 albums.

Please allow us at least six weeks to produce your Flush Mount album, longer near the holidays.