Photos for the Photo Book

So right before we left for New Zealand, I finally received our wedding photos from our photographer. They look really great, but I think I was a little disappointed with the limited scope of the wedding. I would have loved more variety in the photos, shots of the venue, little details of the wedding, preparation, etc. It's not worth thinking about what's not there because in the end, I still have my memories and my souvenirs. Plus, Philip Pasag did do a good job with Paul and me and our wedding party; so we have that to keep in the photo book. So there's about 600 photos from the wedding, and Paul and I have to whittle them down to about 110-120. It was a really hard thing to do, and sacrifices had to be made. This is our method of cutting the photo count down:

1) Find the absolute, can't live without photographs and put them aside first. Be honest, if it doesn't take your breath away or evoke some sort of emotional response, it's not that important.

2) Go through each of the events, and get a broad scope of the pictures that tell the story. This should be as many as you want. At this point, there's no reason to start counting.

3) Go through posed photos and weed out all the ones that are too similar. Just pick the best facial expressions, no technical flaws like palm trees coming out of people heads, great lighting, etc.

4) Balance out the photos...if you have too much of one thing like 50 photos of Donna and only 5 of Paul...then, it's best to take some out of Donna's pile to at least get close to evening things out.

5) Find the important moments...do you really need every guest that walks in through the reception door. We figured that we liked the photos of the bridal party walking out than walking in at the ceremony; so we didn't have them twice.

6) Have some generic and artsy photos. They would be great backgrounds and give variety to the many "face" photos that will be in the collection.

7) Don't forget the parents. We were going to have parent books made; so it was important to include a few of the parent moments.

8) What to do when you still have 200 photos: Pick a number...if there's 40 photos for the reception, then choose a number like only 20 best go into the photo book. Same for the ceremony, and random photos.

9) What to do when you still have 10 more photos to go: Wow you're getting really close. I would really go through every photo with a fine tooth comb. If there's any flaw or something you didn't like about the photo, maybe it's time to put it aside. Again, look for repeats and unimportant people and moments. Each photo needs to tell a story and evoke a memory or emotional response, otherwise why would you need it?

10) One more thing, work with your other half. They might have strong feelings against having that photo in the photo book that you might not be aware about or a special one they'd like to have in, and it's nice to have another opinion. Listen! You don't always have to agree, but at least listen to each other.

So if all else fails and you end up with 130. I'd say give it to your photographer. Maybe he/she will have opinions or will be able to squeeze a little extra in. Plus, as a last resort, you could always buy another page.

Thanks for listening to my step-by-step photo sorting advice. Please feel free to add more.