HUGE/HEAVY Wedding Album Scrapbook

Hello All,

I've only made 1 scrapbook in the past and it was quite large (50 embellished pages/100 layouts), but I'm getting ready to make my wedding album and I've got LOADS of keepsakes, stickers, embellishments, wedding cards and pictures that I want to put in it.

I purchased a 12x15 book to give myself some extra space, but I was wondering if any of you have experience with creating a HEAVY scrapbook and can give me some advice (other than splitting my album into 2). I want to just have 1 Giant wedding album to share with my family and children forever.

Thanks for the tips
Jessica

I would definitely suggest using a 3-ring album instead of post-bound. I've just done my first 3-ring (for a 60-page album) after years of post-bound, and would definitely be open to using them again in the future.

All the wedding albums I've done that were post bound HAD to be split into two albums. They were over 100 layouts each.

So if you are not willing to split the project into 2 albums then you should deffinately keep the number of pages down and use a 3-ring album. Try not to do too many one-photo pages to help keep the number of pages in the album to a minimum. For instance put the brides's parents and the groom's parents on one page making a "parents of the bride and groom" page rather than a page for each. Same thing with grandparents, etc. You could do both bride's cake and groom's cake on a single page if you were so inclined. A single page for the flower girl and the ring bearer. Some of my space-saving ideas. Hope it helps and good luck!

I also recommend the 3-ring books...I switched awhile ago as I do a lot of 3D pages and they do hold a lot more!
Also, if you have a lot of ephemera....you can get pocket pages. I know you can get them through Becky Higgins but you could google them. I didn't find any on here like the ones I'm talking about. The ones below, you have to stick onto a LO. The ones I'm talking about are like a regular page protector but they have a top like an envelope and you can put all your stuff inside them.....they have 3 holes and insert into your book like a regular page protector.....IYKWIM

Alison

Another vote for a 3 ring album, especially the we r memory keepers albums, I can fit into one what I would normally fit in two postbounds.

Wow!! Thank you so much, I already purchased the 12x15 Pioneer Family Treasures Deluxe Album because of the size... I didn't think about doing a 3 ring, I just thought it sounded cheap.... I guess I should have asked before I bought my album. I was thinking of alternative ways to bind the album like finding some really long flat screws at Home Depot or Lowes, so the album isn't as wobbly... But I'm not sure if that will help. I will definitely not be wasting too many pages with just 1 photo, I was thinking maybe just a few really nice ones that I would have blown up. But I will have quite a bit of the thicker embellishments so I know the album will be very tall/thick…. I was thinking of not adding all the cards from my guests and making that a separate album instead, I guess I was just hoping to squeeze everything into one Beast of an album…. Wishful thinking I suppose…

Denise, were they 100+ double sided pages or just 100+ layouts, so 50+ pages?

Sorry just trying to get a good idea of the size....

I am in the same boat, but I have not made my album yet. I haven't tried swapping the posts for any large screws, but I don't see why that wouldn't work. It might be much better. All my really thick post bound albums ended up bending or breaking after a while. I was thinking of getting a large 12x12 3-ring binder but hadn't quite narrowed it down yet.

The only thing I would worry about with a large screw is the amount of gap from the screw and the bolt you use. But maybe you can drill through to the outside and then cover the screws/bolts with some ribbon or pretty flowers?

Yeah, I've been toying with the idea of using long screws for a while, it just makes more sense to me vs. screwing together a bunch of extender posts, I think it will be more sturdy and possibly give me more of an extension. My 1st ever scrapbook album is post bound and it's about 4-5 inches thick, I just keep it in a safe place and when I take it out to look at I treat it with care. I figure I will definitely be doing the same thing with the wedding album, especially because I plan on attaching a frame and some large items to the cover of it (very elaborate), so when I do take it out to show people they will have to be extremely careful with it.... I plan on storing it in a lovely box for safe keeping, to avoid getting any spills or dirt on it (that happened to my first album).

I love post bound albums because of the way they look with two page layouts (no gap). That said, they won't hold as many pages as a 3 ring.

I remember reading a thread awhile ago that mentioned someone replacing the posts with something very similar but much longer that they found at HD or Lowes. I'd think it would be sturdier than using a bunch of extenders.

I have converted a few of my books to snap loads and I have about 50 pages (100 layouts) in them. Not sure if that would work for an over-stuffed album though.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

Oh-for cards--what I've done is take very heavy chipboard and decorate it with paint/ink/paper/etc making a front and back cover. Then I punched 2 holes in them and in the cards as well. Lined them all up and put them together with binder rings. Then I tied ribbons on the rings.

I have little books like this for wedding/anniversary cards, christmas cards and one for birthday cards.

Might save you some space in your album.

I've found that all my post extenders have snapped over time. But I also get a lot of use out of them. I love to look through my albums and show them to friends. I am careful with them, but I really do find myself constantly opening them to look for a specific photo or show something to some friends or family members. Please do keep us updated on how the screws work for you as I might try that. I too love the look of post-bound but out of about 10 albums I have had to replace the post extenders on every single one of them (over the course of about 8 years) and have since divided many of them into 2-3 albums instead (something I do NOT want to do with my wedding album - I'm like you, I want it all in one spot including all my cards and stuff).

I would suggest a we R Memory keeper 3 ring binder they will take that kind of pages and the number your talking about. the we r pages will also hold major embellished pages!!!!

I just counted the LOs in the post bound album I am doing for my DDIL, there are 62 LOs and 31 page protectors. Most of them are flat. The album she bought cannot have extenders because the way the spin is covered - it won't expand any more than what I've put into it. She will have the rest of the LOs in a second album.

DDs album came with 100 page protectors. Its too big that way, way too heavy. It had to be divided also even with extra long posts I got at either HL or Ms.

Just do a Google search for extra long posts for scrapbooks. I think the ones I have are 1 3/8 inch long and are better than those itty bitty ones screwed together.
Hope that helps!

• Kim222 Said:

I replace all posts with these too and they work great. My dd's scrapbooks are over 5 inches thick. And they work.

After reading everyone's comments and then googling reviews for the snap load straps, I think this sounds like my solution... I'm going to buy them and use them to replace my large album at home to see how it holds up and how much space I would have for a larger album.... From the sounds of it (says it will hold 300 pages!!) this might be the answer to my prayers!!! LOL!!

I'm in the same boat with my wedding album. I've already got around 60 LO's and I'm MAYBE half done. But I've already decided I'm going to bite the bullet and divide it into 2 books (Pre-ceremony/ceremony, and Reception/formals). I'm also making a 3rd book for "Wedding Events" that includes my bridal shower, bachelorette party, and rehearsal/dinner.

My J's (which is rather small) just started offering the straps. I've been meaning to look into them.

You mention a 12x15 album. I've never seen scrapbook paper in that size - are you going to be able to find what you want in the way of paper? I do the Martha Stewart brand tried the huge albums in the beginning, but I haven't even seen those in quite some time, and they were really expensive as was the large sized paper. Most people use 12x12 or even 8x8.

dwelch - Actually, I'm just going to use 12x12 paper and add 3 inches on the end, the page protector comes with a plain white page (they were very expensive, but I found someone on eBay who gave me a great deal and still overall cheaper to make a scrapbook then to have my photographer do an album), so I can also use those plain white pages as well and add embellishments to them.

ItsPronounced_Abear - Yeah I am doing seperate albums for the bridal activites and our honeymoon (2 albums for that) but I'm cheating a little bit with those and just bought 500 slot albums that I will just embellish to make them nicer.... The wedding album is going to be so time consuming I can't imagine making like 5 scrapbooks this year!! So, I'm so stubborn about the primary wedding album being just 1 elaborate beast.... Who knows though once I get started I might cave and make it into 2... But I'm really trying not to.

I have found the post at specialty hardware stores. They come in .5, .75, 1, 1.5, all the way up to 3"
The are not expensive and they are more stable that post extenders.
What I have found is a few issues most of the spine covers will not allow you to expand your books that much as they give you little material to work with. What I have found as a solution to that is I purchase a close match or complimentary match of decorator vinyl, leather or heavy fabric and use that as the center piece that covers all you page protectors.
One thing to keep in mind though is regardless your book will still be a little wonky and not as solid as if you use 1 to 1.5" post. Anything more that that you are pushing it.
I do get lots of pages in a book and I feel that the intrigity is there but once I have exhausted my stash of leather post bound books I am going back to the 3D binders.
There are pros and cons to both for sure.

I converted one of my post bounds into a snapload after one of my other albums got so huge that the screw posts actually pulled thru the chipboard spine. So just a tip, the sticky back on the backs of the snaploads do not stay sticky for long and will start to pull up. Reinforce it with a good strong glue that will hold. I just used hot glue at the time and did not really know any better (it is still holding, though) but I'm sure that there is something better out there that you can use.

I know what you mean about the time it will take. I got married in July 2011 and started my wedding SB in February 2012. My goal is to finish all of it by my 2nd anniversary.

Still working on editing and sorting through the wedding pics. I'm traveling for work and my internet has been terribly slow so edits are taking forever (I used a web-based editor). I'm hoping to have them all done and printed by Saturday, and the goal is to have the album complete by end of year. We got married in January 2011. Sounds like we could do a wedding swap or something. Please post pics of your LOs- I would love to see them!

I haven't heard of snap load albums until this thread. Just looked up a video of them. I'm definitely interested... I might try these since my little bits of posts keep breaking apart.

Jarvae - Yeah we got married May 5th, I still haven't gotten the disc yet with all the pics, but it's supposed to be here in a few days. I already bought all my supplies and the album, but I'll be doing the same thing you are first with the edits. That's going to take a while, plus I already have about 1500 pictures to choose from from my guests. I'm only going to use the really good ones from them and hopefully narrow down the pics from the photographer to about 500-750 (from 1300+) .... Maybe less.... That's a lot of pictures to cram in a scrap book. It's like a full time job in itself and I work all day so I only have nights and weekends to edit and scrap. I will definately post some layouts and my album cover too. I hope you'll do the same. I plan to have my album done in about 3 months or so.... I'm really dedicated when I have a project on my table.

Yeah, I agree about the snap loads, it sounds like the only resolution that would work best, but I'm going to test it out first with my existing album.
Keep me posted on your progress.

So for everyone doing wedding albums, are you including all your stuff from the planning stages in your albums? I'm undecided on this. I have tons of things like the business cards of the dress stores I went to while I was searching, some freebies I got at the bridal shows like some very cute pictures of my hubby and I in photo booths and things like that.

My wedding album will probably already be pretty big by itself. I had really wanted to keep EVERYTHING in one album to kind of document the entire journey, but now I'm thinking I might keep all the pre-wedding stuff in another album, including the bachelorette party and bridal shower and all the planning and stuff.

What are you ladies doing or for those who have already done this, what worked for you?

I got married in a small ceremony in our home but I like the idea of an engagement scrapbook and then a wedding scrapbook.

All the pre-wedding would go in the engagement along with all the wedding plans. I love it!

My wedding album includes all the planning stuff and bridal shower in it, which together make up about a third of the book, and also the reception, which is only a couple of pages. It starts at the engagement and ends with our wedding cake.

The first page in my book is an engagement type photo of DH and I (not an actual one, we didn't have professional engagement photos done, maybe your photo booth pics would be good for this!) and a big long journalling spot explaining how we met, fell in love, why we love each other etc..
I looked at the book as a "story of us" and not just a wedding book....

I added the ephemera to the pages along the way (just the stuff I actually used, I wouldn't include business cards or anything from places I didn't use, IMO). For example, I have a page with photo of the musicians playing in the backyard (we also did a backyard/outdoor wedding) and I included the playlist with our notes of which songs we wanted etc...
On other pages I included handwritten speech cards, the invitation to the wedding, things like that....

I have a 2 page spread on the bridal shower and a 2 page spread on getting ready for the wedding and the rest is rehearsal, wedding, reception and honeymoon....all in one postbound album!
I actually did my album years after we were married as I didn't start scrapping until then. I think that helped to weed out some things. I had a different perspective and didn't think that absolutely everything was important. I was able to tell my story with far fewer pics than if I'd done it right away. I think then, I would have wanted to include everything.......

Alison

I'm doing a bridal shower/bachelorette party album and pasting all the cards in it along with the gift list and some cute stickers and embelishments on the pages, and then a "planning preparations" album just standard photo album style, I also did 2 honeymoon photo albums that I left a bland slot on each page to insert a 4x6 piece of cardstock with notes and tropical embelishments and then plan on doing a full Wedding scrapbook with all the wedding day memorabilia that will fit and not be too bulky. It was just way too much stuff and pictures to do in 1 scrapbook for everything and if I did a scrapbook individually for all 5 events, I'd never finish it all.

For the wedding scrapbook I'm going to start with our invitation on the first page, and then continue with the getting ready pics all the way til the very end of the reception with a picture of us waving goodbye.

I got married in 2012 , still working on editing and sorting through the wedding pics. I am looking for some websites to edit my wedding pics. My wedding album is pretty big and possesses lots of snapshots of reception and wedding party. I will start preparing my wedding scrapbook soon. I will start with the first page of my scrapbook with reception snaps, initially.

http://zuni.com/state/florida/marion/ocala/shopping/wedding

I will be working on my nephew's wedding album...I was able to reduce over 900 photos to 680. SO hard to decide , they are so beautiful!