Do We Still Need Wedding Albums?

With a divorce rate that hovers around 50 percent, an increasing trend of “living together,” and digital photos on all kinds of devices, I sometimes wonder if we still need the wedding album, where printed photos are affixed to creamy white pages of thick card stock.

But electronic devices become quickly outdated, digital photos easily lost—and besides there are sentimental reasons for having real photos.

I made this wedding album for a couple who had been married 30 years and didn’t like their previous cheesy album. They didn’t want a typical wedding album, which I took to mean one decorated with hearts, roses, chirping birds, and pink ribbons flowing hither and yon. Fortunately for them, I don’t like the typical wedding photo album either.

The wife is an artist herself and chose the paper, a handmade marbled design. We decided that gray suede would look best on the spine, complimenting the greens and blues in the marble paper. Most the binding I do, is an exposed binding…this means you can see how the book is bound, unlike your typical book where the binding is hidden.

I also made an accordion portfolio for 4 by 6 inch photos. Often, people want to keep extra photos handy.

They were very pleased with the final album as was I. And I think when guests come visit and see this album on the coffee table they’ll want to thumb through it and look at the photos.

And can you really imagine a house guest or the couple thumbing through a cold hard, digital device Because, let’s face it, a photo album invites you to turn the pages and stare at the photos and wonder about the story behind the pictures.

Here is the wedding photo of my paternal grandparents who married sometime in the second decade of the 20^th century, and my parents, who married in the 1940’s. My grandparents were married over 50 years and upon my grandmother’s death my grandfather remarried. My parents divorced after some 20 years of marriage and each remarried again.

 “all marriages are crap shoots.”

A male friend (who is in a 30 plus year rewarding marriage) once said, that “all marriages are crap shoots.” He’s right.

Yet, yet, I want a paper photo of family members who decided to play the odds in the relationship craps game, and got married.

Although the marriage may not last, the paper photo most likely will.