Overwhelmed...

I am trying to pick pictures for our album because I want it done asap and wondering if anyone has pointers?!?!!!

I have to pick 80 out of 1500!!! I may be able to slip a few more in there but not too many...maybe 10 more. So should I try and limit myself...like

20 getting ready
20 portraits
20 ceremony
20 reception

Ok so do I even put any from the reception??? By the time I do our dance, cake cutting Father dance, mother dance...that's like 10 pics...ughhh.

Do I do pics of parents and BM walking down the aisle?

Do I do pics of our reveal??? Should I do the reveal pics in order (ie before the ceremony pics or after???)

Do I do pics of parents and BP being introduced???

Ok anything u can suggest...I will listen!!! Thx!

Jenna this was one of the hardest things I had to do..I even made R join in w/me on it b/c it was soo hard.
At the end of the day I ended up with 115.
I was supposed to have only 85. I had 1150 to chose from


Infact my photographer said I foucsed a lot on the details more than the wedding w/the kinds of pix I chose. I guess to me it was about all the hard work I put into it and didn't want to lose that in the album.

I am yet to see what it turns out like.. a couple more months in couting for it's arrival....

Bottom line I am NO help. sorry
I think it is all personal preference.
Not to sound shallow b/c I know it does - I was NOT into the traditional album w/family shots -It simply did not tell a story the way I imagined.
I have tons of those type pictures from others with a separate casual album.My point was I paid a proffessional to do proffessional work that others could not capture.

What I did do is not pick out pix for the album that I chose as 8 x 10. I had the families w/us made in those so that will not be in the album.

We were in a similar situation (had to choose 50 out of 1100). We eventually got it down to 61.

I would say, you don't need that many of the getting ready. We focused mostly on the ceremony, reception and our shots together with photos of our families and BP mixed in.

For the parent dances, we had 3 shots picked total. One of me and my dad, one of FH with FMIL, and one of all 4 of us dancing at the same time.

You just have to be ruthless about which you choose and which you don't. Go through, pick out your most favorite in each category:

getting ready
before
ceremony
formals
introduction
first dance
toasts
party
parent dances
cake
detail shots for filler (your bouquet, or rings, or invitation)
end shot (pick one shot that epitomizes your day...can be almost anything)

GL! The album was one of the most painful parts of the post-wedding process, especially when you are choosing from amazing photos!

I actually just got home a few minutes ago from picking up my proofs. I asked angelica what the album choices were, but also said that i most likely wont do it real soon and will probably pick the 80 pics in the fall or winter. I also figured it'd be best that way since right now she is real busy and has even been traveling alot to do weddings in other states and countries, and infact leaving tomorrow to do a wedding in greece. She was glad to hear this lol.

But i hear you, i have no idea how im even going to pick. I think im just going to pick my favorite ones, not necessarily stick to having 20 getting ready pics, 20 ceremony, 20 reception and so on. Ill have Dh pick his favorites, ill pick my favorites and hopefully that will be 80 pics. The online album she sent me you can save pics to your favorites and i picked almost 200 favorites but ill just eliminate alot of pics that are very similar to eachother.

Good luck

worst part of the wedding lol

do it in order of event.....

narrow down little by little

spread out across floor....look at them all and make sure you put the ones you MUST MUST have in your professional album...the others...you'll make an album for, keep that in mind.

I did first round myself
I had my sister help me narrow down my second round
My Mom helped with Final Round

then I never looked back....took me a year because I didn't want to do it, so you're ahead of the game!!

I haven't sent my pics in for the albums yet, but we've picked them out.

we get 100 pictures..

first thing i did was split all of the pictures into categories. make everything a category!

getting ready
family pictures - my side
family pictures - his side
our 'special moment'
bridesmaids
groomsman
walking down the aisle
ceremony
wedding details
reception (broken down into toasts, cake cutting, first dance, etc).

so i made all of these categories and picked my favorite pictures from each one and then spread them all out on the floor. next i narrowed down each category into NOs and MAYBEs. be really critical! if someone's eyes are closed, take it out. if there's a hair in your face, take it out... just do whatever you can to narrow them down.

also keep in mind that you won't want to have a set number of pictures from each category. you might only want 1-2 getting ready, while you might want 20 of the reception.

i also narrowed down our portraits by location.. so we had some in a grassy part of CBC, some on the lifeguard stand, some down by the beach, some on the deck.. etc. you can narrow them down further that way.

Hmm I honestly picked my favorites. Then narrowed it from there. We had 1000 pics or something and we had to choose 100. My photographer now has arranged them in accordance to the day. Don't stress too much over it, because keep in mind with technology these days you can make another album on your own. Like if you wanted to online for only the 'details' or the 'love shots'. KWIM.

I went through and literally made an excel spreadsheet and put all the pics I liked into it--I separated them by categories (i.e. getting ready, ceremony, etc.) but didn't really let that limit me, just to help me. Granted we're having more like 170 in our album so it was easier. But I did that, then tried to see how they would lay out in the album and eliminated some more based on that. Then I went through it with DH and asked him if there were any he absolutely wanted, or didn't want, and to help me choose which he liked out of his portraits and family portraits

FORGET IT! I am NOOO help....I pulled pics out, make the stack smaller twice and gave up Im never going to get mine done EVER!

I just wanted to say great post....sorry I am no help either because I am in the same boat as you (except we get 60)!!! We just got our proofs two weeks ago and we had a hard time deciding on the thank you card photos and that's 4 lol....I can't even think about the album yet!!!

I definitely feel your pain. I just did this, this past weekend. I had to pick 120 out of 2100 proofs!!! I thought I was going to lose my mind. I was able to narrow it down to 171 and then had to keep eliminating more. We ended up with 130. I didn't pick any of the bridal party walking in the church or reception since I had 13 couple. It was way too many. I did pick the MOH and BM walking in at the reception. I did alot of family shots, dance shots, my alone, DH alone and of course alot of us together. Church shots, first dance, our entrance, toast, cake. All the major moments were captured.

It really was so hard. DH kept eliminating. I told him if I did this myself our album would have 200 pictures in it.

DH and I are in the same boat...we just have no motivation to sit down and do them....let alone pic out a thank you!!!!

Question for you....do you get the rights to th epictures after you get your album? This information helped me...I was going crazy thinking about it and then I realized that I get the disk afterward, and nowadays its so easy to make albums online through different programs...So instead of pulling your hair out, make a good album, and then you can make a others later with the other pictures that you like....this helped me:

i just put all our proofs in 2 albums. i stuck ones that were doubles behind each other so the best one was on top. this way i could still have them as options, but they weren't in my face. someone suggested covering the ones you don't want with index cards to help narrow it down....that's how we picked our thank you note and it seems like the best plan for the album.

lots of luck!

its tough but youll do it!! i wouldnt put a number limit on each category bc you may not have 20 you love of getting ready while you may have more than that you love of another category, for example.

yes to the reveal pics, thats such a special moment. probably no to ppl walking down the aisle or being intro'd into the reception, unless you go through and pick all the ones you love and have extra left over...then you can always include those too.

id def include some reception highlights- first dance, mother/son, father/daughter, cake cutting, BP dancing, etc.

its kind of up to you in terms of what was the most impt to you. Maybe prioritize it into yes and maybes. See how many yes you end up with and then maybe youll have room for maybes.

im a big fan of order and telling the story in a linear way so id prob put them before the ceremony. but you can do either way.

i don't envy you. i loathed choosing like 100-110 of ours for our album!!!! GL!