For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

springsandra Posted: Dec 01, 2009 10:22 AM

For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

I created mine the other day on ritzpix.com and it came out FABULOUS!!!! I mean, more incredible than I ever imagined!

I put a sample of them in my album to share and plan to make another for my dad and another for my ILs for Christmas.

Here is the link to the album:
http://www.liweddings.com/community/album/?ID=29319&SID=0&P=364286

kris_gets_hitched Posted: Dec 01, 2009 10:30 AM

Re: For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

Thanks!!! Will definitely be notebooking this thread Have you received it in the mail yet? If so, how's the quality of the paper and cover?

springsandra Posted: Dec 01, 2009 10:38 AM

Re: For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

Posted by kris_gets_hitched

Thanks!!! Will definitely be notebooking this thread Have you received it in the mail yet? If so, how's the quality of the paper and cover?

I actually had them print to a wolf camera down the block so I could pick it up and it was ready -- get this -- in an hour!!!!!!!!

I got the white linen cover and it's nice. The paper itself for this album is more like magazine paper than it is thick cardstock, but the people at the photo store were telling me that they have albums you can order (ie: ready in 10 days, not 1 hour) that are up to 16 pages front and back that are the thick heavy cardstock paper you usually see on wedding albums. They had samples in the store and it's almost as good quality as our professional album! I believe the 8.5x11 albums with the cardstock paper are $64 (the albums I made were $50) but also include a really gorgeous wrap-around color photo cover.

This company (which is wolf camera also) prints matte photos that are better than anything I've ever received elsewhere. It's amazing what a difference matte vs. glossy makes.

MikesBride2B Posted: Dec 01, 2009 10:38 AM

Re: For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

Thank yoooooooou...it looks awesome!!!

StellaStar13 Posted: Dec 01, 2009 10:41 AM

Re: For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

This is fantastic THANKS!!! I really wanted to get my grandmother an album but was afraid that it would be too much $$$$. Thanks for the info

S2BHeNNeSSeY226 Posted: Dec 01, 2009 10:43 AM

Re: For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

that's awesome..it looks amazingg..thanks for the info!!

Diana12 Posted: Dec 01, 2009 10:45 AM

Re: For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

Thanks! It looks great!

Jtruran Posted: Dec 01, 2009 10:46 AM

Re: For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

That's awesome, can you do this online or was this is person? What are the prices for something like this?

kris_gets_hitched Posted: Dec 01, 2009 10:49 AM

Re: For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

Thanks so much for all of the detailed info, Sandra!!! Very much appreciated.

springsandra Posted: Dec 01, 2009 10:54 AM

Re: For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

Posted by Jtruran

That's awesome, can you do this online or was this is person? What are the prices for something like this?

I went to wolfcamera.com and then it sent me to ritzpix.com (wolf camera stores are pretty common -- I know they're in CT and they're down here in NC where I moved after the wedding). I uploaded all the photos to ritzpix.com at a pretty high resolution so it took overnight to upload them all. Then I created the entire album online myself. It's like a scrap book the way it works, so you can move things around, change the backgrounds, the boarders, etc. There's even little 'bling' you can put on the pages (although I mostly just took it off). You can use their standard backgrounds, or you can do this neat trick where you place one of your photos on the page and then click on it and choose 'set as background' -- then you can lighten it through the program so it has that faded sort of look! That really is the reason I used this website to make the album, because I had my heart set on using our photos as backgrounds for the pages.

When I was done and completely satisfied, I had the option of either having them mail the album to me or picking it up in a local store. Since I live 3 blocks from a Wolf camera, I went with the latter option. I believe if you want to do the card stock pages, you need to have it shipped to you instead. These pages feel like magazine paper (which is totally good enough for my parents and my grandfather, but might not be enough for archival purposes if you were making your own album, for instance).

At the store itself, they were able to show me the other albums so if I want to order a different quality one in the future, I know what they're like. But for my mom's album, this is perfect, and I'm so pleased.

I'm so happy to share with everyone! This was a major part of how we saved $ on our photo package by not ordering parents' albums, but it's nerve-wracking since you never know if you'll actually get them made. Now that I've done one, I just want to keep making more!

ETA: The albums I made, which had a linen cover and the magazine paper, were 17 pages (ie: 34 front & back) and they cost $50 each (I made 2). The hard-cover album which has a limit of 16 pages but has card stock like paper, they told me are $64 each.

Tessie728 Posted: Dec 01, 2009 11:09 AM

Re: For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

thank you sooo much for posting this!!!

I didnt get parent albums in my package because I figured no one would want them...then after speaking to my mom and fmil they both were upset I wasnt going to get them!!
SO i call photog and they say the albums START at 200 each.,.. I was like ugh no thanks!!!
This is a great option and makes me feel a lot better!!

BriansWifey Posted: Dec 01, 2009 01:16 PM

Re: For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

soooooooo cute!!!!

queensbride2010 Posted: Dec 01, 2009 01:56 PM

Re: For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

Thanks for the info! Those are great prices for the albums and the one you created is really cute!

las1 Posted: Dec 01, 2009 03:12 PM

Re: For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

thanks for the info. the albums came out so nice

miamimerger Posted: Dec 01, 2009 03:18 PM

Re: For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

That's beautiful! I am definitely making parents albums, so I have two questions:

1. How was the cost?? Reasonable? FM me if you don't want to say on the board how much you spent :).

2. Does it have different border options? I can see my mom being picky over something like that.

pipermaru Posted: Dec 01, 2009 03:44 PM

Re: For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

wow this is amazing, we are already committed to our parent albums as part of our package but i would def do this for grandparents!

es2189 Posted: Dec 01, 2009 03:46 PM

Re: For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

wow it looks great!!! thanks!!

springsandra Posted: Dec 01, 2009 06:44 PM

Re: For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

Posted by miamimerger

That's beautiful! I am definitely making parents albums, so I have two questions:

1. How was the cost?? Reasonable? FM me if you don't want to say on the board how much you spent :).

2. Does it have different border options? I can see my mom being picky over something like that.

The two albums I bought were $50 each. They included a linen cover with a cutout so the first page photo shows through and magazine-quality paper. I believe they start at $40 but I got a few extra pages in mine.

If you want to get the cardstock quality paper, it's $60 and there's a limit of 16 pages, but the cover is wrap-around photo spread and really beautiful. I might do that for my dad's album.

There are about 20 different boarder options. I used a few different ones, but there are also ones that look like polaroids, and others that look very basic and modern if you don't like that scrap book look. You can also make no boarder around each picture.

It's extremely customizable, it just takes a little while to make. I really love how it turned out though.

If anyone else has any questions, let me know! I'm happy to help how I can!

Melvin1297 Posted: Dec 01, 2009 06:59 PM

Re: For anyone considering creating their own parents' albums... (vendor rave: ritzpix.com)

Thanks so much Sandra!!!!! This helps a lot of us out there. I am planning on making my 2 aunts and my parents albums b/c the ones from the photographer were so expensive. FMIL INSISTED on having her own album so we are only getting one in our package. She is going to be so mad when she see how nice these come out and you can choose the number of pictures and sizes you want to have in it and she is stuck with 24 pics in 8x6 size... Oh well.. she can make her own then!!! Thanks again!