Wedding Photo albums

I'm looking for a photographer and I see that a lot of them include an album and other pics in their pricing.

Are the albums they generally offer enough? I saw one place said it was a 36 picture album. When they take over 1,000 pics, how could I narrow it down to 36? And is it very expensive to go beyond what they offer? Is is cheaper to go with someone where the album isn't built into the price and you can make your album after the wedding?

What else do I need to watch out for?

I havent booked a photographer yet, but I am choosing not to get the albums from the photographer. I am going to book someone that just gives proofs an negatives and do it all myself. When you break down packages, photographers are charging hundreds of dollars for these albums and to me its not really worth it.

I went with 12th night. They will do an album for you if you want, but I chose not to have one. I got all of my 1500 or so proofs on CD. I then used Shutterfly for free to create my own photo album which was SO easy! Then I ordered it. It was like $30 for 55 pages and I got it in 3 days!!! Good Luck, but thats an idea :)

Heres a link to the photo album I made.
Wedding Album

I dont know why its showing up blurry now, but you get the idea :)

Thanks for the info.
Your pics are really beautiful!

It was kind of hard to choose but you kind of try to tell the story of the day using the best pictures.

We had fun with it.