wedding photo book ideas

It was a day you never wanted to end, but your magical wedding has been and gone in a flash. Ah well, just make your own wedding photo book to relive your special day over and over!

From the teary-eyed “I do’s” to the dodgy dance floor moves, all of the most magical moments from your special day have (hopefully) been caught on camera. You’ve probably got mountains of photos to sort through, and now you’re wondering how to create a wedding album that really captures the magic of your big day. No pressure, then. 

Don’t panic if you’re stuck for inspiration, though -  try these creative wedding photo book ideas to craft a beautiful page-turner you won’t ever want to put down. Yep, we’ve covered everything from designing the front cover to choosing the perfect page layouts. 

What is a wedding photo book?

wedding photo bookwedding photo book

A wedding photo book is the perfect way to preserve the best photos from your magical day. While standard photo albums involve sticking or sliding physical prints inside, photo books let you print your digital photos directly onto each page and offer much more creative freedom. 

Instead of sticking to a pre-made template (just like everyone else), photo books allow you to customise everything from the page layouts to the background colours. You can choose whether you want a hardcover or softcover photo book, play around with text and fonts, and even add little illustrations and embellishments to every page. 

In short, you can create wedding photo books that are just as unique, magical and beautiful as your big day!

Wedding photo book ideas for every couple

Now it’s time… photos at the ready, let's do this! Here are 10 different photo book ideas that’ll suit every couple:

1. Introduce your theme with a killer front cover

wedding photo book front coverwedding photo book front cover

Hold on to your bouquet. Before you do anything, you’ll need to decide if your wedding photo book will have a particular theme and feel. While your wedding is obviously the main focus, you might want to fill your book with all the most romantic shots, the funniest moments and selfies, or the best photos you took with friends and family. The choice is yours. 

Your photo book can feel as modern, traditional or creative as you like - and it all starts at the front cover. Whether it’s a softcover or hardcover, this isn’t just a great place to show off your fave photo, but your choice of colour, background and other design elements will always set the tone for the pages inside!

2. Tell your entire love story, from then until now

wedding photo book love storywedding photo book love story

Okay, so your wedding photo album will mainly focus on the big day, but starting your book with early relationship snaps is always a load of fun. 

It could be a nervy first date, a scorching first holiday or the first day you brought an adorable pet home - you’ve had loads of firsts together, so share your favourites and show how your love story led to your wedding day! 

And whilst you’re at it, don’t forget the engagement shots… you wouldn’t be getting married without that moment! 

3. Set the scene with some pre-wedding shots

wedding photo book showing bride getting readywedding photo book showing bride getting ready

Okay, now we’re actually onto the wedding day, but before we talk about the big shots, what about the moments before the aisle? Ooh. 

You were filled with butterflies before the ceremony, so use the first few pages of your photo book to rebuild that fluttery anticipation. Instead of diving straight into the ceremony, try printing photos of the venue, weather, arriving guests, or the happy couple setting off separately in the morning. 

After all, every great story has a bit of build-up. This is a great way of setting the scene and capturing all the little details you spent ages stressing about, from the gorgeous flowers to the colossal cake. Mmm, definitely include the cake. 

4. Capture all the little meaningful moments

wedding photo book momentswedding photo book moments

You might have spent hours posing in front of a professional photographer, but you should also include some more natural, authentic and unexpected moments when creating a wedding photo book. 

Besides, literally everyone took zillions of photos throughout the day, so all the biggest hugs, loudest laughs and happiest sniffles have likely been caught on camera somewhere. The meaningful moments from your wedding are the ones you’ll want to cling to the most, so these candid moments are an essential addition to every great wedding photo book. 

They may not be as polished as your professional wedding photos, but they perfectly capture teary-eyed parents, an uncle’s dodgy dance moves, and all the other small moments that made your wedding so special. 

5. Include all the most memorable wedding quotes

wedding photo book filled with quoteswedding photo book filled with quotes

A picture might say a thousand words, but that doesn’t mean they tell the whole story. From the meaningful vows to the hilarious speeches, your wedding was jam-packed with all kinds of amazing quotes - so add these little snippets of text next to corresponding photos inside your album!

Whether it's a well-timed joke, a scribbled message in your guest book, or the lyrics from your first dance together, wedding quotes will add some real meaning to your photos as you flick through them in years to come. When a quote doesn’t come to mind, you can always come up with your own creative captions when making your wedding photo book!

6. Relive your “first look” & portraits together

Your wedding day passes in such a blur, so it’s important to savour those special moments when it’s just the two of you.

Even if you sneakily saw each other before the ceremony for a "first look", there’s just nothing more magical than when a happy couple meets at the altar. This was the biggest moment of the day, so should feature prominently somewhere in your wedding photo book - if you’ve got a good landscape shot, we’d even recommend spreading this across two pages. 

Your first portraits together as a married couple are also a must-have. It was your special day, after all, so either fill a few pages with your favourite lovey-dovey photos or scatter them throughout the rest of your book. Oh, and these photos are also absolutely perfect for your front cover. 

7. Turn a wide group shot into your centrepiece

wedding photo book group photowedding photo book group photo

Now, we know it’s your special day, but would it have truly been as amazing without all your loved ones there to witness?

Throughout your wedding day, you’ve taken loads of amazing wedding photos with friends and family, and some of these involved squeezing in as many people as possible. Whether it’s a snap of all the bridesmaids or both families together, these wider group shots could be the perfect centrepiece for your wedding photo album. 

Once you’ve chosen your favourite wide photo (this is definitely the hardest part!), add this to the halfway point in your photo book and spread it out over 2 pages. This way you won’t have to shrink it down and can clearly see everyone’s beautiful faces!

8. Get creative with your book’s running order

Yes, most wedding photo books will tell your wedding story from start to finish. You’re probably thinking of doing the same thing: with all the vows, bouquet throwing and dancefloor antics appearing in chronological order. But no one said you had to do that.

This is a perfectly good straightforward idea (which is why you thought of it), but you might want to try mixing up the chronology to make something a bit different. Your wedding album tells the story you want it to, and that isn’t always going to be the same as your running order from the day.

For example, you might want to group photos by family, photography style, colour or even just order them at random so people don’t know what to expect next!

9. Mix up page layouts to keep things fresh

wedding photo book layoutswedding photo book layouts

Just like mixing up the order of photographs, there are no rules to how you layout your wedding photo book either!

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with keeping every page uniform. If you want to keep things simple and use the same layout on every page, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that (this is your book, remember, so do things your way). 

However, we also love wedding photo books that experiment with different page layouts, image sizes and angles. This makes every page feel fresh and different, while also drawing the eye to certain photos and offering you much more creative freedom. 

There really is no right or wrong answer here, but switching up page layouts and image placements makes sure your book never feels boring to flick through!

10. Brighten pages with cute illustrations and embellishments

Clean and simple wedding photo books always look suitably elegant, but you shouldn’t be afraid of adding a bit of character to yours. Even if you’re crafting a modern, classy photo book, you can brighten your pages with the right use of illustrations, filters, backgrounds and other fun embellishments. 

For example, you could scatter adorable love hearts across one page, shower another with confetti or add illustrations of flowers that really brighten your photos. There’s no need to overdo things here, but using these illustrations in the right places can really bring some personality to your wedding photos and make this album your own. 

How to make your own wedding photo book

how to make a wedding photo bookhow to make a wedding photo book

Want to know how to make a photo book online? Well, making your wedding photo book is really easy. For starters, you can choose books with a pre-made wedding theme, with layouts, backgrounds, illustrations and everything else already set up for you. You can then simply drop your photos straight in or move things around until you’re completely happy with it!

Alternatively, you can choose a blank photo book and start your masterpiece from scratch. These pages will all be completely empty, so you can use your creativity and imagination to make a wedding photo book unlike anyone else’s. The page is yours. 

Either way, you’ll need to sign in to your Max Spielmann account before creating a wedding photo book - since this makes sure you can always save your creation and come back to it later! Whether you choose a small, medium or large photo book, 20 pages will always be included as standard, but you’ll have the option to add extra pages and upgrade to a premium gloss finish.