A Bottle of Pop

I’m Like a Bottle of Fizzy Pop!

I am excited about marrying my h2b. So excited, more excited than I can express! When I think about it my heart starts pounding, my face breaks out into a huge smile and I get a little light headed!

H2b is an amazing, wonderful man! He makes me happier than I have the words to describe! He is so talented, patient, kind, loving; he’s the absolute best! Which is lucky, because I’m marrying him.

I’m so proud of h2b, I love introducing him as my fiancé.

There are so many different elements of the wedding that I’m super excited about.

Being Married to H2b

Obviously, the whole point of this song and dance is to be married to my h2b. I’m excited about being his wife, I’m excited that he’ll be my husband. It’s like a commitment, something to solidify our relationship.

Some people think there’s little point in getting married when you already live together but I think it’s nice. I feel as if it’s more permanent.

A Day of Dresses

How I Got Really Stressed and Over-whelmed!

Wedding dress shopping is supposed to be fun, it’s supposed to be something you do with your friends or your mother, bonding and having fun. I got really stressed and over-whelmed.

I am a very decisive person. Usually decisions don’t take me very long. I’m an impulse buyer. 

However, when choosing a wedding dress I went all to pieces.

I was a bit shy when I walked into the bridal shop. I’m not used to rooting through racks of dresses and to be honest, it’s difficult to know what to look for. I knew what I liked in the pictures but I wasn’t  sure what would suit me. What I really wanted was for the lady in the shop to choose all the dresses for me, but we had to start somewhere.

I think going to the bridal shop with a good idea with what you want is a good start, but I wanted to be open to something that might not be my taste but does make me look amazing.

This is why I was open to trying on a fish tail dress. It was a beautiful dress but it was not me. I’m a curvier bride with quite a young face. While I do think curvy girls can wear anything we like, I don’t feel the fish tail dress made me look as stunning as I want to on my wedding day.

So fish tails were out!

Once the lady in the shop understood my style, she began suggesting different styles for me. That was when I started to relax.

Chatting with the lady in the shop also helped. It was good that I have an interest in weddings as I was able to talk about Four Weddings, Bridezillas, Don’t Tell the Bride, Wedding House, Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, The Wedding Diaries and Wedding Babylon. She was also able to impart some of her experience of other brides.

However, I left the first shop very unsure and feeling as if I hadn’t found The Dress yet. 

Mum, chief bridesmaid and I then went to lunch and very carefully didn’t talk about anything to do with The Wedding.

It was then to the next bridal shop. This was one that chief bridesmaid had been to before when she began her search for The Dress, so this brought back fond memories for my chief bridesmaid. She and mum made themselves comfortable on the gorgeous leather sofas while I got down to my undies.

They had a huge selection and mum and chief bridesmaid seemed to busy themselves with looking for  more and more dresses for me to try on.

But nothing clicked with me, nothing said, ‘This could be The Dress.’ I started to get quite disheartened. I thought the dresses I tried on were beautiful but they just weren’t me!

It was as if I liked bits and pieces from each dress but I couldn’t find a dress that had everything I wanted. I even tried on a huge dress that wouldn’t have looked out of place on Big Fat Gypsy Weddings.

Normally very decisive, I was unable to make a decision! Unheard of!

The whole experience was really over whelming. I was excited but nervous but unsure about the dresses, I was thinking about what h2b would like to see me in and this image in my head I’d had about my perfect dress was starting to drift away.

Until, chief bridesmaid picked out two last dresses. The lovely lady in the shop could see I was getting a bit distressed and she said that these should really be the last ones. I was grateful.

The last but one dress I tried on after a long day of wedding dress shopping felt like The Dress. It had the shape, the sparkle, the quirk, the something that made it speak to me. I immediately went from tired and stressed to giddy and excited as if a switch had been flicked!

I didn’t want to take it off! I was walking around in it, trying sitting down in it, hopping around the bridal  shop like a kid on Christmas morning. I was smiling! Mum and chief bridesmaid were smiling!

However, we are going to keep looking just to check that we’ve made our final decision. Apparently, I’ve  been told that it does take more than one day of wedding dress shopping to find the perfect dress. How the men on Don’t Tell the Bride manage it is beyond me!

What I achieved during my day of wedding dress shopping are:

• I prefer a fuller skirt so the hoop is in
• An a-line silhouette suits me better rather than a ball gown silhouette 
• I can wear a sweetheart line without showing too much boob
• Fish tail and fitted dresses are not for me
• I need a dress with a bit more sparkle or detail or with something unusual to it

Successful day I think!

One Year to Go!

This Time Next Year….

This time next year we will be tucking into our four course wedding breakfast, worrying about what the h2b, my dad and the best man are going to say during their speeches and thinking about the first dance.

It is now less than a year to go!

It is strange thinking that in one year from now I will be a married woman. It will almost be over by the time I’m writing this. We’ll have some amazing memories, and hopefully our guests will have had a really fantastic time!

This time next year, our engagement photo shoot will have been done, will will have bought all our gifts for our parents and attendants, the wedding favours will have been done and the invites will have all been replied to. One of my friends will have had her baby, the hen do and stag do will be happy memories.

It’s amazing to think all the things that are going to happen in this year.

Still left to do is:

• finding me a dress (but I have made appointments for that so I might find my dress soon!)
• sending out full day invitations
• sending out evening invitations
• get bridesmaid dresses, fittings and try ons
• buying gifts for parents and attendants
• making the
  • wedding favours
  • seating plan
  • menus
  • table names
  • place labels
• ordering the chair covers (probably from Balloon Expressions)
• engagement photo shoot and letting our photographer know what shots we really really want of The Day
• sending photos of everything to the cake topper making lady so that she can make our cake topper
• gathering all the groomsmen for their fittings (but that doesn’t happen until much closer to The Time)
• confirming the menu and arrangements with the venue and all our suppliers, organising delivery and pick up times

So, all in all, not much left! :-S

And that’s all I can think of at the moment but I’m sure there will be a lot more! Weddings are amazing, there’s so much to do!

Moving Swiftly On…

Dress Appointments

I have made appointments to try on wedding dresses!!! Exciting!! Well, exciting for me anyway.

I’ve been putting off looking at wedding dresses because I’ve not been very happy with my weight. However, now I’ve lost a dress size, I am feeling a bit more confident to try on some dresses!

I have booked appointments at Princess Brides, Simply Brides, Debra Jane Bridal and KT Bridal. I’ve got a few ideas of what I’d like in a wedding dress and I’ve got some pictures of dresses I like so hopefully we will do well to get some dresses short listed.

I am after a princess dress, I don’t want anything too big or too flashy but I want something that will make me feel special. I did really like Honey by Berketex Bride. I’ve not seen one yet that I like more than Honey but I’ve made lots of appointments so we may find something!

I've asked one of my bridesmaids and my mum to come with me to choose dresses. My mum is fantastic at saying which clothes suit me or look nice on me, she’s also fantastic at telling me which clothes look awful on me. My bridesmaid is fantastic at supporting my decisions, plus she and I have a very similar taste in clothes. 

I will let you know how it all goes. I’m really looking forward to it!

Letters of Love

Fun Photo Wedding Gifts

I was reading a Hitched.co.uk twitter post by Fran (not me). I thought I would repost as it’s a very cool wedding gift! Alphabet photography!

If you are buying for a couple who have lived together for a while, or for a couple who didn’t give a wedding list, this would be a really nice idea. Often, guests feel uncomfortable giving money as a gift, this would be a fantastic alternative. (Even if they did give a wedding list this seems really special gift.)

The picture frame was spotted at The National Wedding show in London and Fran thought it was one of the most unique exhibitors she’d seen. I definitely think it’s a really unique idea however I’ve found at least two different companies that offer this service when I googled the idea.

The idea is that they take photos of objects everywhere, in architecture, in nature, in anything you can think of and use those pictures to make words. It’s very effective and a bit quirky, really unique.

This photo above is from Alphabet Photography. Their website says, ‘The Alphabet Photography team is proud to provide superior customer service and high quality craftsmanship.’ Their website seems fairly user friendly and I easily chose the pictures I wanted. If I didn’t like the pictures that appeared in the picture then I could click on each letter to change the picture. I thought that was a really nice idea.

This picture would set me back £45, which is an average price for a wedding gift. You can make all sorts of different words, and they offer different materials such as letters, posters and inspirational pictures.

The other company I found that provides this service is the  Letter Art Company. On their website, they say ‘An amazing gift concept that uses pictures of real world objects that resemble letters of the alphabet; Combining them to create truly unique, personalised gifts.’ They offer letter graphs, frames, mounts and custom framed letter art. A very similar service to Alphabet Photography, they ask you to type in a word and they will find pictures to match the letters in that word.

Like alphabet Photography, they offer to let you change the photos that it generates by clicking on the picture you want to change, and you probably will want to change the pictures.  It came out quite nicely, a similar standard to that from Alphabet Photography.

This picture would again cost me £45.

Personally I think this is a fantastic idea for a gift, not just for a wedding but for a Christening or a birthday. Wonderfully unique, which ever company you use as they are both very user friendly, you would find a lovely gift for anyone!

Sneaky Peek!

13 Months, 11 Days to Go!

We have booked the wedding party suits! How many brides book the suits before the bridesmaid dresses? What’s going on there?!

We walk past the tailors on our way into town so I just went in and made an appointment. At the very least, it gives me something to tick off our list. We went with Blooms in Wolverhampton as it’s in a very convenient place and the service was so good!

The gentleman who looked after us, Roger, is just absolutely brilliant. I first spoke to him at a wedding fayre about a year ago and the amount of time he spent chatting to us was just brilliant. He really gave us a feel of what we wanted and what our choices were for our wedding. And he’s a jolly nice bloke too!

We booked an appointment for yesterday as they are very busy on Saturdays. Luckily, for the hour we’d booked we had pretty much the whole of the wedding area to ourselves and it wasn’t until we left that it got busier.

H2b tried on an Edwardian jacket with stripy suit trousers, tails with stripy trousers and a normal suit jacket. A frock coat was mentioned but as that is what undertakers wear, we decided not to go that route!

The stripy trousers added definite height to the over all look however the Edwardian suit made h2b  look a bit short. A transformation took place when h2b swapped his jacket to a tails jacket, he suddenly seemed to grow four inches! H2b isn’t short, although he is under 6 feet tall. I’ve seen friends of mine over 6 feet tall wearing an Edwardian jacket and he looked fab but on your slightly shorter men it doesn’t look as good, I think.

H2b looked absolutely gorgeous in the tails! The stripy trousers made him look really smart and the whole look really suited him. Choosing the colour of the cravat and handkerchief was a little harder. They have a fantastic selection at  Blooms, but I liked the mat colour the best.

Dad came with us. Dad tried on the tails with the stripy trousers but he wore a lilac cravat and lilac handkerchief as this is what I’m planning on having the grooms men wear. Standing next to my h2b it really gave  me a real feel of the day and let me see what suited the men. I first chose a dark purple cravat for h2b but none of the colours in our wedding are dark purple so then Roger suggested dark lilac, as featured in the picture above of h2b.

I’m not a fan of the shiny, satin-like ties, I prefer the matt ones but I’m not sure what the fabric is called.

Looking at h2b all dressed up in his wedding suit was just amazing. It was like a flash forward preview of our day and I could picture him waiting at the end of the aisle for me. It was a lovely day and Roget at Blooms helped us to make the right decisions.

And it’s one more thing ticked off our list! :o)

My Venue, Madeley Court Hotel

Madeley Court Hotel

view Madeley Court Hotel website

We’d almost booked Rowton Castle, we almost booked Somerford Hall so that when we looked at Madeley Court I wasn’t expecting much. I absolutely fell in love!

It does have that winding drive way, albeit along side a leisure centre, but a row of trees would hide that fence. It is an old country manor house; it was a catholic stronghold, owned by an abbey but it passed into private ownership at the dissolution of the monasteries. It has been lovingly restored by Madeley’s previous owners and has recently passed into the ownership of Mercure Hotels.

We first saw Madeley Court Jan 2010, I went with my mum to have a look. I was sceptical. The gate house did make me gasp as we came around the corner as it looks like an old castle gatehouse. Just stunning. We had a meeting with Peter, the wedding coordinator, who was so professional and friendly and took the time to show us all around the hotel and the Mill, where our reception will be held. 

The Mill has recently been restored and looks amazing, with a medieval style.There are two minstrel's galleries at either end, medieval paintings across the walls, a gorgeous carpet which can be removed to reveal a dance floor, and plenty of space! The Mill is on two floors, the ground floor is a spacious but dark bar and the top floor is a vast room big enough for a wedding breakfast.

What we wanted was a room big enough for a wedding breakfast and then big enough for a right old knees up in the evening. The Mill at Madeley Court is the first wedding venue that I saw which achieved this. I knew this was something h2b was concerned about, having enough space, so as soon as I saw that this was one of the biggest rooms I’d seen, then I was hooked! It also has the second room for those of your guests who want to retreat from the loud music, the bar downstairs. I also wanted to set up space for some mahjong tables, as I will be having some Chinese guests, and the Mill has plenty of space for this.

And Peter is absolutely fantastic. He’s serious and dedicated and he has a brilliant sense of humour. Just talking things through with him the other day really put a lot of our thoughts at ease. He is full of funny wedding stories, I could listen to him talking about past weddings! My friend’s little sister is getting married at Madeley Court in June, and as soon as I mentioned her name he reeled off her wedding date and knew exactly who I was talking about, even though he must be working with hundreds of couples each year. And yesterday, I was asked at a wedding fayre where my venue is and as soon as I mentioned Madeley Court the chap said Peter was fantastic and we are in safe hands. I really do feel that I’m in safe hands and I believe that Peter will do his best to give us the most wonderful day!

Why We Booked
I have a check list of things I wanted from my venue and Madeley ticked most of the boxes! 

1. Old manor house with lots of character and original features
2. Long, romantic, winding drive down to the manor house
3. Large room for the wedding breakfast and the evening reception
4. Second room for guests to go to if they don’t like the music but still being a part of the wedding
5. Catering and bar services all sorted for us
6. On site accommodation for us and our guests
7. An amazing wedding coordinator who also works as master of ceremonies
8. Ample parking
9. In the countryside

The only element that I don’t like is that Madeley Court is in Madeley and is surrounded by the leisure centre and houses. Luckily it is difficult to see any of these from the grounds and you’re so surrounded by history and beautiful buildings that one tends not to look outside the grounds.

You can see from my photos that the houses and leisure centre are nowhere to be seen. I feel like Madeley Court is a wow venue, and with so many of our guests attending our wedding coming to the UK for the first time, we really wanted something that was going to wow them.

My Recommendations
As Madeley Court is my venue of course I’m going to recommend it. I think that Madeley Court is ideal for a bride who has a moderate sized budget, who loves history and beautiful architecture, and who wants a large-ish space for a wonderful party. It’s ideal for a bride who wants to be taken care of by a wonderful wedding coordinator and yet has her own ideas for how she wants things to be.

It’s difficult to think why I wouldn’t recommend Madeley Court, I think everyone should get married here! Everyone who wants a historical venue. If you want an ultra modern wedding venue then Madeley Court is not for you.

Venues – The Moat House

The Moat House

View the Moat House website

This is the venue at which my best friend held her wedding reception and we had a fantastic time! It’s also where I brought my mother for her 65th birthday! I’m a fussy eater but on both occasions, the food was absolutely delicious! And without us asking, or letting them know we’d booked for a birthday, they served my mum a special birthday selection of chocolates which I thought was very kind!

My friend’s wedding here was wonderful. The day went very smoothly with delicious food and a beautiful back drop for your wedding photos. There is more than ample parking across the stream from the hotel.

We were greeted at the door with reception drinks and my friend had chosen mini doughnuts to be served as a welcome snack between the photos and the wedding breakfast. They were absolutely delicious.

The main room was wonderfully decorated with flowers supplied by the venue and we were seated and served our dinner. I had soup, vegetables in pastry and a chocolate brownie for pudding. All completely delicious and well presented. The service was brilliant and staff were very helpful.

At night time, there are tiny sparkly lights in the trees casting a beautiful light over their small lake. If your photographer is sticking around into your evening do, he/she could take some spectacular photos with that as a backdrop.

Why We Didn’t Book
I didn’t want to have the same wedding venue as my friend. She says she doesn’t mind but we have the same taste in colours, I didn’t want to have the same venue as well! Also, there’s no long winding drive. This winding drive is important to me, I would like my venue off set from the road quite a way. Also, I think the room was a tiny bit small for the number of guests we’d like to attend our wedding.

My Recommendations
After attending a fantastic wedding at The Mill I cannot recommend them enough! I know that my friend had an amazing day and we were well looked after. The breakfasts in the morning were amazing as well. I would recommend The Mill to a bride who is looking for a stylish, beautiful and accessible wedding. It’s easy to get to and stunning to boot!

Venues – The Mill Hotel

The Mill

View The Mill Hotel website

I saw the the Mill Hotel with my best friend when she was choosing venues for her wedding. I have to be honest, I wasn’t impressed with the gentleman who spoke to us about the wedding options but it is a nice venue.

It’s not an exclusive use venue, and could have up to three weddings going on at the same time. However, each wedding area is clearly separated and it is highly unlikely that you will see another bride, so said the gentleman who spoke to us. I’m not sure if you’re like me and would prefer an exclusive venue, but they do guarantee to do their best so that you won’t see another bride.

They have three different main rooms for weddings of varying sizes, styles and capacity, they do have a lot of options available. There’s a beautiful lake and manicured grounds which are fantastic for wedding photos. There’s a gorgeous fountain at the front and a lovely little bride over the lake. As a venue, it is very attractive with outside seating and separate bars for each area. When we were looking round, there was building work going on so The Mill has been recently updated.

Why We Didn’t Book
I wanted a venue that had exclusive use.  It also didn’t have that ever elusive winding, romantic driveway that I want so much.

My Recommendation
The Mill is nice, it’s experienced, it’s a convenient venue. You know that you will be in good hands if you book with The Mill. I’d recommend The Mill for a bride who wants a venue with choices, who has any size of guest list and who isn’t bothered about exclusive use.

Venues – Hagley Hall

Hagley Hall

View Hagley Hall website

Hagley Hall was another venue that I wanted to see when I got engaged. I knew that it was a large house steeped in history, just the venue I’m looking for! I took my best friend here when she was looking for venues.

We were met again by the owner, and shown around the rooms available to weddings. They have a large upstairs room for the sit down meal adorned with ancestral portraits giving a real feel of history and grandeur. The evening reception retires to ground floor rooms where guests can party and relax.

The house and the grounds are spectacular: manicured lawns, restored house set into beautiful countryside. I think Hagley Hall is an amazing wedding venue.

Why We Didn’t Book
I’ve got to be honest, when we looked around Hagley Hall, I don’t know if the chap was having a bad day but he did act as if it were too much trouble to talk to us. We had booked an appointment but he seemed as if he didn’t want to talk to us. I also didn’t like the fact that the guests would be split across three rooms downstairs, and I felt the room that the disco would be in was too small for all our guests to watch us do our first dance.

My Recommendations
Hagley Hall is a truly beautiful venue, impressive views, impressive rooms and grounds, it’s steeped in history and just the place to treat your guests to a real English wedding. The outside stairs that lead to a balcony outside the main entrance have a fantastic view of the grounds and surrounding countryside. It’s a beautiful venue ideal for a bride who wants a beautiful wedding.

To Film or Not to Film, That is the Question

To Film or Not to Film, That is the Question

Hiring a videographer is becoming more and more popular, however, does your budget stretch that far? With some videographers charging upwards of £300 is it financially viable? A hefty chunk out of any budget… at my wedding £300 equates to 6 meals, or a wedding car and a half, or 30 pairs of wedding shoes! (I had them made to order in China, soooo comfortable!)

And think about it, really, as much as your friends and family love you, how many of them will sit for 2 hours and watch your lovely but long wedding video? I love weddings (could you guess) and I could sit to watch wedding videos but with the best will in the world, I couldn’t last 2 hours! And if it does cost £300 I would want it to last 2 hours at least!

An alternative is to ask a guest to video your wedding. At my bessie mate’s wedding, her sister who was a bridesmaid videoed a lot of the wedding. A cousin later used the footage to mix in with still pictures when creating a wedding video. That video was a very manageable 30 minutes, just perfect! The video clips added a very personal touch to the still photos and brought the video to life. I do think there is a lot of merit in videoing a wedding.

Most cameras these days have a video option. My camera does, as does my phone!   (I wouldn’t suggest using a phone camera as the image quality isn’t suitable for TV standard.)  With this option on most cameras, any of your guests could be a potential videographers, and so many easy to use video editors available such as Windows Video Maker which is free with windows, or iMovie which is free on Apple Macs (and better than Windows Video Maker, if only it worked on PC’s) then anyone can make a wedding video.

I recently made a video for my niece and nephew’s christening, and I also made a video for my friend’s wedding before that. Even people who aren’t that good with a computer could put together a very effective and meaningful wedding video using these simple to use editing programs.

For top tips on videoing your friend’s wedding, see Jake McMillian’s blog.

However, if you do decide to hire a wedding videographer, there are some very professional videos out there. Some photographers offer videography as part of their service. That would mean that your photographer and videographer would be working in sync and produce a much better product. Alternatively, your photographer might be able to recommend a videographer they have worked with before, or your venue may be able to recommend someone who has impressed them in the past. Often, if a service has been recommended through another person, you may receive a discount on their services.

To answer the question of ‘to film or not to film’… I think you should film, but not hours and hours of footage. Think of your audience, who will watch the video? Film key moments in the wedding, touching moments that you will want to remember for the rest of your marriage: walking up the aisle, exchanging the rings, walking down the aisle, some moments outside the church, the speeches, cutting the cake and the first dance.

If you do know any good videographers to recommend, please post them as a comment in my blog. Alternatively, if you know any good tips for videoing a wedding, post those in the comment box too!

Photo Albums

I have already posted that I believe photos are one of the most important aspects of a wedding. This is why my h2b and I chose Clive Blair to be our photographer. I may have mentioned that h2b and I were absolutely inspired by all his pictures. I honestly cannot recommend Clive enough but this post is about wedding albums.

Since we booked Clive he’s introduced Queensbury albums. They look spectacular! They appear similar to photo books but with the quality of a traditional album. My sister-in-law and my brother have this tome, I call it, a huge wedding album in a traditional style. I wanted a tome, but I like the style of the photo books. It appears that Queensbury albums combine the quality of a traditional album with the modern chic of a photo book. This is what I want for my wedding album, something that we could keep for the rest of our lives as a reflection of the most wonderful day we spent together, and the start of our married life.

However, that’s just the one album for you and your hubby to keep, what about the rest of your family who want an album. Clive does offer parent albums, but perhaps your sister would like a picture because your niece was a bridesmaid.  Many photographers out there offer a CD only service, where they take a lot of photos and put them on a disk for you to order your own wedding album. This is a cheaper and quicker way of seeing your wedding photos but which photo album should you choose?

There are so many websites out there that offer photo books by uploading your own photos and making a book, printed with a hard cover. As I’m a bit obsessed with photos, I do make quite a few photo books. My h2b takes some brilliant photos and I make them up into books so I have used a few of the photo book websites.

Photobox
User friendly, easy to use, fantastic templates and plenty of choice, Photobox was the first photo book making company that I started to use. This picture here is of me holding the first photo book that I made for my fiancé and I to celebrate seven years together.

There are a variety of covers available in a variety of colours. I chose a black cover because I thought that would be more manly for my h2b. I would have liked a pink cover!

Photobox offers a variety of different products. My friends bought their thank you cards from Photobox, they looked fantastic and they’re a memento from the day. I will be doing the same. Other products include calendars and diaries, wall decor, photo mugs, prints and home gifts. The photo book I received was very high quality. One of the pictures I used was from the camera I had in 2003 which was barely 3 mega pixels, when I put that photo into the album they told me that the photo wasn’t print quality. That kind of help is invaluable! (I used it anyway, it was an important picture!)

The photo books come in different sizes and shapes. It depends on which photo album you’d like. It’s completely online, there’s nothing to download and it’s all easy to use. You can even preview your creation online before you print. My dad so loved the album I had from Photobox that we made a funeral album for my Granddad’s funeral. It was filled with photos from my Granddad’s life and everyone at the funeral said it was lovely and deeply touching. See, photos are for any occasion.

Blurb
Blurb is a website I’ve only just started using and I like the look of it. They have a variety of methods for creating a photo book.  You can use a pdf book, if you’ve taken the time to make one, download their book making program, or make a book online. I have tried both in the interest of giving you a full review – and wow!

I first tried making a book using the BookSmart program that is downloadable from the Blurb website. There is a fairly clear user guide, some interesting templates and the option to edit layout. To me, an amateur, I think this is amazing! I get the feeling that some of the elements of BookSmart are aimed at marketing or advertising companies, as they are very customisable. You can add photo boxes, text boxes, resize these boxes and move them around the page in any layout that you’d like. Imagine working on your wedding pictures, creating an album for a friend and you can design the layout into any format you like.
I am fairly computer savvy but I did find this program very easy and simple to use. I was just bashing about pressing buttons to see what happens but I achieved a fairly nice effect using this program.

I’ve added a photo here to show what the photos looked like when I added them to the template. Pretty nifty if I do say so myself. I just quickly added some photos from my computer (there’s also the option to add from online albums) and messed about slotting the pictures into the spaces.

It really depends how much time you would like to put into your photo album. If this was the only option I had for my wedding album I might spend a bit more time making it. As it stands, this is the kind of thing I would enjoy spending my time making as I’m that sort of person, so I would really use this type of program.

The Bookify option doesn’t seem to have as many templates. I chose a small square album as I would if were making an album for my parents to have and there was a set format that I couldn’t change, although I could alter colours of backgrounds and so forth. This could give the less computer savvy person the option of using a simpler book builder. The BookSmart option does give you a lot more control over what your final book will look like.

Boots
Just to demonstrate how good Photobox is, Boot’s online photo book maker is in partnership with Photobox! I was about to type that I thought the Boots books were very similar to the Photobox ones, and then when I click on the website I see that they are made by the very same company! It goes to show that not only do Photobox provide an excellent professional service, but they are also used by a nation wide chain of shops – a brand that we all visit and use from time to time.

Jessops
Jessops use CEWE to make their photo books. There doesn’t appear to be an online photo book making function, but the program is easy to download and install. However, I didn’t find the program as easy to use as the Photobox and Blurb programs.

I’m not sure if I clicked on anything wrong but the pictures I’d selected (randomly from my pictures folder) filled into the album without me indicating where I wanted them to go. Once you get the hang of it, it is possible to customise the backgrounds, photo layout, and add additional photos to the page. It takes a bit of fiddling and experimentation, but there is a fairly decent customisable element to the program.

Kodak
Kodak’s photo book maker is online, where you can upload your photos to their website and  then edit them into your photo album book. I like the function that you can add yourself as a guest, you don’t necessarily have to sign in or register to use their website. Always a bonus if you’re in a rush.

Depending on the size of your photos and on your internet speed, the uploader is fairly speedy. I uploaded a few pictures from my computer to use with the album and it was fairly speedy.

There is the option to change the layout of the photos if chosen from a set layout, but it seems like the background colours aren’t customisable. It is quick and easy to use, just a drag and drop system, but for me I’d rather use a much more personalised layout than simply using the set layouts.

My Conclusion

Which ever website you decide to use, remember you could always ask your photographer for his or her recommendation. I think it’s important to weigh up cost with the product you receive in the end, and to think about how you want the photos from one of the most important days of your life to be presented. Think about how much time you have, and how much computer know how. Each of the websites have their own positives and negatives, I’ve tried to give you a fair appraisal of all the main ones that I use so that you can decide from a bride’s opinion.