Apart from the fact that Katherine adores Queensberry albums, she personally feels you can’t beat printed images. In this day and age everyone (herself included) has thousands of photos on their phones, computers and social media accounts, but they rarely get round to printing the images. And yet when you hire a professional photographer the images are of such beautiful quality, it's such a shame to confine them to a ‘screen’, as they take on a whole new dimension when printed. Katherine gives us some sound album advice to ponder, interspersed with beautiful wedding photography.

Why do you think it’s important to talk about albums and printing online, where your clients can read about them?

I think in this day and age couples are too used to seeing photos on a screen, and although that has such a great place in the industry, to share photos in your own Queensberry album is a much more special and intimate way to see a beautiful story of your day come to life. A couple will have several hundred images on a USB, but to have a beautifully designed story of the day is something else.

I think talking and showing off the albums on social media as much as possible really helps, not only to show examples of albums to other couples, and my enthusiasm for them, but also helps educate them on how important printed images are.

What do you enjoy about designing each album?

I really love designing albums. It's one of my favourite parts of the whole process, and something I always do myself rather than outsource. I explain to my couples that I know how it felt to be there on the day, I know the images that will be important to them, and I turn this into a beautiful story. It is also wonderful editing a couple's images — but with several hundred actually, the story almost gets lost. With 100 or 150 images in an album you see a beautiful, more concise, story of their day, and I just love to see that come together.

Do you have a favourite album  you’ve ordered from Queensberry?

So many! I genuinely love every album I create. I think one that really stands out was an album for a couple called Tim and Lucy. who had the most exquisite panoramic 18x10 Duo album. They got married at a little boutique hotel on the North Norfolk Coast and had a really intimate day. We also went to the beach for their couple shots and seeing these come to life over the panoramic pages was just wonderful!

I also offer a full design service for my couples. This costs them a little more, but rather than them choose all their own images, they simply choose their ten favourites and I design the whole album for them. With this they get 10 free images, but they also get an especially beautifully designed album, as rather than try to fit their choices into a design that works, I am creating a beautiful story of the day with the design first and for most. This has become really popular with my couples, especially those who have busy careers!

How do sample albums help your clients decide to purchase an album package?

I have samples in the various different sizes I offer, so my couples can get a real feel for the albums and the beautiful finishes. I also think Queensberry albums sell themselves. On seeing my samples my couples almost always choose to have an album!

Keep an eye out for Part Two with Kathy Ashdown for tips on educating clients and offering albums. 

See more of Kathy Ashdown's work here. 

Melissa x

Using our free album design service? We'll need your design order by Wednesday 18th October and your approval of our design by Friday 3rd November.

If you’re designing your own albums we'll need your orders by Friday 3rd November.

We then ask that you confirm your orders within a couple of days of receiving our order confirmation document.

Click here for more information.