The Haute Wedding Album

Photograph by Betsy Halsey

1. Paper will rip and cardboard will show dings. This album by Leathercraft—the go-to binding company for high-end Hub shutterbugs—has a premium split-tone fabric spine and a fabric cover. The suedelike material will withstand years of use without scuffing or staining.

2. Thanks to hardy cloth-hinge binding, the book’s pages lie flat and the spine never cracks. Page flow is carefully considered: Before sending an album to be bound, Person spends hours in photo-editor mode, laying out pages to ensure a good balance of portrait, detail, and candid shots.

Photograph by Betsy Halsey

3. An album’s price is based on its number of photographs, not its number of pages. Person cuts each print before sending them to Leathercraft, where the photos are custom-mounted on acid-free binding board and finished with handcut frames. All that labor adds up: A 60-photo book like this one costs $6,500 (including photography).

4. Most brides choose album pages with right-angled corners, but Person prefers rounded edges for an elegant finish. Both edge treatments are included in the base price of an album.

Photograph by Betsy Halsey

5. To highlight favorite moments, Person sprinkles a handful of unmatted photos throughout the book. (Brides sometimes order a big album of matted full-color prints as their primary keepsake, then request a smaller, black-and-white “artsy” album with full-page shots.)