We got out wedding photos (like finally) in April, but we didn't get to make the album until much later because there was quite a bit of editing to do on the photos, especially the banquet photos where the lighting was just terrible.
We bought some credits from Artisan State during their Black Friday sale last year. There was a 25% discount then. We absolutely loved their quality of work with our engagement shoot album so we decided to use them for our wedding album as well. See my review here.
I took quite awhile to design the album as we had heaps of photos to go through. We placed our order on Sunday and got our album on Thursday that very week! We were so, so impressed with the speed at which they worked at and again, at the quality of the album. Super worth it!
Our album was 12" X 16" with 50 pages. It is heavy as! We also bought a presentation case to store the album in. It was pretty neat but more of that later.
I chose a flush mount album with genuine leather in white, with a large cameo window. In their album design tool, the leather was shown as white but the actual album was actually more yellowish, like a cream color. I would have preferred a pure white cover but cream is fine too.
Thick, rigid, high quality pages. The printing was excellent too with no changes/differences in colors.
Here's the presentation box, it's a simple black box made with hand-stitched leatherette. The box is also double-walled for maximum protection, and the inside was made of some soft, furry material as well.
Love the beautiful stitching! BUT BUT BUT I was quite disappointed because when the album is inside the box, the lid wouldn't close properly! See below for picture:
The box can carry our engagement shoot album perfectly as it was only about 20-something pages thick but our wedding album at 50 pages is significantly thicker. I do think that they should either make the box slightly bigger or at least describe the maximum number of pages a book can have before it would not fit.
Anyway, here are just a few "configurations" of our album, just a few pages:
Artisan State is definitely my go-to company for all my printing needs from now on. Despite the little hiccup with the presentation box that wouldn't fit properly, I still think that they do good quality albums/frames at very reasonable prices. Even their shipping fees are so low (our wedding album weighs a ton but express shipping by DHL was only $20). More importantly, they print crazy fast which is super great for impatient people like myself.
thank you for the review! im getting one myself for our engagement shoot!
ReplyDeleteno worries! glad you found my little review helpful! I hope you guys will enjoy the album as much as we did :)
DeleteThanks for your review! Your album is beautiful!! I'm looking into using Artisan State too, but I'm confused about how it works. Do you need to purchase a plan in order to make an album like this? Also, did you use their design services at all?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your review! Your album is beautiful!! I'm looking into using Artisan State too, but I'm confused about how it works. Do you need to purchase a plan in order to make an album like this? Also, did you use their design services at all?
ReplyDeleteHi Janna, so sorry for my late reply. I have moved to a Wordpress site so I don't check here very often. Thanks for your message! No you don't need to purchase a plan, and I did not use their design services. What I did was just to sign up for an account, choose an album size and cover material, upload my photos and just drag and drop them in the album design template provided. You can also save your progress and come back to it another day. Payment is made at the end when you are ready with your album. Hope that helps!
DeleteHi there,
ReplyDeleteI realize this is an old post but I also ordered a Presentation Box with my Flush Mount Album from ZNO with 25 spreads (50 pages) in their Thick page option. I expect the thing to be really thick and was wondering if I'm going to have the same issue as you. Did they do anything to rectify the issue?
Hi Matt, nah I didn't bother to ask them to rectify anything. We just left it as is since that was the only box they had at the time so I figured it would be pointless to try and get a more fitting box :(
DeleteThanks for the reply :) I did run into this on ZNO's FAQ page:
Delete"The Presentation Box is available in matching cover type materials and the Image Box can have the same hard cover as your photo book or designed anyway you like. They both include a lined interior and a ribbon to easily take the photobook out. It is available in two different depths and our system will automatically select the correct depth when you order your photobook. If the Presentation Box is ordered independently, the standard depth will be shipped by default."
Not sure if these "2 different depths" were available when you bought your album 2 years ago. We'll see what happens!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteReceived my 12x12" genuine leather album today from ZNO and it's perfect!!!! Thick pages and gold gilding. The presentation box fits (for the most part). The left front corner of the box lifts up a TINY bit but is definitely not as much as yours. This is the 4th book I've ordered from ZNO and I'm super impressed.
ReplyDelete