12 Unique Wedding Album Ideas

A wedding album is an ode to one of the most monumental days of your life—and it’s something you’ll cherish forever. But what if you’re on the hunt for unique wedding albums that offer a bit more in terms of creativity than the classics do? We’ve rounded up a dozen wonderfully different wedding album ideas.

1. Get Ready to Crop

When you’re sifting through images, you’re probably drawn to a selection of favorites, like your first kiss with your spouse or the walk you shared down the aisle with your mom or dad. The good news: One of the simplest ideas for unique wedding albums rests in the cropping.

Even if you didn’t hire a professional photographer and are only working with a select amount of photos, you can crop one photo in a bunch of different ways. This allows you to focus on what’s important in each specific image. Crop your bouquet to make it larger, then put it on its own separate page. Zoom in on the special family heirloom bracelet you’re wearing on your wedding day that was once your grandmother’s piece. Remember: Don’t be afraid to crop—just make sure to save a duplicate image before you do.

2. Make a Gallery Wall

Wedding album ideas don’t have to be limited to just albums that sit on your coffee table, either. Creating a gallery wall is a fantastic way to display images of your special day. Before you set out to craft your gallery, have an idea of the photos you love to revisit from your wedding ceremony and reception. If you’re going to keep your gallery in a place with high foot traffic, like the living room or the wall that runs parallel to a staircase, chances are your family and friends will be admiring these images for years to come. The beautiful part about a gallery wall, after all, is that your loved ones can relive the day with you without having to sit down on the couch and sift through a photo book.

3. Forgo Chronological Order

One of the most classic ways to structure a wedding album is in chronological order. But if you’re on the hunt for creative wedding album ideas, consider ditching this idea and mixing things up instead. Without the structure of chronological order, you’ll find your album feels more fluid. Perhaps you love the idea of starting with a photo of your send-off and following it with images of putting your dress on. Maybe the moment you say “I do” comes somewhere in the middle of the wedding story. Flipping through an album of the day when it’s in order can be fun, but reimagining it in a different order can be, too.

4. Experiment With Photo Positions

Many of us may steer toward using the same photograph position on every page, like a selection of three horizontal images throughout the album. When you’re looking for wedding album ideas that are unique, sometimes you don’t need to look any further than the photos themselves.

Experiment with your photo positions and let each image speak for itself. Maybe you let one single horizontal shot you love spread over two album pages. The next page may feature a collage or two vertical images.

Don’t hesitate when it comes to white space, either. If you like the way a photograph looks in the corner, put it there without feeling like you have to supplement the white space with more photos. Wedding albums can offer a breath of complete creative freedom if you let them. Go with your instinct, and get inspired along the way when telling your wedding story.

5. Try a Slideshow

Today, many computers come equipped with easy-to-use programs that will help you create a professional-looking wedding slideshow in no time. Better yet, put your slideshow to your wedding song. We love that slideshows can easily be put on a USB flash drive, wrapped in a festive box, then gifted to family members for birthdays, holidays, or as a thank-you.

6. Go Rustic

Sometimes the idea of a clean, minimal wedding album steals our hearts; other times we swoon over the rustic albums. If you’re searching for the most unique wedding albums, consider going the route of a wood or leather album. Wood albums can be engraved and leather albums can be stamped with your names and the wedding date—both of which offer a personalized feel. With a natural, rustic approach on the outside, you can mix in other styles on the inside, like those that are more whimsical or romantic.

7. Digital Photo Frame

If the idea of a traditional wedding photo album doesn’t appeal to you, a digital photo frame is a fun way to go. Not only do these frames make unique wedding albums, but they also make it super easy to relive your big day from the comfort of your kitchen, bedroom, living room, or anywhere else you want to place your digital frame. These are also a lovely idea for a gift to your parents or wedding party.

8. DIY Wedding Album (with Zola!)

There are no rules when it comes to creating a wedding album in the modern, digital age. DIY wedding albums offer something sentimental and allow you and your spouse to put your hearts and personality into the pages. Some of the best wedding album ideas are those that blend the wedding album with the wedding scrapbook. After exploring the numerous wedding scrapbook ideas and examples, go to your local craft store or order your supplies online, then sit down with a stack of images and get crafty. If you like the idea of picking your wedding photobook layout, designing the whole album, and having a gratifying hands on experience, this may be the way to go.

Zola makes it easy to create your album in a few short steps. Whether you start your design today or add our wedding photo albums directly to your registry— once you’re ready to get started, we have everything you need to craft the perfect wedding album of your big day, including:

• Multiple album cover materials (including linen, leather, and vegan leather)
• Fully customizable templates
• Photographic printing for the highest-quality images
• Fast shipping

The process to make one is simple, too! Our Album Wizard, like magic, helps pick and arrange photos for you, eliminating the busy work to make storing your memories as fun and stress-free as it should be. Design your album, or add it to your registry as the perfect post-wedding gift you can enjoy for years to come.

9. Include Old Family Images

When you’re fine-tuning your favorite wedding album ideas, think outside of the box and utilize old images to help tell your story. Wedding albums aren’t limited to images that were taken on the same day as your wedding—or even in the same decade. Old photos of the bride and groom's grandparents or parents on their wedding can be fun to add. With some digging and a few branches from the family tree, you’ll give your wedding album a beautiful sense of timelessness and nostalgia.

10. Incorporate Quotes

Incorporating quotes is one of the easiest wedding album ideas. Even if you didn’t have any quotes on display at your wedding, you can sit down with your spouse and sift through words from the greats together. With the help of some of the best, most romantic writers, you can put your special day into words as a couple.

Another nice way to integrate quotes into your album is to think in terms of your theme. If you served pizza, for example, your page that displays the day’s food photography might read, “take a pizza my heart.” Remember that with quotes, you don’t always have to keep things serious or sentimental. Utilizing witty or humorous quotes can be just the ticket to capturing the moment.

11. Preserve Your Bouquet

One of the sweetest wedding album ideas involves utilizing the bounty of your leftover bridal bouquet. If you’ve dried your flowers, look for a wedding album with a clear cover where you can showcase some of the petals. You can also incorporate the petals onto your pages, especially if you’re designing a scrapbook. For those brides and grooms who opt for the gallery wall, you can also frame your bouquet in a shadow box.

If you don’t have your preserved bouquet, make sure to dedicate a couple of pages in the photo album to it. You can even surround the images with handwritten or typed flower specifics, like which type of flowers you used, where you got them, and why you chose them. This allows family members and friends who are looking through your album to know the story of your wedding in detail—like the sunflowers that remind you of your mother or the yellow roses you used to pick in your grandmother’s garden.

12. Add Bridal Shower and Honeymoon Images

Wedding albums don’t have to be limited to just the wedding. Whether you had a traditional bridal shower or hosted a less conventional pre-wedding happy hour with your friends before the big day, weddings are surrounded by special memories.

Think back to the period of time both before and after your wedding to fine-tune moments that stuck out to you. Maybe picking your rings up from a charming jewelry shop in town or the night of the proposal is important. Perhaps the honeymoon or a post-wedding brunch. Whatever it is, gather those photos to add to the album and help tell the wonderfully unique story of your wedding.

Whether you’re preserving the petals of your beloved bouquet or including some old snapshots of your gram and gramps, we hope this list has you feeling all kinds of inspiration for unique wedding albums. Remember: When all is said and done, your album will be unique, because it’s yours—nothing’s more special than that.