Vintage Wedding Album Restoration Project

When Belfor first contacted us about restoring a wedding album which had been badly damaged in a house fire we were a little nervous taking on the project since it was something we hadn’t done before. That being said, being wedding photographers we know the important of a wedding album. We know that wedding albums are an heirloom for a family, not just the couple, and looking at digital or film negatives just isn’t the same. We wanted to help the couple out in any way we could. The project turned out to be a lot more work than we had originally anticipated. For starters the actual photographs had been damaged trying to save them from the album, which I believe got quite wet putting the fire out. Originally the plan had been to scan the images and restore them in post however I ended up getting in touch with their wedding photographer Don Young, who still had the negatives after 32 years. I was able to get the negatives and scan them at The Lab in Vancouver, however for whatever reason the colour was off, perhaps due to the age of the negatives, and a lot of retouching/colour balancing was required! Printing was a bit of a gongshow because our colours would look fine on our monitor and when we’d send it too the lab it would come back too green or too magenta and it took forever and a day to get it just right. In the end we did nail it though, and once the album came in from Renaissance we were able to start mounting the pictures in. The couple opted to change the album cover to a brown non-leather as white velvet fabrics are no longer used in modern albums, and the darker colour is easier to clean and care for. I was so excited to get the album back to them last week.

Here is a message I received from them once it arrived:

“A very emotional thank you and a huge hug to you for doing such a great job on our album.  Belfor returned it to us yesterday and I have spent most of last evening pondering through the pages and walking down memory lane.  I can not thank you enough for your attention to this and the results of it.  Thank you, Thank you, and thank you again.  I’m sure you will have many satisfied clients as you move forward in your career as a wedding photographer.  You were able to salvage our special day from 1981………not an easy task given what you were handed.  We are forever grateful to you and will never forget you.  God bless you!”

Check out the album restoration below:

Album Details:
12×12 Library Album with white mats
Custom Oval Opening
Madison Non Leather