Increase page size or add bleed?

Marisa, actually I think you could do either to accomplish the end result. I would try the adding bleed because that is really what you want. You don't want your important items being trimmed during production.

I am designing a photo book in InDesign, and can either increase the page size for a 10x10 book to 10.25x10.25, or add .125" bleed on all sides. From a layout perspective the latter is easier for me, but it sounds like what you want is not bleed, but an actually enlarged doc. Can you confirm that designing the book at 10x10 but with added bleed is not what you want?