How to collect your wedding guests' photos

Why guests' photos get lost

On the wedding night, almost everyone takes photos. The next day, those photos are spread across dozens of phones, and everyone assumes someone else will collect them.

The usual reasons:

• nobody said where to send the photos, or said it too late;
• the WhatsApp group is used as a drop box, but it shrinks photos by default and not everyone is in it;
• the shared folder needs an account or an app, and guests give up.

A few weeks later, nobody feels like sorting through their photos for the couple.

Before the wedding: choose one album

Plan one album for everyone. With two or three options running side by side, photos end up all over the place.

Three things to check:

• Is an account needed? Your great-uncle won't create one on the wedding night.
• Do the photos keep their quality? A messaging app that compresses them won't do for a photo book.
• Who can see the album? It should stay private, for guests only.

With a shared album by QR code, the guest scans the code with their phone's camera, iPhone or Android, the album opens in the browser and their photos join everyone else's. That is how Festiroll's shared wedding photo album works, as explained in Wedding photo album with a QR code: how it works.

Do a test run a few days before with two or three friends.

During the party: make the album visible

An album nobody knows about stays empty. Put the QR code where guests stop: on every table, at the entrance, near the bar, or on the screen in the room.

An announcement on the microphone helps a lot, at the drinks reception or before the meal: “The QR code on the tables is our album, please add your photos.”

Photo challenges (“the couple with their witnesses”, “the dance floor at midnight”) or a secret mission drawn at random on arrival give people a reason to take photos. A photo wall projected in the room shows that the album is filling up.

After the party: catch up on what's missing

Some guests will still have taken photos without using the album. Send them the link in the week after, and ask for specific photos (“the ceremony from the back”) rather than “everything”. Remind them they can add photos they've already taken, from their camera roll.

In Festiroll, you set the end of photo-taking yourself. Leave it open for a few days after the wedding for latecomers.

With Festiroll, in practice

• You create the album with your email address, no password.
• You choose the rules: Disposable camera (24 photos per guest, revealed together later), Live (everyone sees the photos as they arrive) or Surprise (no limit, revealed together).
• You print the A4 poster or the A6 table card with the QR code, if you want one code per table.
• At the chosen time, the album opens for everyone and you download all the photos in one go.

Photos are stored in Switzerland. The album is deleted on the planned date, after an email reminder. It is free for up to 10 guests; beyond that, a single price per event, from CHF 4.90 to CHF 49.–, and the Big party plan covers up to 250 guests. Details on the prices page and the Features page.

What about the photographer's photos?

They don't replace the guests' photos. The photographer follows the couple; guests see the table at the back, the preparations on the other side, the dance floor at two in the morning.

If your photographer wishes, they can add a selection from their coverage to the same album, on their own date, with a “Photographer” badge. Their delivery gallery stays their own. Details on the Photographers page.

In short

• One album, chosen before the wedding, with no account for guests.
• The QR code on the tables and an announcement on the microphone.
• A reminder in the week after.

Considering disposable cameras? Read our comparison: Disposable cameras at a wedding: film cameras or an app?