5 of the Best Ways to Share Your Wedding Photos

Regardless of whether you end up hiring a professional wedding photographer or not (we suggest you definitely do!), your friends and family will end up taking umpteen photos and videos during your wedding day celebrations. Just imagine all of those brilliant candid shots of your special day - it would be a crime for them not to be shared and enjoyed by all, right?

Also, let’s face it, your wedding photographer can’t be everywhere at once, but your wide range of friends can, so why not let them take all those gorgeous shots documenting the day and benefit from seeing your day through your guests’ eyes. Sharing photos is a guaranteed way to let the festivities live on and allow those guests who sadly couldn’t make it feel a little more involved in the day.

We’ve come up with our top 5 ways of sharing your wedding day photos so you won’t miss a beat from the big day! Let’s go…

1. Social media

Unless you’re having an unplugged wedding, whether you like it or not, your wedding snaps will be shared online through various channels. With Facebook and Instagram being up there with the most popular platforms for sharing photos, you and your partner’s special day will be out there for the world to enjoy from day one of married life.

Social media is a great tool for your guests to share their own photos of the day with you and others, so why not create a hashtag to ensure you don’t miss any? Start one nice and early and get it out there so guests can benefit from the excitement of the entire wedding planning process, from the engagement party to the bridal shower (within reason)! Anyone can add to the hashtag, and it is a quick, easy, and free way to share wedding photos in one place. Communicate your hashtag on your wedding website, and don’t forget to have it dotted around the venue so everyone knows what it is and how to use it. Now all that’s left to do is sit back and watch the snaps roll in!

Pros:

• Free
• Simple to upload

Cons:

• You may risk getting limited photos due to guests having to be registered
• Everyone can see your photos

2. Use a photo-sharing app

Photo-sharing apps are designed to enhance the overall wedding experience by ensuring that every moment is captured and shared with family and friends. There are a variety of photo-sharing apps out there to choose from, which come with many benefits. The majority of apps available are simple and easy for guest participation, reasonably low cost, and provide a great opportunity to see those unfiltered moments in real-time.

Kululu is a perfect example of a photo-sharing app. It’s a straightforward and enjoyable way to collect pictures and videos from your guests, utilising a web-based wedding album. Simply provide a QR code or direct link to your visitors during and after the event via email, WhatsApp, etc. Even better, you could set up a live slideshow in real time to show off all the uploads during the event itself. There are many other useful features with Kululu, including the ability to customise colours and style and letting guests caption their photos.

Pros:

• Simple to use
• Set up for sharing wedding photos
• Live stream capabilities

Cons:

• There’s a fee involved

3. File-sharing platforms

Most of your guests will likely be familiar with file-sharing platforms like Google Photos and Dropbox. Why not create one big folder for your wedding photos to be uploaded to for everyone to enjoy? Share the link early so everyone is aware of it, and instead of sending photos to multiple WhatsApp groups, they can all be uploaded to one place from the off.

Guests can upload from various devices, too, such as smartphones, desktops, and laptops. Once complete, they can even choose if they would like to order photo prints directly from the platform. You can organise the photos into various albums and folders for ease and, with some platforms, decide on whether you want some folders to be invite-only or if anyone with the link can access the images.

Pros:

• Free to use
• User friendly

Cons:

• It is not tailored specifically for weddings
• Not all platforms are secure: anyone with a link can view and upload pictures

4. Via QR code

QR codes can be created and placed on your wedding stationery and in and around the wedding venue, enabling guests to scan and upload their wedding pictures to a shared platform with complete ease! Having a QR code makes it easy to gather all your wedding photos in one place, saving time and effort.

One of the most efficient ways to guarantee that guests can easily share their wedding photos is by linking the QR code directly to a photo-sharing and storage service. You can access such a service by creating a wedding QR code and linking it to Google Photos, Kululu, Dropbox, or iCloud, for example. All you need to do is add the link to your digital album from your chosen platform as your QR code’s ‘scan destination’.

Locating the QR code in a high-traffic area at your reception and even on the tables ensures guests can scan it to both view and upload photos to the chosen stream. Suddenly, you’ll have a living and growing collage of all the memories from the occasion stored and accessible to your friends and family.

Pros:

• User friendly
• Can be shared easily (email, WhatsApp, wedding website, signage)

Cons:

• You still have to create a sharing platform for the photos to be uploaded to
• Some guests may be unfamiliar with how QR codes work

5. On your wedding website

You’ve more than likely got the capability of adding photos to your wedding website; in fact, you’ve probably already added a few engagement shots and are planning on adding some honeymoon photos there as well. If that’s the case, why not add some of your favourite wedding photos there too? You’ll have to ask guests to send them to you, giving you full control of what’s being published online, but you can also upload some professional photos here too, when you get your sneak peek photo album from your wedding photographer.

Pros:

• You have control over what’s being uploaded
• Everyone already knows your URL

Cons:

• Your guests will still have to share their wedding images with you for you to upload
• You may get limited photos sent to you