How to collect photos from all your wedding guests

Why guest photos are worth the effort

Your photographer captures the ceremony, the portraits and the first dance. Your guests capture everything else: the getting-ready chaos, the cousins at table 9, the moment your grandmother hit the dance floor, the after-party nobody hired a photographer for. Most of those photos never leave the guests’ phones unless you make sharing easy and ask at the right moment.

A hashtag alone rarely works anymore. Many guests don’t post publicly, and the ones who do post three photos, not thirty. A shared album with a QR code gets you everyone’s photos from the evening, in one place.

Set it up in five steps

1. 1Create the event. On PictureBox you give it a name and a date and pick an event type. It takes about a minute and is free to get started.
2. 2Choose how the album behaves. A classic gallery shows every photo the moment it’s taken. A disposable camera gives each guest a limited number of shots that “develop” the morning after. Or pick both.
3. 3Decide on photo approval. If you turn it on, nothing appears in the gallery until you or a co-host approves it. Handy if your college friends are coming.
4. 4Download the QR code. You can put your own logo or monogram in the middle so it matches the rest of your stationery.
5. 5Print it and place it. Table numbers, the bar, the guest book table and the welcome sign are the spots guests actually look at.

Where to put the QR code

Guests scan a code when it’s in front of them at a moment when they have their phone out anyway. That means:

• On the table numbers or a small card on every table. This is the one that does most of the work.
• At the bar, where people stand around waiting with their phones in hand.
• Next to the guest book or the welcome sign at the entrance.
• On the wedding website and in the reminder email or text you send the week before.
• On a big screen or projector during the reception, if your venue has one.

Some couples also print the code on the back of the save-the-dates or the invitations. That works well for the bachelorette party, the rehearsal dinner and the getting-ready photos, as long as you repeat it on the day.

Try it at your next party

Create your event in a minute and put out the QR code. Free to get started.

Create your event

When to announce it

The best moment is right after dinner is served, when everyone is seated and listening. Ask your DJ, band leader or emcee to mention it in one sentence: “Scan the code on your table and add your photos to the couple’s album.” If you have a best man or maid of honor who is good with a microphone, they can do it at the start of the toasts.

Scanning the code takes guests to the PictureBox app for iPhone or Android and straight into your event. They only type their name, so no account and no password. It takes seconds, which matters when you’re asking a table of eight to do it at once.

Approval, awkward photos and privacy

Open bars produce interesting photos. With photo approval switched on, every picture waits for you or a co-host before it shows up in the shared gallery, and you can remove photos at any time. Guests can also delete their own photos.

Guests keep the copyright to what they shoot. By adding photos to your event, they give you permission to use and share them, for example in a thank-you post or a photo book. Photos are stored on servers in the EU.

After the wedding: download and combine

When it’s over, download the whole gallery in one go. Guests can save their own favorites too, so you won’t get twenty messages asking for “that one of us at the bar.”

Your photographer’s gallery usually arrives a few weeks later. Keep the two side by side: the professional photos for the album and the walls, the guest photos for the full story of the day. Guest shots are often the ones that end up in the thank-you cards because they show people you never saw during the evening.

Want the film-camera feeling instead of a live feed? Read our guide to the disposable camera app for weddings, or see how QR code photo sharing works in more detail. You can also find more ideas on our wedding page.