Method to get wedding photos from friends?

February 27, 2011 5:08 PM

I am getting married soon, and for my reception I'd like to set up an easy system for my friends and family to send me all of the photos that they took during the day. My friends in the past used a shared flickr account, giving the password away so everyone could log into the account and upload the photos. I'm wondering if any mefites have a better solution out there.

The shared flickr account idea above ended working quite well because flickr allows for extremely easy uploading, but has the drawback of exposing the password publicly. Is there anything out there that has a very easy interface to use that will allow all my guests to get their large photos to me as easily as possible?

posted by ajackson to computers & internet (19 answers total)

Something I really liked at a wedding I attended some years ago now was the inclusion of a pair of disposable cameras at each table at the reception. There was a little sign to indicate that we ought to use them and leave them, and all the pictures would be scanned/posted online. It worked great!

This was a good 5 years ago now, so maybe there's a smoother way to do the "scanning" part.
posted by Rallon at 5:20 PM on February 27, 2011

They could zip the files, upload them via a free service such as Megaupload, and then send you the link so you can download them.
posted by litnerd at 5:33 PM on February 27, 2011

Disposable cameras at weddings are great. It gives the guests something to do and talk about, instead of just doing the normal wedding stuff.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 5:33 PM on February 27, 2011

You could give everyone the email address where you can post to Flickr via email, then you don't have to give the password to anyone and most people can handle emailing photos.
posted by jessamyn at 5:34 PM on February 27, 2011 [5 favorites]

I like jessamyn's idea. A lot of web services have email-to-post functionality now, so if you don't want to go with Flickr, you could use Posterous, Tumblr, or probably lots more other ones.
posted by Magnakai at 5:36 PM on February 27, 2011

We brought our computer. People gave us their cards and we uploaded them right at the reception.

We loved it.
posted by beccaj at 5:42 PM on February 27, 2011 [3 favorites]

If people are already flickr users, you could create a group and have them upload the pics into a pool. Flickr FAQ on groups/pools
posted by librarina at 5:59 PM on February 27, 2011

We used iRave -- it allows people to upload on-site without requiring a password or via email. We included the URL in our programs.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 6:00 PM on February 27, 2011

I used box.net for my friends and family to share pictures so I could include them with a digital picture frame. It worked great.

For a wedding, many people would probably never get around to uploading them afterward though.
posted by DrumsIntheDeep at 6:24 PM on February 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Two services that I found when looking for the same capabilities when I got married in October 2009 were SeeYouThen and TheWeddingLens, we didn't end up going with either of them but they may be what you're looking for. Best of luck!!!
posted by GuppieXX at 6:28 PM on February 27, 2011

Seems to me, the cheapest and easiest way to do it would be to go the 'disposable' film camera on every table route. Then, use a service like this to have them converted to digital for you. Perhaps not the cheapest route, granted. (I've not used that service, btw, it was just the first one I found on a search)
posted by soplerfo at 6:33 PM on February 27, 2011

What about just getting a bunch of cheap digital cameras? like these

You could even donate them to a school or something after the wedding if you don't need them.
posted by soplerfo at 6:45 PM on February 27, 2011

I would look at just having them send you the files through the online file service mediafire. I think that if you have a mediafire account and are logged in any files sent to you can be saved directly to your account.
posted by jade east at 8:37 PM on February 27, 2011

It's a paid option, but MobileMe Gallery (part of the MobileMe online service from Apple) offers exactly this. You can set up a (very tasteful and attractive looking IMO) web gallery, and enable anyone who visits it to upload photos. They don't need a password or anything, and only you will have the access to DELETE photos while anyone can upload to it.
MobileMe costs $99 a year (worth it, again IMO), but there is some expectation that that will change some time in the near future.
The gallery function is totally usable through the web interface even if you are not a Mac user.
posted by raygan at 9:35 PM on February 27, 2011

Like becca, we had a computer at our wedding (2 actually) for folks to upload. Same for both my sisters. It worked well, especially for the folks that were less savvy about uploading things to the internet. You may want to try this in addition to having a place to upload on line.
posted by poyorick at 9:55 PM on February 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

3rd-ing bring a computer to the wedding.

We had a computer at the wedding and also the next day (we were lucky enough that many of our guests were staying at the same hotel as we were). One of my cousins was in charge of spreading the word and another was in charge of helping people copy their pictures onto the computer. It worked out beautifully!

We should have used some more volunteer-cousin-power to weed through the blurry pictures, though :)
posted by copperbleu at 1:11 AM on February 28, 2011

Why not hand everybody disposable cameras and have them give them to you when they are done?

Some places like wall mart have ones just for this occation and have them in packages for weddings and stuff.
posted by majortom1981 at 9:09 AM on February 28, 2011

For all those suggesting disposable cameras, the OP is asking how to get copies of the digital pictures that everyone will be taking. Yes, they could offer more cameras, but you know that many people bring their own digital cameras/smartphones to weddings and they are looking to collect those. Also, film processing is not cheap especially considering that you have no idea if any of the film pics are worth printing.

I have a flickr site set up and am not giving out the password but using the email address like jessamyn suggests. I am now thinking seriously about having a laptop at the recpetion as well, hmm.
posted by soelo at 9:29 AM on February 28, 2011

displosable cameras are not a cheap way to do this...film costs money to develop. why put that extra step in? people already have digital cameras, deleting bad pictures and copying good ones is cheap as free. i'm with a flickr pool, or if your friends are on facebook, set up a photo-sharing group right after the wedding, where people can join and post and share photos. friends of mine did that after their wedding (which I wasn't able to attend -- too far) and it was a great way to see everyone's photos and share them with those unable to be at the wedding.
posted by custard heart at 5:29 PM on February 28, 2011