Photo Hunt

August 28, 2012 11:12 AM

Where can all of my wedding guests post their photos to a group site, in the most painless way possible?

There are similar questions (Looking for a photo sharing site, Event photo hosting, and Where to upload our party photos) but they're from 2007 and 2008.

What's the best way to tackle this these days? Facebook group (most but not all guests have Facebook)? Shared Flickr account (most but not all guests understand Flickr)? Some other wonderful new thing that has been invented in the past four years? Bonus: how do I get our guests to actually follow through with uploading?

posted by kidsleepy to technology (20 answers total)

Facebook, unfortunately, is likely going to be the lowest common denominator among your guests.
posted by COD at 11:23 AM on August 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Your flickr account will have an email address. "Email your photos to [e-mail]" is pretty plainless and idiot-proof.
posted by DarlingBri at 11:24 AM on August 28, 2012 [6 favorites]

Try a Shutterfly website.
posted by thewumpusisdead at 11:24 AM on August 28, 2012

Give them all disposable film cameras. Have them all give you the cameras back at the end of the reception. Process them and post them to whatever site you like.
posted by inturnaround at 11:30 AM on August 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Have a small business-type card printed to hand out at the reception, maybe near the guest book or on the tables themselves, with instructions. "Please share your wedding photos by posting at xxxx" or "Please email your wedding photos to [e-mail]." That will give them a physical reminder to take home and they won't need to remember where they are supposed to post/email them. Finish them up with a "Many thanks for sharing, Bride & Groom."
posted by SweetTeaAndABiscuit at 11:41 AM on August 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

Bonus: how do I get our guests to actually follow through with uploading?

This is the hardest part. Tons of people took pictures at our wedding that we never saw. Oh well! We got enough. Don't get your hopes up about getting too many shots from your friends.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 11:43 AM on August 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Have a small business-type card printed to hand out at the reception, maybe near the guest book or on the tables themselves, with instructions.

Along these lines, you can also print out the instructions, put them in a fancy frame, and set it near the guestbook. At the bottom, tell them to snap a picture of the instructions, so they have a reminder to upload their photos to your site when they go through their wedding pics.
posted by donajo at 11:52 AM on August 28, 2012 [2 favorites]

Dropbox.
posted by thirdletter at 11:55 AM on August 28, 2012

Are you willing to pay for a service? Wedding Snap offers online albums to which pictures can be uploaded after the wedding, as well as an iPhone/Android app that your guests can use to take pictures that will upload automatically to your album if they're willing to use it instead of their native camera app.
posted by alynnk at 11:56 AM on August 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

Check out weddingturtle.com
I like that it allows for password protection, if you care about that, and they'll send you cards with the info that you can stick to your favors or in your thank you cards.
I'm using it for my upcoming wedding, so I can't say yet how it will work out, but I did receive the cards already.
posted by IdRatherNotSay at 1:20 PM on August 28, 2012

Put a laptop with a card reader and an assortment of cables next to a framed picture like SweetTeaAndABuscuit recommends and give people the option to copy over their SD cards. We did this at my wedding and got tons and tons of great pictures, including pictures from other people getting ready for the wedding or road tripping on the way.
posted by ChrisHartley at 1:32 PM on August 28, 2012 [4 favorites]

Give them all disposable film cameras. Have them all give you the cameras back at the end of the reception. Process them and post them to whatever site you like.

My wife, who spent two years working at a photo processing desk, says this is a good way to guarantee that your wedding photos are at least 33% under-the-table crotch shots.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:32 PM on August 28, 2012 [1 favorite]

(This may be a positive or negative in your view, I'm just throwing it out there)
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:32 PM on August 28, 2012

This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but if you plan to have plenty of guests with smart phones, there are a few apps out there that will post photos taken using the app onto a personal webpage that any guest can view. Many of these apps charge some $40 for the service, but I spotted a free one for the iPhone called Wedding Party that looked worthwhile. You will have to doublecheck if it's available for Android.

If that app doesn't work out, then there are probably several other apps out there that do the exact same thing and are free, but aren't specifically associated with weddings. You might have to do some digging to find these apps.
posted by nikkorizz at 3:30 PM on August 28, 2012

I did a little research and found a free app called PhotoCircle that's available on both iPhone and Android. It doesnt appear to charge anything or the service so you may want to look into it. It definitely beats having to pay the $40 service fee for the Wedding Snap app that was suggested in an earlier post.
posted by nikkorizz at 3:43 PM on August 28, 2012

We used Flickr for this, but only one person sent in pics.
posted by echo0720 at 3:56 PM on August 28, 2012

Google + Events does this.

But your guests all need to be hooked up with G+.

"Hipstamatic D-Series"? ["D" for Disposable]. iPhone only, however.

As far as encouraging guests to save their photos to the right place ... QR codes on place cards that link to a shared Dropbox/cloud storage site?
posted by notyou at 4:54 PM on August 28, 2012

Yeah, sadly, the lowest friction solution I've seen for this is G+ events...if anyone you know uses G+. If many of them do, any photos they take while checked into the event will be automatically shared to the event.
posted by town of cats at 11:37 PM on August 28, 2012

Give them all disposable film cameras. Have them all give you the cameras back at the end of the reception.

Flagged for obsolescence and ridiculous waste.

I looked into this for my mom last year, and we went with Shutterfly (of all places). *shrug* Doing it that way also makes it easy for people to order prints, too.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:57 AM on August 29, 2012

Flickr email address plus SD card reader laptop station = best combo
posted by k8t at 5:25 PM on September 1, 2012