How to Wrangle All the Wedding Photos Your Guests Took

There are few post-wedding-related things more anxious than waiting for your wedding photos. But while your photographer and videographer work to get everything ready on the professional front, there are some other images you can view to relive that magical night. All of those amazing snaps your guests took! Creating a wedding hashtag can help you locate some pics on social media, but you want to see every single picture that documented the evening, right?

When it comes to tracking down all those amazingly candid guest photos, these apps and programs can only go so far. “The biggest thing is to include instructions early and remind guests,” says Katelyn Wollet of Katelyn Wollet Photography. Whether those reminders are in the invitations, on your wedding website, or at the reception itself in some form, it’s up to you as a couple to spread the word about taking and sharing footage. Here are some programs and technologies out there that can help you gather all the photographic goods.

Set Up a Real Time Auto-Sharing Archive

Spreading quickly by word of mouth, The Guest is an app that allows users to easily auto-share all their great footage—no uploading or tagging required. It takes less than 10 minutes to invite your guests with a personalized link to a free app download, then you pay $97 for an event, which includes unlimited photo and video uploads. (You can also purchase a discounted three- or five-event package if you want to use The Guest for your bridal shower, bachelorette, and/or rehearsal dinner).

Couples typically get between 80 and 1,000 photos and videos from the app alone; that’s in addition to all the content from your professional photographer. And everything is uploaded in real-time, so you’ll have instant access. If auto-sharing seems risky to you, though, don’t worry. Users can turn off or pause sharing at any time and also delete any photos or videos, as can the couple.

The Best of All Dropboxes

Burner—a mobile app that works with both iOS and Android to create temporary phone numbers—has a special Dropbox Burner Connection that can store all those photos your guests take in one easy-to-access folder for the newlyweds.

This requires an extra step from your guests, but it’s totally worth it since you’ll have private access to all the photos (with the option to share the folder, too), which may be appreciated if they aren’t social media inclined. You can also use Burner to keep track of all RSVPs, use it as a voicemail “guestbook” to collect messages from your friends and family, or have it act as a wedding guest text message hotline to answer FAQs regarding your ceremony and reception. As a new user, you can snag a number for free for 30 days, then pay $4.99 a month after that.

The Free Option

Ceremony is an all-in-one app that the guests can use to collect photos, and that couples can also use for scheduling and updating big events. The app is free to join and use, but upgrades are available, such as a one-time $4.99 upgrade to Ceremony Pro, which allows you to download hi-res photos and videos. For $19.99, you can unlock your event and give every guest who attended your wedding access to the photo archives on the app. This is perfect for those who don’t want to bother the newlyweds as they hunt down that great friends photo by the bar, or a photo of Aunt June tearing up the dance floor.

The More Expensive (But All-Inclusive) Option

At the other end of the spectrum is Eversnap, a full-service app that does it all. Dish out $99 to $399 and you’ll get 200 instruction cards to either include in your invite envelopes or toss into those fun guest bags. Then, wedding-goers can snap pics through the app and use special photo filters or upload from their fast-growing galleries during the big day. Then you can create a wedding photo album of guest pics. It’ll even work if you’re in an area with bad service and there’s no connection.

Digital camera mavens can add photos through the website, while Windows phone users can email them to a unique address that will automatically add them to the main folder, which you can then share with your guests if you wish. You can also set up a live moderated slideshow during the reception so everyone can view a live stream via projector or screen as the fun unfolds for up to six hours. Plus, the folder will pull and add all photos from social media channels with your personalized hashtag.