How to get photos from your wedding guests
Your guests take hundreds of photos at your wedding, and most of them never reach you. Here are six ways to collect them, what each one is good at, and how to set up the one that does the collecting for you.
Why guest photos go missing
After a wedding, guest photos sit in dozens of camera rolls. A few get posted, a few arrive in the group chat, and the rest stay where they were taken. Nobody means to keep them; collecting them is nobody's job, and by the time you ask, the moment has passed.
The answer is to decide how photos reach you before the day, and to make it easier than doing nothing. Each way below does that to a different degree.
Six ways to collect them
- 01
Ask in the group chat afterwards
Free and familiar, but slow. Photos arrive compressed, a few at a time, from the guests who remember. Fine for a small wedding; poor for a big one.
- 02
A shared cloud folder
Better: one link, and full resolution if guests upload the originals. But it needs everyone on the same service, and most uploads happen days later, if at all.
- 03
A wedding hashtag
Easy to print, hard to collect. Photos land in public, mixed with strangers', and private accounts never show up. See a wedding hashtag alternative.
- 04
Disposable cameras on the tables
Charming and unpredictable. You pay for every camera and for developing, and wait for the prints. Our disposable camera calculator puts numbers on it.
- 05
A QR upload page
Guests scan a code and upload from their own camera roll. It works when they remember after the day, and you get whatever they chose to send.
- 06
One shared roll
Guests scan the invite card and shoot straight onto the same private roll during the day. Nothing to collect afterwards, because nothing leaves the roll. This is what papershot does.
How to set up a shared roll for your wedding
A shared roll works best when guests meet it early in the day and each shot feels worth taking. This is the setup that suits most weddings.
- 01
Make the moment a week before
Name it, set the start and the end, and pick a film look. Vintage or Black & white sets one look for everyone; Original lets guests choose.
- 02
Pick the size
A free moment takes 4 guests. Paid sizes run from 8 guests to unlimited, one payment, no subscription, and you can add guests until the moment ends.
- 03
Choose the shots per guest
5, 10, 16, 24, or 36. For a wedding, 16 or 24 is the sweet spot. See how many shots each guest should get.
- 04
Write a shot list
Guest Lens puts your prompts in every guest's camera, and each one ticks itself off when someone shoots it. Start with our wedding photo scavenger hunt.
- 05
Put a card on every table
Print the invite card, or set it in your colours first. Our QR code sign guide has wording and printable table cards.
- 06
Decide when it develops
As it happens, when the roll closes, or after a delay you set. Most couples pick the morning after. See when to reveal wedding photos.
What guests need to know
Guests need the papershot app on iPhone or Android, but not an account. They scan the card, type a name, and shoot. Say so on the card, and announce it once during the day: right after the ceremony works well, when every phone is out anyway.
- They can shoot without signal; shots upload when the connection comes back.
- Each guest gets the shots you set, plus one video and one memo.
- Until the roll develops, they see a blurred tile for each shot, with who took it and when. You see everything.
- They can sign in later to keep what they added.
After the wedding
A paid moment keeps the roll for 30 days after it closes. Download everything before then: one photo at a time, or the whole moment as one .zip, at full resolution. Photos and videos save to your library, and memos save as files.
Then make something from it. Studio lays photos off the roll over a backdrop with stickers and your own words, and exports at full resolution. More in making something from your guests' photos, and everything about the day itself on the wedding page.
