How to collect photos from wedding guests, before, during and after the day
To collect photos from wedding guests, give them one place to put photos that costs them nothing: no app, no account, no chasing afterwards. A QR code on the tables that opens a shared album does exactly that. The group chat, a shared drive and disposable cameras all work too, and each loses something this guide names.
By Daniel Page, Founder, Mosaikin
What are the ways to collect photos from wedding guests?
| Method | What you get | What it loses |
|---|---|---|
| The group chat | Photos from the people who think to send them, usually the morning after | Quality and order: the chat compresses every photo and video, and by Monday the ones that matter are under three hundred messages |
| A shared drive folder | Full-size files from the organised few | Everyone else: a sign-in, an upload page on a phone, and a link they have to find again a fortnight later |
| A hashtag | Whatever guests chose to post publicly | The quiet half of the room, the private accounts, and everything taken after the posting stopped |
| Disposable cameras | A roll per table, developed weeks later | Most of each roll in practice: dark rooms, thumbs, and the flash from the table opposite |
| A QR code to a shared album | Every photo and video, full size, from everyone who scans, as they take them | The guests who never scan, which is why where you put the code matters |
The honest test of any “no app needed” service is the number of taps between the scan and the first photo. Many still ask for a name, an email address, a verification code or an app for video. With Mosaikin it is scan, tap the link, add photos; the name is optional and nobody is asked for an email address. See Do I need an account to join an event?
What should you tell guests before the day?
Send the link once, early, where guests already look. Mosaikin’s invitation page carries the date, the place, an “Add to calendar” button and a one-tap link into the event, with a form for guests to say whether they are coming. See What is the invitation page?
- Take the photos the photographer cannot. Your own table, the dance floor from inside it, the people the couple never got round to.
- Add them that evening, not next week. The photos arrive on the screen while everyone is still in the room, and the ones added later join the same album.
- Videos are welcome, up to 50 MB each. Ten seconds of the speeches beats a blurry minute.
- Old photos too. A scan of the two of you as children, the engagement weekend, the hen do. Screenshots and scans upload just as well as new photos.
How do you collect photos during the day?
A code on every table, a poster where everyone passes, and one line from the person with the microphone. The code is where this starts: QR code for wedding photos covers printing and placing it. Put the live slideshow on the venue’s screen and guests who see photos arriving add their own; the wedding photo wall explains that.
Venue signal is the usual enemy, and the upload screen is built for it: photos wait on the guest’s phone and carry on when the connection returns, and videos upload in pieces so a drop resumes rather than restarts. Every photo is cleaned of its location data and passes a safety check before it appears, and you can switch on Require approval to see everything first. See What happens if I lose signal? and Are photos checked before they appear?
How do you collect photos after the wedding?
The album stays open. Send the link once more the morning after and, on an upgraded event, attach the highlight reel: an MP4 built from the best-liked photos, which does more than any deadline. Photos keep arriving for days and join the same gallery.
Then take your own copy. On an upgraded event, every photo comes down as one download at full display size, camera metadata removed, each file named after the guest who took it. See What is in the photo archive?
On an upgraded event the archive stays available for 5 years. A free event is kept for six months after the event date, as the Host Terms set out. Either way, take your own copy early: it is one click and one file.
Creating the event is free, with up to 30 photos. To keep everything, upgrade that one event with a single payment, Premium £89 for most weddings, with no subscription. See pricing, and weddings on Mosaikin for the whole picture.
Read next: See how Mosaikin works for a wedding
Questions people ask
Can guests add photos after the wedding?
Yes. The album stays open and anything added later joins the same gallery. Send the link again the morning after; on an upgraded event, attach the highlight reel.
What resolution do guest photos come back at?
On an upgraded event the archive returns every photo at full display size, up to 4096 pixels on the longest edge, re-saved as JPEG with camera metadata removed. Photos are shrunk in the guest’s browser before they are sent, which is why they finish quickly on venue WiFi; videos are sent exactly as recorded.
Do guests need an app or an account?
No. Guests scan the QR code or open the link and use their phone’s browser. There is no app, no account and no password, and nobody is asked for an email address.
Is the group chat really that bad for wedding photos?
For sharing a few, no. For collecting all of them, yes: every photo and video is compressed, nothing is organised, and by Monday the ones that matter are buried. A WhatsApp group or Mosaikin sets it out side by side.
How much does it cost to collect wedding photos this way?
Creating an event is free, with up to 30 photos. To keep everything from the day, upgrade that one event with a single payment: Premium £89 suits most weddings. There is no subscription and nothing renews.
Sources
- Mosaikin competitor research, August 2026: app-store and Trustpilot reviews of other guest-photo apps, and vendor pricing pages read live on 14 and 15 August 2026.