Brindo › Wedding guests’ photos
How to collect photos from your wedding guests
Short answer: make one shared album a few weeks before the wedding and put its QR code on every table. Ask guests to add their photos that evening and again the next morning. Brindo, the iPhone photo app, does this free during its beta: guests scan the code and add photos in their browser, with no app and no account, and you keep the ones you want. It takes photos, not videos.
Your guests take the photos you can’t: the tables you didn’t reach, the dance floor, the two of you from the back of the room. Afterwards they sit in other people’s camera rolls, and chasing everyone for them one by one rarely brings them all.
How do you get wedding guests to upload their photos?
Before the wedding
- Choose an album that needs no app and no account. Guests give up at an install or a sign-up, older relatives above all, so they should need only their phone’s camera.
- Make it a few weeks before. Check how long it stays open: some services close uploads a day after the wedding, others keep photos for a year.
- Try it in a test album with two friends. Scan the code on an iPhone and on an Android phone, add a photo, and see exactly what your guests will see.
- Put the QR code where guests look: the invitation, a sign at the entrance, a card on every table, or a private page of your wedding website.
On the day
- Say it once, out loud. Ask whoever gives the speeches, or the DJ, to mention the card on the tables.
- Ask a friend to add the first photos early, so the album isn’t empty when guests open it.
After the wedding
- Send one reminder the next morning, with the link, in the guests’ group chat or by message, while the photos are still the newest on everyone’s phone.
- Note when the album closes, and save the photos you want well before then.
Don’t expect every guest to add photos: often a few keen ones add most of them, many the next morning.
What should the QR code sign say?
Say what to do, that it takes nothing to install, and why you’re asking:
Add your photos from today
Scan with your phone’s camera. No app, no account.
So we can see the parts of the day we missed.
- Send the link as well, for anyone whose camera won’t scan. If your service has a short link, print it under the code; Brindo’s is long, so send it in a message or the guests’ group chat instead.
- Test a printed card before you print them all.
- Keep it to three lines. Guests read it at a glance, between courses.
Can guests upload photos without downloading an app?
Yes. GuestPix, Kululu and Brindo open in the browser. POV uses an App Clip on iPhone and a web page on Android. Apple says guests can add photos on the web to a Shared Album made in iOS 27 or later, “even without an Apple Account”. Google says its QR code opens the album in Google Photos; its help pages don’t say whether adding photos needs a Google Account.
Wedding photo sharing options compared
| Option | How guests add photos | Videos | How long photos stay | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brindo | QR code or link, in a browser or the Brindo app; a name, no account | No, photos only | 30 days after the last photo, 90 days at most | Free during the beta |
| Apple Shared Albums (iOS 27) | Link invite; on the web “even without an Apple Account”, Apple says | Yes | In your iCloud storage; temporary albums 30 days | Free; uses your iCloud storage (5 GB free) |
| Google Photos | Link or QR code; with Collaborate on, anyone with the link can add. Google doesn’t say whether that needs a Google Account | Yes | No end date stated | Free; uses Google storage (15 GB free) |
| GuestPix | QR code or private link, in the browser; no app, no sign-up | Yes, on paid packages | 12 months from the wedding | Free for 50 photos; $49, $89 or $119 per wedding |
| Kululu | QR code or link, in the browser; no app, no registration | Yes | 7 days free; 3 months or a year on paid plans | Free for 100 uploads; $39 or $99 per wedding |
| POV | QR code or link: an App Clip on iPhone, a web page on Android; photos from its own camera, shown later, or from the camera roll | Not stated | Not stated | Free up to 10 guests; $4.99 to $89.99 per wedding |
Apple’s albums hold up to 100 people, including you; a Brindo album up to 1,000. If you want videos, or photos kept online for a year, GuestPix or Kululu fits better.
How it works in Brindo
- Make a shared album in Brindo on your iPhone or iPad, named after the wedding, and add no photos until the day.
- Tap Invite. Brindo shows the album’s QR code and a link. Save a screenshot of the code for your signs and cards, and send the link in the guests’ group chat.
- Guests scan it, type their name and choose the photos to add, in their browser; nothing is sent by itself. Guests who have Brindo join in the app.
- Keep the ones you want. In the app you swipe through everyone’s photos and keep your favourites in Apple Photos, or keep every photo. Guests in a browser can save single photos or download them all.
To see photos before everyone else does, turn on approval: each new photo waits until you approve it. You can also close joining and remove someone along with their photos, and anyone can report a photo or block someone. Removing someone or making a new link gives the album a new QR code and stops the old one, so once the cards are printed, use approval instead.
- Photos, not videos.
- Up to 1,000 people and 20,000 photos in one album.
- The album lasts 30 days after the last photo is added, and never more than 90 days after the first; an empty album ends after 90 days. Each photo restarts the 30 days and the first starts the 90, so add nothing before the day, test in a separate album, and save what you want before the date the album shows.
- Photos are encrypted on the phone or in the browser before they are sent.
- Free during the public beta.
For a smaller group, such as friends after a party, see how to get everyone’s photos in one album.
Questions people ask
Is there a free way to collect photos from wedding guests?
Yes. Google Photos and Apple’s Shared Albums are free and use your own storage, and Brindo is free during its beta. GuestPix and Kululu have free plans with limits (50 photos; 100 uploads kept for 7 days) and charge once per wedding for more.
Will our guests’ photos be full quality?
Brindo doesn’t shrink them: it keeps each photo as the file the guest’s phone sent, and that is the file you keep in Apple Photos. From a browser on an iPhone, that file is usually a JPEG copy.
What about older relatives who aren’t tech savvy?
They point the phone’s camera at the QR code, type a name and choose photos: no app to install and no account. Someone can also send them the link in a message, or help them at the table.
Can guests see each other’s photos?
Yes: everyone who joins sees every photo. With approval on, a new photo appears only after you approve it; until then only you, any co-hosts and the guest who added it can see it. Anyone with the code can join, so keep it to the invitations, the tables and a private page of your wedding website.
Will every photo on a guest’s phone be uploaded?
No. Guests choose which photos to add; nothing is sent by itself.
What about our photographer’s photos?
They usually come separately, in the photographer’s own gallery. The shared album is for everyone else’s photos.
Neither of us has an iPhone. Can we use Brindo?
No: a Brindo album is made in the app on an iPhone or iPad, and guests join in a web browser. Google Photos or a QR service such as GuestPix or Kululu fits better.
More answers
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- Clean out your camera rollToo many photos to go through? Where to start, step by step.
- Clean up safelyScared to delete the wrong photo? What to check, and how to get one back.
- Everyone’s photos in one album“Send me the photos!” How to collect everyone’s in one place.