

Ask HN: Collect wedding photos? - porker

I'm getting married in a couple of months and we want to collect our guests' photos of the wedding.<p>I'd envisaged embedding a 3rd party service in the website, which collected guest name, email address and let them drag and drop their photos in to upload - but can't find one.<p>I haven't the time to build this, and don't want to resort to guests emailing (attachments too large) or burning CD's (no one will do). Do you know of such a service? Is there another way I've overlooked?<p>[Our older guests won't manage this - they can't even complete a simple RSVP form online - but hopefully the rest will!]
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flexxaeon
If you want to go the app route, there are indeed quite a few apps made for
this purpose. I've come across several but can't outright recommend one. A
search for "wedding photo app" will give you several results. Downside:
getting everyone to download the app, learning curve of a new app.

You could also go the "hashtag route", where they can share the photo in the
method that they're already accustomed to, and include the hashtag you choose.
From there you can use a photo aggregator to search for the photos. Downside:
not as private as an app, possibly not as thorough as an app

Shameless plug: the web app in my profile is an aggregator, finds photos by
hashtag, collects them into one gallery.

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porker
Thanks @flexxaeon, we definitely don't want to go the app route because...
most guests won't have any phone capable of running an app. The hashtag route
is a good idea, but 50% of the guests don't share photos any way at present
(save attaching the occasional one or two to email).

I'll keep thinking!

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kevinrpope
This is a pretty low-tech (and more expensive) solution, but at our wedding
reception, we put a disposable camera on each table and encouraged people to
just grab them and snap pictures. Afterwards we got them developed, and all of
them came with a CD of the pics.

This obviously doesn't capture shots taken with other cameras/phones, but is a
start.

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JacobAldridge
I'm tempted to suggest Dropbox. Depending on the number of guests, you might
need to be careful about the volume of photos at any point (of course, bonus
storage for you for inviting a lot of new guests).

It's not ideal because I don't think you can control read / write access but
'it just works' which is an advantage.

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porker
The trouble is, it requires Dropbox to be installed on their computer (unless
I'm mistaken?), the shared folder joined, etc? I hate to say it but this will
be too complicated for most - I've had to set up Dropbox for my parents as
they couldn't, and they're more computer savvy than half the guests.

Wish I could though, as it would be a nice easy approach!

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gregcohn
This is a very lazyweb kind of question. There are any number of old school
photo apps you could use (e.g. Flickr with private groups) and any number of
new photo apps on the scene with this value proposition (e.g. Tracks).

A detailed look comparing them for this purpose would be an interesting
discussion.

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porker
Thanks Greg, it wasn't that kind of question because I hadn't done my
research! Flickr would be good, but it requires people to create an account
and get to grips with using the site; I wasn't aware of Tracks but from what
the site shows it's geared towards people with smartphones?

It would certainly be an interesting discussion and if I get round to it I'll
let you know.

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bnycum
<https://theflockapp.com/weddings> Looks to be what you are looking for.
Created by Bump (YC S09).

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porker
Thanks - in 10 years time it would be ideal, but here in the UK and with half
the guests aged 50+ there's a distinct lack of smartphones!

