Mrs. Flamingo, Montreal, Canada
Age and Occupation: 25, Graphic Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Nursing Student
Engagement Date: December 2004
Wedding Date: June 21, 2008
Venue: Imperia Hotel (modern chic hotel)
About Me: I am a passionate designer who loves anything pretty. I heart all paper products (eco-friendly of course). My passion revolves around anything considered glamour; vintage and modern. In my free time, I love reading Martha mags, designing jewelry and making a pit-stop at Starbucks for a chai latte. I'm also a chocoholic at heart and my family drools over my homemade truffles.
Photo Sharing
June 6th, 2008 @ 11:00 am by Mrs. Flamingo
At both my father and sister’s wedding, disposable cameras were placed on each table for candid shots throughout the wedding day. At first I thought I would continue the ‘tradition’ but realized that because the majority of people have digital cameras, the use of disposable cams was not necessary.
Mrs. Lemon and Mrs. Cherryblossom utilized photo sharing sites so their guests could upload pics freely. But there are so many photo programs out there that I don’t know which one is best. I want something that is visually appealing with very little ads. I like the option that our guests can order pictures if they would like, but it’s not a must.Here are some Free Photo Programs I found so far…. click on the icon to go to the website.
Any suggestions on which program I should go with? Will you be asking your guests to upload pictures? Which program will you be using?
45 Responses to “Photo Sharing”
I would NOT recommend a photobucket account for this purpose.
That’s funny, because the only one that I’ve used and been happy with is photobucket (qoop.com, the service that handles their printing, had fantastic customer service when I used them!)!
The one that I wouldn’t recommend is Kodak Gallery because it requires that people create an account and log in to view photos (and for some reason it’s either really slow for me all the time (no matter what computer I’m using) or it crashes my browser). Flikr is also good and I’ve heard good things about Picasa (though I’m not sure if you can order prints from it).
Thank you for posting this. I was just searching Weddingbee last night for more info on this. I’m leaning towards Picasa, but would love to hear what others have done first.
I used Flickr and it worked pretty well. Like Mrs. Lemon, I liked that you can download all the photos that people post to get them printed wherever you want. It is also nice for guests who want to download the pictures for their own use.
That funny, last night I started my Flikr account. I also tried Kodak and it was super slow then it messed all my stuff up. So, don’t do Kodak. I am still going to mess around with Flikr to see how I like it.
I have a snapfish account and I use it all the time. I also have a kodak account. I heard that snapfish will close your account and erase all your pictures if you do not purchase some thing after a certain amount of time. My sister had a snapfish account and her pictures were erased. she called them a couple of times and were finally able to get them back. Kodak does not delete your pictures and you do not have to purchase anything to keep your pictures.
No real advice, but please don’t use snapfish. My cousin used that for her wedding images and I really dislike how that site operates. You need an account to view images, and for some reason, it took several attempts for me to actually be able to save a photo. Flickr’s set up is much nicer IMO.
One thing to note about Flickr, if you have a free account only a certain number of images can be viewed at a time. I had tried uploading all the pics from my cousin’s shower, bachelorette, wedding, etc and I received a warning that I had gone over my free user limit and only the most recent photos would be visible.
Phew. Long comment.
i second that you do NOT use photobucket. it has a lot of ads, seems overrun by teenyboppers, and is always VERY slow when i try to use it.
@Mia - it’s good to know that I’m not the only one that has problems with Kodak 
I have no experienc with compiling others photos into one shared account, only my own accounts, and then viewing other people’s accounts. I have snapfish, shutterfly, & kodak. I’ve found the quality is best on kodak, but the value is best on shutterfly. Snapfish & Shutterfly have a 1 yr purchase policy, ie: you need to purchase at least 1 print per year to keep your account active and photos saved. What I dislike about all of these accounts is that when someone sends you their photos to view, even if you “save” them to your account, you cannot edit them. So, for example, if someone loads photos and doesn’t put them in the right side up then when you view them they remain the wrong side up. Anyways, not as big a deal as not being able to edit/crop them for your own purchase.
I’m a Flickr fan as well. I typed up instructions for all my guests (adapted from Miss Cream Puff and Mrs. Lemon) to upload photos to a shared account. I hope they do it!
I have only used Kodak but I really like it, I feel like a lot of people I know have the kodak software already, so it would be even easier for them to download the picture into their own system. I currently use it to send my friends and family picture of our gatherings. You just create and album (and you can edit the picture at this time) and then load them on to the website, and invite friend via e-mail to visit. The person that loads the picture on to the website can choose wether or not to have people sign in to view the picture. So if they choose not to, people can just view the picture and browse without signing in or creating an account. I’m not sure if you have to create an account to order things, but I would think you would have to, at Kodak and all the other sites.
I haven’t had a problem with kodak being slow (it does take a little while to upload pictures to the website, but I am usually uploading A LOT of pictures so I expect some wait.
Hope all of this random information helps.
I just doublechecked - you can order pictures from picasa. You’re given the option of which photo printing service you want them sent to: Shutterfly, Photoworks, or Snapfish. So some people may want to just simplify and go with shutterfly or snapfish….but because I love all things google and already have a lot of photos there, I am leaning towards picasa. Haven’t quite decided yet!
I just created a Flickr account, but then realized that there’s a $25 fee per year for photos over 100MB, which is roughly 100 photos or less. I thought that it was free? Does anyone have thoughts on something similar but free of charge?
i concur with the rest, say no to snapfish and photobucket. i like flickr, but the limitation bothers me so i never use my account. and i love picasa!! but maybe I’m partial towards anything google
We have a SmugMug account. My husband obsessively researched photo sharing sites and decided that SmugMug was the best (for our purposes). You can view photos in several sizes (largest format is almost full-screen) either one at a time or as a slideshow. I’ll send you a link to one of our albums if you’re interested in checking out the functionality, etc. 
Let me know!
I LOVE smugmug. I’ve been using them for a few years and they are great! However, I think you have to pay to use it. I like the fact that you can just give people a website to go to, you don’t have to actually invite them to view your pictures. They also don’t have to create their own account to view them. They can still order prints if they want. You also have lots of options for adding captions, etc. Send me a PM if you want to see my smugmug page.
I haven’t tried to upload photos to a group site, but friends used Picasa for their wedding photos. I could view the photos and download the files without any trouble. (I already have a google login from my gmail account - so I can’t remember if you needed to login to view).
Sorry to be slow here, but how do you create the “group” account? I’ve only ever done it for just myself…..
@Lunapark- I was glad to, I thought for sure it was just me. So, to the ladies that are doing this how are you wording the instructions? Do the guest have to register or are you giving your pass word? It was not hard to register for Flickr, but it would be easier just to do the password. What works best?
i used flickr for our guests, and it worked well! i used vistaprint to make little business cards with the username and password, as well as my cell and email in case our older guests had problems. we got over 500 pictures from it!
you do have to upgrade to the pro account… but that’s only $25 a year.
I do NOT like flickr. Yahoo! replaced their old Yahoo! photos program with flickr, and unless you want to sign up for a premium account, you don’t even get to see more than 200 photos. I have found snapfish to work well.
I used a shared Flickr account as well. (You just create a new username and password, and that’s what you give to your guests.) By the time we got back from the honeymoon there were more than 600 pictures in there! One thing I like is that you can change privacy settings easily (aka, I just made all the uploaded bachelorette party photos private so I can share the rest with my coworkers without fear — but those with the password can still see them.)
Oh, one more thing on Flickr — if you do a shared account, you only have to pay one $25 fee to go pro — as opposed to all your guests having to pay $25 to see 200+ pictures.
We’d like to do this, but we’re concerned that someone will either accidentally or thinking negatively, purposefully, change the password. Is there any photo site that lets you “lock” the password, or only an administrator may change the password?
Smugmug looks awesome. And I don’t mind paying a little bit. But it doesn’t seem like wedding guests could upload their pictures to your Smugmug site. Is that true? I wonder how it would be to set up a Flickr account for guests to share their pics, then you could download the ones you want to your choice of other photo sites.
don’t laugh, but Walgreen’s is the best. You have to sign in to see pictures…but people can download high resolutions of your pictures.
When I have had friends upload to my smugmug account, I change my password to let them upload the pictures and then change it back after they’re done.
To change the password you have to go into the control panel and such, so I doubt that anyone could do that accidentally. Your guests can just log in, click add photos to album if you already have an album started, click an upload option (I like the drag and drop) and then upload the pictures.
I’m Flickr Loyal - I would just make sure that you get a Pro account ($25 for a year of unlimited uploads).
I was thinking of doing flickr and upgrading to a Pro account as time got nearer and was planning on adapting my instructions from Mrs. Lemon’s. Keep us updated on what you end up going with and what wording you use!
Just my 2 cents. Picasa is great, but it requires that you download their program. Not everyone likes to do that and I’m skeptical that people won’t want to download it.
Flickr just seems to be more user friendly, especially for those non-savvy internet folks
I’m using Flickr. If you have a Verizon Yahoo account or SBC Yahoo, you can get flickr pro for free. Just update your flickr email address to your Verizon Yahoo or SBC Yahoo account.
For those who use Flickr, if your guests want to upload, do they have to create an account or is there a way for them to upload to your account so the pictures are all located on one account? I tried to use it and admittedly, I’m not that tech savvy, and it seemed to require every user to create an account?
I just saw the posting above about creating a username and password; I guess I’m just worried about privacy because it is the same user name and password as my Yahoo email account.
Skip the uploading all together with Canditto.com!
Canditto costs at least $400! That $25 pro Flickr account or free Picasa account is sounding better and better.
My mom used to use Snapfish all the time, until they sent her an 8×10 in an IRS envelope, which included a warning that it is against the law for anyone other than the IRS to use. We haven’t used them since.
@misslemon: Is there a chance that I could see how you worded your photosharing directions (or anyone else’s, for that matter)? This is my DIY project for the weekend and would love your help. Thanks!
missharbers at yahoo dot com
Dimples, create a new yahoo account specifically for the wedding. Then use that as your FLICKR account. That way you can give out your username & pswd to people without them accessing your main email. That’s what I did, and so far I’m happy with FLICKR.
Another option is dotphoto.com - I’ve been using them for many years and have had minimal problems. I LOVE the quality of their photos and you can download big versions to your desktop and all that good stuff. Free, too!
We just released a web service that is designed to do exactly what you are asking to do. Check it out! A private service dedicated to your wedding only. Guests can create private profiles in your site, etc.
High Res Photo Collecting from Friends, family and guests (and the pro if you have the rights).
Try it out (choose from over 100 themes with more on the way, matching invitations, have fun with it.
I totally love flickr. the site is both easy to use and attractive.
dunno if yahoo! has a service provider partner in the US, but in Canada, if your ISP is rogers, you can get a pro account for free by linking a rogers email address with the yahoo! address used for registering/logging into flickr.
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regarding smt’s comment about a verizon yahoo acct and free upgrade to flickr pro…
does anyone know what a verizon yahoo acct is? if i have a yahoo acct and i have verizon fios, does that mean i get the free upgrade flickr pro? thanks for any info!
@lizzykittycat: from Mrs. Lemon’s post: EDIT: If you have a AT&T/SBC Internet account, then a flickr.com account is FREE for you!!! Just sign up for Flickr using your account’s email address and password (ie. @sbcglobal.com, etc.) and your pro access will be free as long as you have an account with them! If you already have a flickr account, simply change the email on the account to your AT&T/SBC account email, and your pro account will be upgraded to pro for free! http://www.weddingbee.com/2007/08/30/collecting-non-pro-photos/
