Sharing is Caring

Sharing is Caring

July 15th, 2011 @ 1:29 pm by Mrs. Snow Cone
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At some point during my blog-surfing, I was introduced to the idea of a photo-sharing card to ask your guests to post their photos online at one central website so anyone and everyone can take a peek. I immediately bookmarked the idea, thinking it was an ingenious way to get our grubby little newlywed paws on our guests’ photos to hold us over until the professional pictures become available and to give us an additional photographic perspective on the day’s events.

I tasked BM K with the duty of finding a site that would work for us. I wanted a place that would allow easy uploads without downloading or installing any software, tons of storage space, and the ability to upload/print full-resolution photos. In no time, she delivered her official recommendation: Shutterfly. I took her at her word and decided Shutterfly would be the site for us.

After our positive experiences with VistaPrint with our save the dates, I decided that we’d disseminate our photo-sharing site information on a business card from VP.

I’m not even going to try to fudge it and take any credit for the wording—I blatantly stole from Mrs. Cream Puff. In just a few minutes, I’d created our wedding-specific Gmail account for everyone to use, our photo-sharing site and designed our business cards to be sent off to the printer. They just came in the mail, so take a peek!

The game plan is to pop one of these cards at each place setting and include them in thank-you notes, in case people need a little extra encouragement or misplace their cards in the aftermath of the wedding. I’m not sure what sort of reaction we’ll get; I’ve heard quite a few tales of couples receiving a paltry amount of photos. However, I keep reminding myself that we have a small group of guests who moonlight as paparazzi; they take more photos than any fifty people combined. I figure that if some of those guests utilize the website and no one else does, it’ll still be a worthwhile investment.

Do you have any experiences with wedding photo-sharing, either as a guest or a bride? How did it go?

Tags: photography, pittsburgh, stationery |

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20 Responses to “Sharing is Caring”

Member

lisaelanna (message) 315 posts, Helper bee

I’m doing the same thing, but hadn’t even thought of including them with thank you notes. What a great idea!

7/15/11 @ 1:31 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Macarons (message) 235 posts, Helper bee

We’re doing this too! But I’m hoping it will help curb early sharing on Facebook. We’d like to approve what gets posted and what doesn’t.

7/15/11 @ 1:32 pm (reply)

Guest

sara

I had a friend do this for her wedding and unless you have paid to get extra space, I’d be careful. As a guest, I figured okay, I’ll just upload the 50 or so shots I took so she can have them all - but even my 50 shots went over the upload limit since they were high-res. I didn’t really have the energy/patience to save them as low-res and re-upload them, so they ended up on facebook instead.

7/15/11 @ 1:42 pm (reply)

Member

tocarat (message) 324 posts, Helper bee

I’ve been to a few weddings this summer and both couples started a group on facebook for guests to add pictures too…it’s worked great!! It may be unfortunate for those few who don’t have facebook, but otherwise I think it’s a great alternative!

7/15/11 @ 1:51 pm (reply)

Member

kaytieluv (message) 28 posts, Newbee

I just did this for my wedding at the end of June. Most everybody who took pictures (and is savvy enough to know how to upload them) posted them on Facebook, while only one person posted them to the designated site. I didn’t think it was really worth the extra effort we took to make the cards. Hopefully you’ll have better luck than us!

7/15/11 @ 2:08 pm (reply)

Member

bRooklynRocks (message) 3,767 posts, Honey bee

@kaytieluv: My wedding was a couple of weeks ago and I found out the same way. Most folks didn’t use the cards as I thought they would. It’s still early days yet. But I am not holding out too much hope. It sucks because there are many more pictures on FB but since neither of us are on FB, we can’t view them

7/15/11 @ 2:15 pm (reply)

Member

slicey19 (message) 2,844 posts, Sugar bee

@bRooklynRocks: Even without a facebook account, you can view photos, just ask the owner of the album to send you the link at the bottom of the page which is specifically for sharing off of facebook. I do this for my mom quite often and she can see the full album. I’m sure your friends would happily send you the links to their photos and I think you can even download them from there as well.

7/15/11 @ 2:25 pm (reply)

Member

slicey19 (message) 2,844 posts, Sugar bee

I also skipped the upload card based on a friend’s less than impressed response to hers. Basically she got uploaded photos from her mom and aunt and me, all people who would have given her the photos anyway. However, I still wonder if it would have been a good idea to use as a way to get photos from aunts and others who are not so internet savy?

7/15/11 @ 2:27 pm (reply)

Guest

marlew

I did it and only 2 people out of 200 used it. I will admit, I was totally bummed out. I included the info attached to our parting gifts for all of the guests and in our thank you gifts. Sigh!

7/15/11 @ 2:51 pm (reply)

10.

Member

ajayler86 (message) 28 posts, Newbee

We’re doing the same thing, except we are using postcards from vistaprint.

I bought the copyrights from my photographer, so I’m hoping that the guests who are interested in the professional pictures can be lured with the promise of viewing our professional pictures!

Here’s hoping that it works for both of us!

7/15/11 @ 3:01 pm (reply)

11.

Guest

Erin E

I know this is too late for you, Snow Cone, but it might help others. Shutterfly actually has nice sharing sites! You don’t have to give them infomation to sign into your account, you can create a site that they can upload pictures to.

Just sign in to your account, then click “Share” all the way at the top. It will walk you through the rest.

7/15/11 @ 3:40 pm (reply)

12.

Bee

Mrs. Cinnamon Bun (message) 1,100 posts, Bumble bee

I did cards like this for our KnotPic account.
We’ve got about 150+ photos in it right now - lots from my mum that I uploaded because we attached her camera to my computer to see everything the day after the wedding. A bunch from CB’s stepdad, that CB downloaded off facebook and uploaded himself. And yes, we have had some from friends, but the bulk of it has been us pulling stuff off facebook and adding it ourselves.
One of my uncles in England is mailing me a USB stick with all the photos he took (and, to be fair, some of the videos he did too).

I do have to say though, that I made a bad paper choice when I printed the cards - they really blended in with our table toppers.

7/15/11 @ 3:44 pm (reply)

13.

Bee

Miss Pony (message) 4,171 posts, Honey bee

I really want to do this too, but I wonder if it’s worth the effort given what some of the others here have mentioned. Hopefully it works splendidly for you and you can give us a great report after your wedding!

7/15/11 @ 5:59 pm (reply)

14.

Bee

Miss Seal (message) 1,179 posts, Bumble bee

The photosharing idea is so smart!!! I think I need to hop aboard this train! Thanks for the inspiration my lovely little Snow Cone

7/15/11 @ 7:47 pm (reply)

15.

Member

weddingstars2012 (message) 430 posts, Helper bee

Oh I love this.

7/15/11 @ 10:58 pm (reply)

16.

Member

culby cheese (message) 193 posts, Blushing bee

Good luck! I included these in my thank you notes when we got married last May, and not one person added photos to the site. I don’t know if our crowd just didn’t get it, but I was kind of bummed out about it. We did get pics off Facebook & my in-laws burned a CD of all the pictures they & my SIL took, so that was good.

7/16/11 @ 10:12 am (reply)

17.

Bee

Mrs. Tartlet (message) 3,207 posts, Sugar bee

We didn’t think of photo sharing until after the wedding, but through Shutterfly got quite a few very precious photos! I hope your guests utilize the site!

7/16/11 @ 4:55 pm (reply)

18.

Member

Bowden2Be (message) 39 posts, Newbee

We used Vistaprint for our StD’s and Photo Request cards as well! What a fantastic deal they offer! (Though I was saddened to find out the oversize postcards take a .44c stamp instead of the reg .28c! oh well, I still love them.)

http://i55.tinypic.com/x1d8oj.jpg
http://i53.tinypic.com/zsmj2t.jpg

I know they don’t match, but I just loved the leaf design of the postcards. The business cards match the wedding much better.

7/17/11 @ 9:34 pm (reply)

19.

Member

Bowden2Be (message) 39 posts, Newbee

To add… through Vistaprint I only paid $4 for 250 business cards, ok… $7 after shipping. And we will upgrade to Flickr Pro when the time comes closer to the day (I want to get the most out of my year’s subscription)!
I decided on Flickr Pro because of the guidance received from Mrs. Cherry Pie… her Flickr collection is super gorge! I also would like to add photos from December’s FL beach engagement session and the photos taken at our legal marriage ceremony back in March on our site to [finally!] share with family.

7/17/11 @ 9:44 pm (reply)

20.

Member

labrat (message) 472 posts, Helper bee

You have the right idea about getting them out… We did small photo cards with one of 8 (I think) engagement pictures on the front with the details on the back. We didn’t stick them on the tables but rather by the guest book. As not everyone signed the guest books, they didn’t pick up a card. Same with our seed pack favors, we didn’t have them at the tables but on the guest book table. It turns out that if it’s not on the table they eat at, they will most likely not pick it up.

7/22/11 @ 11:30 am (reply)