This post is somewhat of a continuation on having a plugged-in wedding. I already noted that I wanted to encourage the use of cell phones and cameras during our wedding—especially during the reception. To try to get more people to take pictures, I created the I Spy cards I told you about earlier. But then of course there’s the issue of actually getting the pictures.
Many of our friends and relatives have smart phones, so we looked into paid apps like Wedding Snap or Snap the Wedding. In the end, we just didn’t want to allot any amount of money toward this when 1.) We were already paying a professional photographer and 2.) We weren’t sure how many people would actually download the app and take pictures with it. We also weren’t sure about those who had cameras—why pay for a service when only half of the guests at the wedding could use it?
We moved on from this idea and set about creating a wedding website. We decided on mywedding.com (more on how we chose a wedding website later). While setting up our free website, we noticed that they had a wedding app available for download and integration, at no extra cost. Thinking it probably wasn’t all that great, I downloaded it to test it anyway.
Kind of a cute icon! Once you open up the app and join our wedding, you see a screen like this.
I really love the look of the app. I think it’s streamlined and cute without being overpowering. There’s also the option to post pictures or add a note by both the app creator and the guests. Here you can see a picture that I posted with the options to add a photo or a note at the bottom of the page.
Guests can like or comment on pictures—similar to Facebook. In fact, there’s optional Facebook integration throughout the app. Furthermore, as the app creator, I have the option on each post to delete, share on Facebook, save the photo, or tag people in the photo.
I invited a people to test drive the app with me—so I have a few “guests” on my guest page.
So far I am loving it! I am really excited about being able to use this for our wedding. The tricky part will be encouraging guests to download the app (it’s a free download available both in the App Store and Google Play) and encouraging them to take pictures through the app or use the app to upload photos. The current plan is to hand out small cards with app information, and it’s on our website too, of course.
For our guests don’t have smart phones, I want to encourage them to still take and share pictures—but we’re still working out that aspect! So far all I have is manually uploading them to Facebook and tagging us, using a hashtag, or emailing them to our wedding address. Any other suggestions?
Pictures can be viewed “timeline” style on the app, or on our website as a photostream. Hypothetically, we could invite people who weren’t able to be at the wedding to view pictures in live time on their smart phones or online. I’m thinking about asking a few people to be especially diligent about snapping pictures! Of course, we’ll try to upload pictures to Facebook as well.
Whew. That’s all I’ve got. Now, you tell me. Has anyone used this or any other apps at their wedding? Did you have success?
We used Wedding Party. My mom was insistent on having a site where guests could easily upload pictures, I wasn’t really into it. But in the end, we loved having the guest photos that were shared on the app! It was SO easy to use, and a lot of guests posted pictures that were fun to see as soon as the wedding was over!
FI and I went to a wedding in the fall that used that app! I didnt know anyone there (the groom was a HS buddy of FI), but I still used (and loved) the app. We’re planning on using it for our own wedding next June.
The bride and groom at the wedding we went to had the info on their website, program, and on cards at each place setting. Worked great!
This is AWESOME. Thank you! I’d love to know more about your signage for the whole thing. I do have a few friends (and family) without smartphones, and I want to be sure to get their photos, too. Of course, those are the same folks who probably don’t know what a hash tag is… so it might be a losing cause.
Love the idea- will have to check it out. Im definitely having a plugged in wedding too 
@Mrs. Lyre: Oh this is so encouraging! I’m really looking forward to seeing our pictures. p.s. Also looking forward to your recaps
@Ashley: Yay I’m glad to hear about other couples that used it! I was definitely thinking little cards at the place settings would be the best way of doing it at the wedding.
@mkelove: That was something I read about a little but didn’t really look into much! It seemed like a cool idea though.
@Sunnybrook: I’m still working on that part of it 
I will definitely keep you updated!There will be more posts on this in the future… but I am going to put an email address on there. Everyone has email right?
@papercrafter: I’m excited about what I can do with it!!
This is a really great idea. One of my good friends is addicted to his smart phone AND loves to take pictures, so maybe I’ll have to get this just for him!
I love this idea! We are looking at using snapthewedding at our wedding; we figure it’s going to be a nightmare trying to make sure no one is using their cell phones, so we might as well do our best to at least get a hold of the pictures that are taken! We’ve had a pretty good response from our guests so far when we mention it, so fingers crossed when the big day comes they all still like the idea!
We used Wedding Party and were very happy with it. So were our guests!
I just got my smart phone this week and I’ve been really excited to try that app! I’m glad you’re liking it!
Did you send out the App info with the invitations so your guests had it downloaded? Is it fast enough where I can have the info on the table for guests to download right at the reception or do I have to “add” friends to my page like Facebook?
This looks great! (And your engagement pics are so pretty) Just one question.. How do the guests “join” your wedding on the app? Do you have to invite them or is there a code they use? Or is it open to anyone?
@jeip: I feel like a lot of people are going to take pictures with their smartphones anyway, right? Like your friend! So we might as well have a way to get them all in one place!
@bridesmomma: Thank you! I’m so excited to see how it works out!
@FutureMrsAP: Mmm honestly that was my thought too. Everyone uses their phone so much, I don’t want to be the cell phone police! Did you read my post on having a plugged-in wedding? I talk more about it there. Anyway, that’s exactly how I feel. Good luck with Snap the Wedding—I almost used it, so let me know how it goes for you!
@seabeeny: I had NEVER heard of it before, so I’m so glad to hear of people who used it successfully!
@Miss Blue Whale: Oh let me know if you decide to use it at your wedding! Your wedding is after mine, right? So I can always let you know how it worked for ours!
@yicky16: I’m still working on this part of it. I put the information on the wedding website, but only a few people have downloaded it—I’m hoping to get more people to download it ahead of time but you never know It downloads just like any other app, if the 3G or LTE service is pretty fast where your wedding is being held they’ll be able to download it in less than a minute. So I would think people would be able to download it right at the reception, yes.
@P: Awh thank you so much! I’m trying to remember exactly. I think the guest would hit “Join a wedding” and then had to enter the wedding name. We just used our first and last names: “Nathan & Laura Lemur.” If you wanted it to be more private, you could use a password instead of a wedding name and only give the password to your guests. You can’t search for a wedding—guests can’t enter “Nathan & Laura” and find us. They have to know the wedding name we used. Does that help?
@Blonde17Jess: Thank you so much!
@HOGUE: Me too! Can’t wait to see how it works out
How cute!
We are using Wedding Turtle (thanks to Miss Panda, I think!) because I didn’t particularly want to require guests to download anything. I like that they sent us business-card size reminders of our URL to hand out to guests (one less thing for me to have to create).
But the user interface on that app is pretty great! The Wedding Turtle site is pretty bare-bones.
Mrs. Lemur, Greenville, South Carolina Age and Occupation: 22, Graduate Student Fiance's Age and Occupation: 22, Security Officer Engagement Date: October 9, 2012 Wedding Date: May 2013 Venue: Pleasant Ridge Camp & Retreat Center About Me: I may fancy myself a doctor after too many episodes of House—but in reality I'm finally almost done with my degree in business administration (less than three months left!). My fiance and I met at school in undergrad hundreds of miles away from either of our hometowns and have been happily running and hiking together ever since. We're undertaking a long distance relationship as I finish school and we plan our casual wedding for a day after graduation—needless to say, it will be the busiest and most exciting weekend of our lives so far!
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