Put every photo in one private album, send one link by text and email, and tell guests how long it stays open. Below: the steps, three messages to copy, what your photographer’s contract allows and the limits of each free option.
Free to try with 20 uploads, no card. Guests need no app and no account.
New
New
Put the photos in one private, link-only album, upload the original files and send the link by text and by email, so it reaches guests who only read one of them. Say how long the album stays open and send one reminder before it closes. If guests should add their own photos, pick an album that accepts uploads.
117
guests at the average US wedding in 2025, per The Knot
149
photos guests add at the median wedding, from 203 real weddings on Pix
4 to 8 wk
for the photographer’s full gallery, the most common answer in one poll
3 days
is the longest a free WeTransfer link stays live
Sources: The Knot 2026 Real Weddings Study (10,474 US couples married in 2025), our own 203-wedding upload dataset, a Shotkit poll of photographers and the WeTransfer Free plan. Checked 30 September 2026.
Every method on this page does one of two jobs. Work out which job you need and half the options drop away.
The professional gallery is for your photographer’s images only. For collecting guest phone photos, I recommend setting up a shared Google Photos album alongside your gallery.
149
photos come in from guests at the median wedding in our 203-wedding dataset. That is a second collection next to the edited gallery, and it needs a home too.
Work through these before the link goes out. Steps 4 and 5 are the ones couples skip, and they are the ones guests notice.
There are two collections: your photographer’s edited gallery and the candids guests took on their phones. Decide now whether they live in one album or behind two links, because every later step depends on it.
Read the usage clause in your photography contract before you copy the edited files anywhere. Many contracts allow copies for family and friends. Some ask for a credit or limit social posts.
If guests only view and download, a one-way link is enough. If they should add their own photos too, you need a two-way album such as Pix Wedding or a Google Photos shared album.
Set it up before the first photo goes in. Choose link-only access, decide whether guests can download or only view, and leave any public website option switched off.
Use the files your photographer delivered, not copies resized for the web. Then download one photo on a phone and compare its dimensions with the source file.
Say what the link is, what guests can do with it (view, download, add their own) and how long it stays open. Three templates are further down this page.
A text reaches guests who never open email. An email reaches guests who are not in the group chat. Use the channels your guests already read.
Tell guests when the album closes and send one reminder 1 to 2 weeks before that date. When the window ends, download everything to a second location.
Swipe for all 8 steps
The limits below come from each company’s own help pages, read on 30 September 2026. Rose chips mark the cell that usually decides against a method.
One album for your photos and your guests’ photos. Guests open it in the phone browser with no app and no account, and the host decides whether they can view and download.
| Method | Cost | Free limit | Guests can add photos | Guest account | Link lasts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pix WeddingTwo-way pick | Free to try, then $49 to $89 one-time | 20 uploads free. Paid plans: unlimited photos and videos, 30MB per photo and 100MB per video | Yes, from the phone browser | None, and no app | 6 months to 2 years of storage, by plan |
| Google Photos shared album | Free | 15 GB per Google account, shared with Gmail and Drive. 20,000 items per album | Yes, with Collaborate on | Google account to add photos | Until you turn link sharing off |
| iCloud Shared Album | No separate fee | Version 27 albums count towards the owner’s iCloud storage. Older albums: 5,000 items | Yes, on the web for albums made in version 27 | None on the web for version 27 albums | Until the owner deletes it. Temporary albums delete after 30 days |
| Dropbox shared link | Free on Dropbox Basic | 2 GB of storage | No. View and download only | None for a view-only link | No expiry date on Basic. Setting one is a paid feature |
| WeTransfer link | Free plan | 3 GB and 10 transfers per rolling 30 days | No. Download only | None for recipients | 3 days at most on the free plan |
| Photographer’s gallery link | Part of your photography package | Set by the photographer and the gallery platform | No, in the example we checked | Depends on the platform | One year, in the example we checked |
Swipe to compare all 6
Limits from Google One, Google Photos, Apple, Dropbox and WeTransfer. Gallery example: Natasha Lamalle Photography, delivered through Pic-Time. Checked 30 September 2026.
The free tiers are not the same size
Pix Wedding counts uploads, not gigabytes: 20 on the free tier, unlimited on paid plans. Sources: Google One, WeTransfer, Dropbox.
Two details that are easy to miss
A Dropbox shared link is for viewing and downloading. Collecting files is a separate feature, a file request, and what comes in uses your own space.
Apple says shared albums created in version 27 let friends and family contribute on the web, even without an Apple Account or an Apple device.
Want every option ranked, with pros and cons for each? See the best way to share wedding photos. Leaning towards Google? Read whether Google Photos is good enough for wedding photos first.
Usually yes, for personal use. The photographer owns the copyright by default and your contract says what you may do with the files. Read that clause before the edited gallery goes anywhere else.
Under federal law, if there is no agreement to the contrary, your wedding photographer, or any photographer for that matter, owns the pictures that they take.
Find yours before you upload
Most wedding photographers grant clients the right to make copies for personal use, the ISPWP says. Sending relatives the gallery link or copies of the photos falls inside that.
Some photographers limit social media use and ask for a watermark or a link back. Others restrict file size or release the digital files only after a waiting period.
Charging people for copies or selling an image to a stock company violates the photographer’s copyright, unless your contract hands you the rights.
Sources: Rocket Lawyer and the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers. General information about US practice, not legal advice. Your own contract decides. Checked 30 September 2026.
The message matters more than the platform. A clear message with an average tool gets opened. Copy one of these and swap in your link.
Hi! Here are all our wedding photos: [LINK] Tap it, no account or app needed. You can save any photo you like. If you took photos on the day, you can add them too. We’d love to see the day from your angle!
Subject: Our wedding photos are ready to view Hi [Name], Our wedding album is ready. Click the link below to browse and download any photos you’d like: [LINK] No account or sign-in is required. Just click and the album opens. If you have any trouble, reply to this email and we’ll help. With love, [Names]
All our wedding photos, professional and guest, live in one place now: [LINK] Scan the QR code or tap the link. View, download, or add your own, whatever you’d like. The album stays open through [DATE].
The templates promise no sign-in, viewing and downloads. Send them only if your album works that way: turn on guest viewing and downloads first, then open the link on a phone that is not yours.
A third way out: the link as a QR code
A five-minute walkthrough of turning an album link into a QR code in Canva, for thank-you cards or a sign at the morning-after brunch. An album on Pix Wedding comes with its own QR code, so you can skip the design step.
Watch on YouTubeGuest photos and professional photos arrive weeks apart. Plan for two moments, the first week and gallery day, and one closing reminder.
The 4 to 8 week window is the most common answer in a Shotkit poll of photographers. Our guide to how long it takes to get wedding photos back covers what slows delivery down and when to follow up.
A guest who wants a print needs the full file. Upload what your photographer delivered, then check what the platform does to it on the way in and on the way out.
What is left of a 24 megapixel photo
Illustrative: a 24 MP photo at 3:2 is 6,000 by 4,000 pixels, and 16 MP at the same shape is about 4,900 pixels wide. Google resizes Storage saver photos above 16 MP. Apple reduces photos in shared albums from version 26 or earlier to 2,048 pixels on the long edge. Albums created in version 27 keep full resolution.
24 x 16 in
is the print size Google says a 16 MP photo still handles well, so Storage saver is fine for most frames. A 2,048 pixel copy has far fewer pixels to work with.
Both setups work. What matters is that a guest who opens your message knows where every photo is.
On Pix Wedding the Standard and Pro plans add a private upload link for your photographer and up to 6 sub-albums, so the edited set can sit in its own folder inside the same album. How to fill the guest side is in our guide to collecting photos from wedding guests.
An album link on Pix Wedding works in both directions. Guests open it in the phone browser, look through what you shared and add their own photos and videos, with no app and no account. At the median wedding on Pix, guests add 149 photos.
Scan to join the album
No app, no account
UPLOADING
THE ALBUM
Example album
214 photos · 38 guests
Private. Wedding photos show children, private moments and guests who never asked to be online. Use a link-only album, and know what each switch does before the link goes out.
Ask before sharing sensitive pictures, especially photos of children, and take a photo down when a guest asks. How the dedicated apps compare on this is in are wedding photo sharing apps private.
Eight ways a good album ends up unopened. Each one has a two-minute fix.
A public social post or an open cloud folder can travel far past your guest list, to people who were never invited.
A resized copy may be too small to print. Test one downloaded file before you invite everyone to save pictures.
One WhatsApp message misses every guest who is not on WhatsApp. Text plus email covers more of the list than either alone.
Guests who do not know a link will expire have no reason to open it today. An open-ended album gets opened once and forgotten.
Two links means guests have to remember which one has what. If the sets stay apart, put both links in the same message.
Every sign-in or install is one more task before a guest sees a photo. Try the guest flow on a phone that has never used the platform.
A grandparent needs a link that opens straight in the phone browser. Text it to them directly and offer to walk them through it once.
Links expire and free storage fills up. Keep your own copy of every photo in a second place.
For the last one, our guide on how to back up wedding photos walks through a second and a third copy.
Watch a guest scan the QR code and add photos from the phone browser in seconds, no app and no account. The same link is the one you text to everyone the morning after.
WEDDING ALBUM
Hannah & Luke
Example album
Hannah & Luke
214 photos, one link
One album for your photos and your guests’ photos. Guests open it in the phone browser with no app and no account, and you decide whether they can view and download. 20 uploads free, no card.
From the dance floor
Scan to join the album
No app, no account
UPLOADING
THE ALBUM
Example album
214 photos · 38 guests
SCAN TO TRY
pix.wedding/
your-wedding
Free to try with 20 uploads, no card. Every paid plan is a one-time payment with unlimited photos, videos and guests. What changes between them is how long the album takes uploads, how long it is stored and the extras.
For collecting every original
Most couples pick this
One-time payment, no subscription
For big guest lists
One payment. Yours to keep. No subscription. No renewals. No surprise charges.
Secure checkout. Polar, Apple Pay, Google Pay.
Money-back guarantee: if your guests never upload a single photo, you get 100% back. See how it works
Quick answers on free options, large galleries, privacy, timing, downloads and what your photographer allows.
For viewing, a Google Photos shared album is the easiest free option. Anyone with the link can view it, an album holds up to 20,000 photos or videos, and each Google account includes 15 GB of storage shared with Gmail and Drive. Adding photos is tied to a Google account. If you want guests to add photos with no account, Pix Wedding is free to try with 20 uploads and no card.
Send a link, never attachments. For the edited set, the gallery link from your photographer is the simplest route. Free file tiers are small: Dropbox Basic starts at 2 GB and WeTransfer Free allows 3 GB per rolling 30 days with links that expire in 3 days at most. Pix Wedding paid plans take unlimited photos and videos, with photos up to 30MB and videos up to 100MB each, and store the album for 6 months, 1 year or 2 years by plan.
Private. Use a link-only album so only people who have your link can open it. That protects photos of children and guests who prefer to stay offline. Leave public website options switched off, and if the link gets out, reset it. In Google Photos, turning link sharing off and on again creates a new link and the old one stops working.
Text them one link that opens in the phone browser, with a single line of instruction such as "Tap this link to see all our wedding photos, you can save any you like." Pick a method that needs no account and no app install, and test it on a phone that has never used the platform before.
Share the guest album the same night or in the first week, while people still have the photos at hand. Share the professional photos when your photographer delivers the edited gallery, which most often takes 4 to 8 weeks. Putting both in one album means guests get the complete collection in one place.
It depends on the platform. On Pix Wedding the host turns guest viewing and guest downloads on or off in Settings, and every paid plan includes a full ZIP download for the host. Photographer galleries set their own rules: in the example we checked, guests could download web-sized copies and full resolution stayed with the couple. Test a guest download before you send the link.
You can forward the gallery link as it is if it allows downloads and does not expire too soon. A photographer gallery usually holds the photographer’s images only, so many couples still keep a guest album next to it for the phone photos and send both links in one message.
Upload the original files your photographer delivered, not a version already resized for web viewing. Then check what the platform does with them. Google Photos resizes photos above 16 MP when Storage saver is on, and iCloud shared albums created in version 26 or earlier reduce photos to 2,048 pixels on the long edge.
Ask before sharing sensitive pictures, especially images of children. Check your photography agreement before redistributing professional files. Keep the album link inside your intended group and take a photo down when a guest asks.
Usually yes, for personal use. By default the photographer owns the copyright, and most wedding photographers grant clients the right to make copies for family and friends, according to the ISPWP. Selling the photos is not allowed, and some contracts limit social media posts or ask for a credit. Read the usage clause in your contract first.
The method ranking, the collecting side, the QR code, and what to do with the photos once everyone has them.
Sources, checked 30 September 2026
Hannah & Luke, the names, the dates and the counts in the phone mockups on this page are illustrative. Photos are from our own library.
Free tools for the QR code, the shot list and the thank-you notes that go out with the album link.
Design custom print-ready stickers.
The best way to collect guest photos.
Create unique wedding hashtags.
5 methods ranked by participation rate and ease.
Compare every sharing platform by ease and participation.
The single method with the highest participation rate.
Step-by-step setup for every platform.
Better, cheaper options than disposable cameras.
