What's the Best Way to Share Wedding Photos with Guests?

Between social media, photo sharing apps, texting, email, and good old-fashioned snail mail, there are a number of different ways to share your wedding photos with guests. But which is right for you? Ultimately, it depends on how you like to communicate and how much access you'd like to give your family members and friends to the snapshots from your big day. Here are a few options and ways to decide what will work best for you and your wedding guests.

How have you communicated with guests throughout your wedding?

Whatever method you've used to communicate with guests throughout your wedding is a great way to continue post-wedding. For example, if you have a Facebook group dedicated to your wedding events, you can upload an album straight into this group so guests can see. Or, if you were doing a lot of mass emails, you can consider sharing a link with photos to loved ones that way.

Send prints in the mail.

If your photographer is able to get your wedding photos back to you quickly, you can include prints in your thank-you notes. If it takes a while to get your professional photos back, consider sharing photos with your next round of holiday cards instead. These could be copies of any candid shots your guests were in or any formal portraits they were part of. There are plenty of great photo printing services available to choose from. Keep in mind that most guests won't go the extra mile of printing photos from your wedding, so this is a great way to ensure they have copies they can frame or save if they'd like to do so. For those in your wedding party, you might also consider having small albums printed and sent to your close friends.

Post them on social media.

Whether you post your wedding photos on social media is entirely up to your personal preference. Some couples prefer not to go this route because they feel uncomfortable about the people they didn't invite seeing them, while others are happy to share the photos with everyone they know. Ultimately, you have to decide how you feel. If you're feeling at all uncomfortable, you can always post the pictures to a private list of attendees only.

Consider photo sharing apps.

There are a lot of photo sharing apps out there that allow guests to upload their own photos from your wedding; while they'll use it on the night of the party, you can upload the professional shots down the line. If you decide to go this route, you might outline the process as part of a note in your welcome baskets so guests know they're encouraged to take and share as many photos as they'd like.

Discuss the options with your photographer.

Every photographer has a different way of managing digital photos, but many will give you a custom link to an edited version of your digital wedding album. This is something you can share with your guests with a hyperlink in an email, or in a printed card you send in the mail. Tip: If you print the link, you want the link to be something that's short and easy for guests to access. Discussing it with your photographer is essential, though. Depending on your contract agreement, they may not allow you to give full access to all of your guests, so be upfront about what you'd like to do.

Whatever you do, think about the level of access you'd like to give guests.

While there are a number of different ways to share photos, it's important to consider how much you actually want to give your guests access to. Sure, you'd love to share party photos with your closest friends, but maybe you'd like to keep your first look or getting ready snapshots private. And though you want your parents and grandparents to have access to the family portraits, maybe you'd prefer to limit their ability to see the late-night dance floor photos. Ultimately, if there's anything you don't want to share with guests, giving out full access to your digital album would be a mistake.