You made the album before anyone arrived.
Google Photos. iCloud. A folder with your names on it. A link on a card, or in the chat. Pictures start landing while dinner is still going. Names fall off. Anyone can look. You still open it at midnight.
Those pictures are wedding photos. The pain is the mess. Hundreds of mixed guest phone photos in a live album. Every look, half of them blurred. A night you now have to sort, while the night is still happening.
What a shared album does
It is live. That is the bit people like, and the bit that goes wrong.
A cousin uploads a burst from the table. An uncle adds the speeches, sideways. Someone's name is just a phone number. Order is whoever uploaded last. Anyone with the link can look, including you, on the edge of the bed at midnight, refreshing.
The album keeps filling after the taxi. After the plane. After Tuesday. You asked for the pictures guests took. You got their camera rolls in a pile, while you were still in the room.
A shared album is a folder that never closes. It is not a set.
A camera that does not stay open
You do not need a quieter album. You need the pictures to go somewhere that is not live, while they are still being taken.
Polajoy is that place.
You set the wedding up. Free. One join code. A card on the table, or a line in the invite. Guests open the app, type the code, and join with an account. After the wedding, everyone who attended can be sent the photos. iPhone and Android.
Each person shoots on a 30-shot roll. Ordinary guests hard-stop at 0. No second roll. If you nominate a photographer, the friend with the good eye, they can start another free 30-shot roll. Ordinary guests do not.
After each shot, ten seconds to Accept or Void. Timeout or a screenshot voids it. A void does not spend a frame. A short handwritten note is optional, up to 34 characters. Initials always go on the frame. Then it seals, and nobody sees it until the reveal you chose. Not even you.
One reveal. End of the night, the next morning, a week later. Then the shop is there if you want paper. Nothing auto-ships. Free downloads carry a small wordmark. £2.99 takes it off. Prints never have it.
You do not refresh. You do not sort a live album at midnight. The film is already on the phone, and it waits.
If you want the method, albums and AirDrop and a sealed camera compared, there is a note on how to collect wedding photos from guests. If the problem was getting them at all, the morning-after chase, there is a note on how to get photos from wedding guests. If the thing you are writing is the ask itself, the polite message that still becomes a chase, there is a note on how to ask wedding guests for photos. If the job you named was upload, there is a note on how to have wedding guests upload photos. If what you wanted was the app itself, there is a note on a wedding guest photo app without the morning-after chat. If the thing you are trying not to do is a group chat, there is a note on wedding guest photos without WhatsApp.
Setup is free. Pay only if you want prints afterwards. The complete guide walks through looks, table cards, and the reveal. These notes are written by Richard Lovatt, with Kitty. The rest live with the other articles.
We host a handful of weddings. Cash, or store credit and free products. Apply on the host page. We read every one.