What to do with Your Wedding Photos After Your Wedding | Friday Fives with Sydney Marie Photography
Your wedding photos have been delivered – YAY!! Enjoy looking through the photos together and reliving every moment of your wedding day. But what’s next? What do you do with the files once you’ve downloaded them? How do you store and keep safe all your memories?
Fear not! I have a few tips for you based on my experience with other beautiful couples just like you! We all put a lot of time and energy into your wedding day, I want to make sure you have the images to remember it by.
1. Backup and storage.
There’s a reason why this is number one, it’s THAT important. Once you’ve downloaded your images from the online gallery, I recommend keeping a separate copy on a USB or hard drive that you keep in a fireproof safe, or a safety deposit box at your bank, for safekeeping. You can also upload them as a ZIP files in your own Google Drive or Dropbox if you’d like in your own cloud software. I recommend backing them up in 2-3 places. I do my best to keep all my backup files safe, on multiple hard drives and in a cloud, but you never know! I’ve had client’s computers crash and lose all their photos, so make sure you have an online and a safe physical backup of them as well.
2. Share!
I love when my couples share their beautiful wedding photos with friends and family, so share away! They’re your photos and I love seeing my couples eager to share on their social media feeds. The online gallery has an easy share button where you can share to social media or copy the gallery link.
3. Printing.
Digital photos are great, as well as the online backups, but here’s the thing… technology is always changing. When I first started taking photos, everyone wanted images on a disk, now most computers don’t even come with a disk drive. So even though I encourage you to back them up, I also encourage you to PRINT THEM.
I guarantee you won’t be whipping out a Google Drive folder anytime soon to relive your wedding day. I highly recommend getting prints made of your favorite images, whether that’s in an album, in a print set and kept in a nice box, or as a canvas or framed prints. I recommend, first and foremost, the shop connected to your gallery, it is my professional print lab. However, if you are printing on your own, I recommend Unit Prints.
4. Albums.
Speaking of printing, I think the best way to preserve your wedding memories is in an album. All my past couples tell me over and over again how often they look through their wedding albums and relive their days.
The experience of sitting down and opening your own wedding album is one that you can’t get from a gallery on your computer. Being able to sit down with your spouse, kids or even by yourself and just feeling the cover and pages while looking at every photo and every moment brings you right back to the day. I took the time to find the best album company that handcraft each album and put as much love and care into their craft as I do with mine. Want to learn more about albums? Check out pricing and more.
5. Thank you cards.
Instead of buying generic cards that say thank you, use a wedding photo instead! Print a picture on one side and write on the other. It’s that little extra personal touch to let your guests know you appreciate them. For thank you cards, I love Minted or Basic Invite.
