I previously shared about the cute little cards that I had printed up for like only $15 through VistaPrint (250 of them) to let our guests know about our photo sharing site through http://www.weddingphotoswap.com/. I was really excited about this. Especially when I saw pictures and video of tons of our guests with cameras in their hands snapping away at our wedding.
I left the cards with our valet service and asked them to pass them out to every guest (at least 2 per car) as they picked up their vehicles to leave at the end of the night. That way they wouldn't get left behind. I never did get back the box of any leftover cards and I can't imagine they gave away all 250 of them since we only had about 190 guests total.
Well, over the next few days (while on our honeymoon), I would check the site to see if there were new photos put up. Guess what? Only like 3 or 4 people used it in that first week! My cousin and friend (both bridesmaids), a girlfriend and our magician (a vendor!) were the only ones who posted photos of the wedding! There were a few more posted on Facebook here and there but if your guests don't tag you in them it's hard to track them down.
So photosharing site and little cute cards: FAIL!
I can't quite figure out why it didn't work out. Especially when I have read on other bride's blogs that they got upwards of hundreds to a thousand photos within the first weekend of their weddings! So why did mine fail so horrifically? We only have about 100 photos total on our site and it's been 2 1/2 months since the wedding! I wonder if it's because we had an older crowd than most people? Obviously the crazy youngin's in their early 20's love the digital age and uploading photos via Facebook, iphone, etc. But I had 20 somethings there and I saw tons of guests (young and old) with cameras in their hands!
I've even had friends tell me "I need to get my pictures uploaded for you." UGH! So I know that there are a ton of photos of our day floating out there in the world in digital cameras that have probably not been hooked up to a computer in a while. Who knows when these friends will get around to sharing them with us? For now, I just have to pout and hope I am pleasantly surprised in the months to come. I guess in some ways it will be fun to finally see them hit my e-mail or Facebook or maybe even that photosharing site (big waste of time) well after the wedding. sigh
Oh, and I did have a few friends say they never saw or received our little cards with the site information on them. Dang it! But just for fun, here are a few good photos we did get through the site:
Courtesy Debbie Pelichowski
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Courtesy Reed Gillette
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Courtesy Amber Marquez
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Courtesy Kristin Jepson
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Courtesy Kristin Jepson
Courtesy Debbie Pelichowski
So, what have your experiences been with these sites? Are you going to use one for your wedding? If you already did, how did it turn out?
TODAY'S WEDDING TIP: Be sure that if you are going to try to get a message to your guests that you confirm you know it will get in their hands. I had several guests say they never received the cards the valet was supposed to pass out and somehow I never got the extras back at the end of the night. I created a little note that I tucked into our thank you cards to be sure to get out the word after the wedding but almost wish I would have just sent the cards *IN* the thank you cards now.
13 comments:
I'm sorry it didn't work out well for you! You could be pleasantly surprised to see some popping up soon though :)
I made some and I'm planning to put them on the guest book table and in the out of town bags for those coming from out out of town. Adding them to our thank you cards is a great idea too! :)
We did this and wanted people to upload to our Shutterfly website. We put like 4 cards on each table hoping whoever at the table had a camera would take it home and not one person has uploaded anything to the site! Only a few have uploaded pictures to Facebook and I know there were people there taking pictures.
It's disappointing but we got so many wonderful professional shots that in the end it doesn't really matter. I think this is just something that is still new that people aren't familiar with. But it just goes to show how important have a professional photographer is compared to just relying on guests to take your pictures.
I think sending the photo cards in the thank-you notes might be the best way to go. And this is definitely something the older crowd won't be as savvy at - heck, even my mom doesn't have internet access at her house, and most of my older family members that do use the internet are still learning the ropes.
I love that photograph of the tiger that one of your guests snapped. And it's great that she got a detail shot of the program, too! I'm afraid we are going to have a million favor leftover, since there is no room to place them on the tables where dinner will be served. I have heard horror stories about brides having tone of leftovers when they're not on the tables. Grrr.
You should consider emailing the guests who you know took photos (and are tech-savvy) and gently remind them that you have a site they can upload to, and you'd love to see their pictures. I know amongst my group of friends, that would be okay. I have a feeling a lot of the guests our age will post to Facebook, since I've seen them post pics of other people's weddings they've attended. But I'd still want the original files so I think I'll either send an email or include a card with the thank you notes.
Oh that sucks that you didn't get more people to upload. Putting them in the thank-you cards is a really good idea.
I actually made mine to serve 3 purposes: escort card on one side and photo sharing on the other side. I attached them to the favors with a little ribbon, so they serve as gift tags as well. This way, the chances of guests leaving them behind are lowered dramatically. I hope.
i love seeing a wedding day from the guests' cameras. we did not have photo cards but there were a few facebook albums so that made me happy :)
Only about 4 guests have uploaded their pictures to our site so far, but I've asked a couple others if they wouldn't mind (they put them on facebook, and I loved them). It was still definitely worth it to me because we've got close to 200 uploaded, and they're the only pictures I've seen of the day so far. Our photographer hasn't given us a sneak peek or anything yet, so it's been nice to have those! I'm sorry yours didn't work out better!
Well, my entire wedding website seemed like a waste of time...thank goodness it was free! Only got about 8 guestbook signings, and a total of 30 people RSVP'd online...Even though we ended up with around 90+ guests!!! Some people are just inconsiderate. Maybe they're overwhelmed by a great wedding taking place and want to throw shade or act uninterested. I don't know.
My attempt at this was also a huge FAIL! I was and still am sooo sad. I saw a ton of people with cameras and saw the cards I made all over the tables and in the guests hands. But only like three people uploaded pictures to our site. Major bummer and really a big waste of time and money. If I did it over again, I would skip it! I just don't get where I went wrong!
they were a total fail for me too. i had to literally BEG my friends to send me their pics.
Aw thats rubbish it didnt work so well; hopefully your guests will get round to it!
I wasnt organised enough to even worry / think about it before the wedding so I got cards made to put inside the thank you cards. Havent sent them all out yet but so far have had a family member put loads of pictures up.
Some of our other family have already sent / given us the photos other ways too.
We sent ours out with the Thank you cards and it was still a resounding failure! Three people uploaded shots. One of them was Miss P - who had already burnt them on a CD for me anyway. Disappointing.
But the few you do have are lovely!
Mine were a BIG FAIL too!!! I am so glad I am not the only one! Only one person uploaded their photos! I finally got my dad to add his so that brought it up to 2 ppl. Then my dad got pictures from one of his friends and put them up for her. So 3 ppl total. 34 ppl did join the group room so hopefully they at least enjoy looking at the pics. I think it was b/c most of the guests were older (50+) so they aren't as into digital pics.
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