Remember weddings where the bride and groom would place disposable cameras on each table and everyone got to reminisce weeks later about that amazing night by flipping through the developed shots?
There’s an app for that.
Several apps, actually. I’ve reviewed a variety of different wedding-based applications and have determined my favorite. Next, I’ll tell you what I why I wouldn’t use it and what I would do at my wedding instead.
WedPics Wedding App
Everyone at the wedding downloads an app, snaps away throughout the wedding, and uploads all of their photos straight to the wedding album hosted in WedPics. The concept is awesome – no disposable cameras to buy, no photos to print and the whole album can be easily shared with (or hidden from) family and friends.
It’s more private than a Facebook album, much easier than creating a Dropbox and easier to share than a Flickr account. All that, and it also comes with some cool instagram-like photo filters.
Of the apps available, WedPics is my favorite by far but it’s still in its beta-testing phase, so it won’t be available to the public until August 7th.
What I Would Do
The biggest problem with all of the wedding photo apps is that, no matter how fantastic the user experience is, it’s still a new app that people have to download.
Let’s try something: think of your uncles. Think of the way that they one-finger button-mash on their Blackberry Curves that they wear on a hip case outside of their too-high jeans. Now think of telling those same guys about this new app that they just need to quickly download and configure so that they can snap photos at your wedding.
No?
They’re probably not heavy instagram users either, but you can bet that someone else at their table is.
What I would do is set up a private instagram account explicitly for the guests at that wedding. A few weeks before the big day I’d send out an e-mail to all of the attendees with the username, password and simple instructions for people who don’t yet have the app on their phones.
For most people with a smart phone, instagram has been on the to-download list for a while if they don’t already have it, so you’re not trying to explain a new concept to anyone, simply showing them a different way to use it.
After the wedding, the best (read: least embarrassing) shots can be shared to Facebook to create an album and the private instagram account can live forever as a reminder of what happens when 4 generations of family are all over-served at the same time.
Finally, I would definitely not try to use any of the above to replace a real live wedding photographer. I want a guy who makes his living making people look good to produce my lasting wedding memories, not some drunk cousin with a love of Valencia and contrast blurring. I definitely want to see the cousins shots though, I’m sure that his are going to be much funnier.
My totally made-up instagram wedding:
