Engagement party photos from both sides of the family

An engagement party is often the first time both families and both groups of friends are in the same room. That makes it one of the most photographed nights before the wedding, and one of the hardest to collect afterwards. Your side has one group chat, their side has another, and the cousins who took the best shots are in neither.

Plan for two guest lists

• One album, not two. If each family collects its own photos, the couple ends up with two half-albums and the overlap goes missing.
• A helper from each side. Ask one person from each family to nudge their own relatives to join. People say yes to someone they know.
• The link goes out with the invitation. A short line such as "Add your photos here" gets people ready before they arrive.

Shots worth asking for

• The couple arriving, before anyone has had a drink.
• Both sets of parents together. It is often the first photo of them as one family.
• The ring, close up, in daylight or near a lamp.
• The speeches, taken from the side of the room as well as the front.
• Grandparents with the couple. These are the photos people ask for years later.

Put the code where people stop

Guests walk straight past a sign at the door. Put the QR where they stand still instead: the drinks table, the guest book, the place cards. A framed poster next to the cake gets scanned far more than one taped to the entrance.

After the party

Leave the album open for a week. Relatives travel home, go through their camera rolls on the train, and add the photos they forgot they took. Then sit down together and pick the favourites. Those are the shots you will want for the save-the-date cards and, later, for the wedding slideshow.

Fondays gives you one QR for the whole party, with a printable join poster, and co-hosts from each side of the family can help run it. Guests join free on iPhone or Android, and hosting is free until 20 June 2027. Start your album.