Wedding · Shared album · Google Photos · iCloud

How do you make a shared album for wedding guests?

Updated October 22, 2026

There are four free ways to do it, and each has a drawback at a wedding. A Google Photos album is shared as a link or its own QR code, but Google’s steps for adding a photo start with the app and a signed-in Google Account. An iCloud Shared Album created on iOS 27 or later now takes photos on the web from guests with no Apple Account and no iPhone, up to a participant cap that counts the owner, and everything they add fills the owner’s iCloud storage. A Google Drive folder takes uploads through the Drive app on a phone, but the role that lets a guest add files also lets them delete everyone else’s. WeTransfer sends files rather than holding an album, and its free transfers expire within days. The way that asks for no account at all is a QR-code gallery: guests scan, type a first name and upload from the phone browser, free for 20 photos per guest for 14 days, or $19.99 (£15.99 in the UK) once for unlimited photos and videos kept 12 months. Every fact below about another company is from its own pages, read on October 22, 2026.

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What it costs

Free: 20 photos per guest, kept 14 days from when you create the event
Paid: $19.99 (£15.99 in the UK) per event for unlimited photos and videos per guest, kept up to 12 months
One-time payment. No subscription and no fee per guest.

How do you make a Google Photos shared album, and do guests need an account?

Making it takes a minute, in this order:

Sign in to Google Photos and create an album for the wedding.
Share it as a link and leave Collaborate on, so people with the link can add to it.
Open the album, tap Share, then Show QR Code; print that code for the tables.

Looking at it needs nothing but the link. Adding to it is the hard part. Google’s add-to-album steps put “Sign in to your Google Account” second on both phones, and its album controls work by Google Account; a guest without one makes one first. At a wedding, that leaves out every guest who has no Google Account, or has one but cannot remember the password on the night.

Two more things to know before the code goes to print. An album stops at 20,000 photos and videos. Every photo counts against the 15 GB a free Google Account shares with Gmail and Drive. Once it is full, in Google’s words, “you won’t be able to save new photos and videos”. And be careful when you tidy up the member list afterward. In Google’s words, “When you remove someone from an album, all photos or comments from that person will be removed.” Whether Google Photos is enough for your wedding is covered point by point on Google Photos for wedding guest photos.

Source. Google’s Photos help center, read on October 22, 2026; the words in quotation marks are theirs.

Google Photos shared album: support.google.com/photos/answer/9789702, support.google.com/photos/answer/6128849, support.google.com/photos/answer/9312312, support.google.com/photos/answer/6131416

Can Android guests add photos to an iCloud Shared Album?

Yes, if the album was created on iOS 27 or later; that is new. Before iOS 27 the album lives in the Photos app: people are invited by email or iMessage number, and those who don’t use iCloud are given a Public Website that “anyone can see in an up-to-date web browser”. Apple’s page describes adding for participants, viewing for the website. Albums created on iOS 27 or later fix that: “Friends and family will be able to join and contribute their own photos on the web, even without an Apple Account or Apple device.” Participants on older software have to update or view the album on iCloud.com. In an album created on iOS 27 or later, the owner chooses in Sharing Options whether only people they invite or approve get in, or anyone with the link can join without approval. So in a new album, a guest with an Android phone opens the link and adds photos from the browser like everyone else.

Apple’s limits page sets how big it can get. An album created in version 27 or later takes at most 100 participants, the owner included, and no more photos and videos than the owner’s iCloud storage holds. At a big wedding, the cap and your own iCloud storage are what run out first, and every video the guests add is stored at full resolution in your account. Deleting works like this: the owner, and anyone given the Can Manage Album and Photos permission, can delete any photo, video or comment from anyone; other participants can delete what they added themselves.

Source. Apple Support’s Shared Albums pages, read on October 22, 2026; the words in quotation marks are theirs.

iCloud Shared Album: support.apple.com/en-us/108314, support.apple.com/en-us/148868

Can you use a Google Drive folder as the wedding album?

You can, but what you get is a folder of files, not an album. Setting it up is one sharing step. Share it: under General access choose Anyone with the link, set the role to Editor so people can add files, and copy the link. The catch is in what that step means. Adding files is the Editor role, and Google describes Editors as people who “can open, edit, delete, or move any files within the folder, as well as add new files”; by default they can also change permissions and share the folder on. Every guest with the link can delete another guest’s photos.

On a phone, uploading goes through the app. Google’s upload steps for a phone begin with “open the Google Drive app”, on Android and on iPhone alike. What a guest who is not signed in sees after opening an Editor link on a phone is not described on Google’s pages. The storage is the guest’s, not yours: a file “will take up space in your Drive, even if you upload to a folder owned by someone else”. A guest whose own Google storage is full has nowhere to put the photo. When an account reaches its storage limit, in Google’s words, “you won’t be able to upload or create files in Drive”. How the photos travel back to the guests afterward is on how to share wedding photos with guests.

Source. Google’s Drive help center, read on October 22, 2026; the words in quotation marks are theirs.

Google Drive shared folder: support.google.com/drive/answer/7166529, support.google.com/drive/answer/2424368, support.google.com/drive/answer/6374270, support.google.com/drive/answer/2494822

Does WeTransfer work for wedding guest photos?

For sending a finished set to one person, yes; as an album, no. A transfer goes from whoever sends it to the people they send it to, and nobody sees anyone else’s. Its pricing page sets out the limits. The free plan, for individual, non-commercial use only: share and receive up to 3 GB a month, 10 transfers a month, and a transfer expires after 3 days at most. Anyone can download what you send without logging in or signing up. A WeTransfer page where anyone can send you files, without an account, comes with the Ultimate plan. On the free plan, then, every guest would send you a transfer of their own, and you would download each one before it expired. Where WeTransfer does fit is at the very end, for passing the finished download on to someone, as long as it fits the free plan’s limits.

Source. WeTransfer’s pricing page and its FAQ, read on October 22, 2026. Product names are trademarks of their owners; we are not affiliated with Google, Apple or WeTransfer.

WeTransfer: wetransfer.com/pricing

Who sees whose photos, and where does each album stop?

The three rows about other companies’ products were read on each company’s own page on October 22, 2026, listed in the sections above; our row is what our plan does. WeTransfer is left out: a transfer is not an album. Products change, so check the linked page before you rely on a cell.

Album	To add a photo, a guest needs	Who sees the photos	Where it stops
Google Photos shared album	View: anyone with the link. Add: signed in to a Google Account	Yes, everyone with the link sees the whole album	20,000 photos and videos per album; when the 15 GB is full, no new photos can be saved
iCloud Shared Album	Albums created on iOS 27 or later: guests join and add on the web, no Apple Account. Older albums: invited by email or iMessage number; others get a Public Website to look at	Yes, every participant sees the album and can add comments	Older albums: 5,000 photos and videos, photos reduced to 2048 pixels on the long edge, 100 subscribers. Version 27 albums: 100 participants and the owner’s iCloud storage
Google Drive shared folder	View: anyone with the link, without signing in. Add: the Editor role; Google’s upload steps for a phone start in the Drive app	A folder, not a gallery: anyone with the link can open the folder and the files in it	When an account reaches its storage limit it cannot upload or create files in Drive; for a guest, that is the guest’s own limit
QR gallery (Eventphoto.io)	None: scan, pick photos, type a name	Yes: one shared gallery everyone with the code sees, refreshing as uploads land	A free event is deleted 14 days after it is created; a paid event is kept 12 months

Who can delete differs just as much. Removing a person from a Google Photos album removes their photos too; in an iCloud Shared Album the owner, or anyone the owner lets manage it, deletes anything and a participant only their own; in a Drive folder every Editor can delete every file. In our gallery a guest deletes only their own uploads and the host any photo, and no search engine indexes it. All seven ways couples collect photos, film cameras and group chats included, are side by side on how to collect wedding photos from guests; who can see what, in more detail, on whether wedding photo sharing apps are private.

Which shared album works when guests have no account?

One that lives with the event rather than in anybody’s account. You create the event on Eventphoto.io with a name and your email, and its QR code comes with it, free to print or download. A guest points the phone camera at the code, iPhone or Android, the gallery opens in the browser, and the guest types a first name and picks photos from the phone’s own picker: nothing installed, no account, nobody’s storage used. A PIN is on by default (you can switch it off when you create the event), and it is not printed with the QR code, so add it next to the code yourself.

Every file is kept as it left the phone, iPhone HEIC photos included: photos up to 10 MB and, on the paid plan, videos up to 200 MB. Everyone with the code and the PIN sees the same gallery, with each uploader’s name. Afterward the host taps Download all: on the host’s phone everything goes into the photo library a batch at a time; on a computer it becomes one ZIP whose link arrives by email, usually within a few minutes, on the free plan too. A device not yet known as the host’s asks “Are you the host?” first and sends a one-time code to the host’s email.

Free: 20 photos per guest, photos only, any number of guests, for 14 days from the day you create the event, so create it in the wedding week. Paid: $19.99 (£15.99 in the UK) once per event, no subscription, for unlimited photos and videos per guest, kept 12 months from the day you pay. Why guests never have to install anything is on do guests need an app to share wedding photos; making and printing the code, on how to make a QR code for wedding photos.

Shared album questions, answered

How do I make a shared album for wedding guests for free?

In Google Photos, make an album, share it as a link with Collaborate on and print its QR code; on an iPhone, make an iCloud Shared Album in the Photos app and share its link. Both are free within the account’s storage, and both have a catch: adding to a Google Photos album means signing in to a Google Account, and a new iCloud album caps its participants and counts everything against the owner’s storage. A QR-code gallery needs no account and is free for 20 photos per guest for 14 days.

Do guests need a Google account to add photos to a Google Photos shared album?

To look, no: the link is enough. To add, Google’s own steps on Android and iPhone open the Google Photos app and sign in to a Google Account before anything else, so a guest without an account makes one first, or adds nothing.

Can Android users add photos to an iCloud Shared Album?

Yes, if the album was created on iOS 27, iPadOS 27 or macOS 27 or later: Apple says friends and family can join and contribute on the web without an Apple Account or an Apple device. An album created on older software works the old way: participants add from Apple devices, and people who do not use iCloud get a public website to look at.

What is the best shared album for both iPhone and Android guests?

An iCloud Shared Album made on iOS 27 or later now takes photos from any browser, up to its participant cap; a Google Photos album works on both phones once each guest has the app and a Google Account. A QR-code gallery works the same on both with nothing installed and no account, which is why it suits a wedding: 20 photos per guest free, or $19.99 (£15.99 in the UK) once for unlimited photos and videos.

Can guests delete each other’s photos in a shared album?

In a Google Drive folder, yes: the Editor role that lets a guest add files also lets them delete anyone’s. In an iCloud Shared Album, only the owner, or someone the owner lets manage it, deletes other people’s items. In our QR gallery a guest deletes only their own uploads and the host any photo.