How to run a live photo slideshow at your wedding reception

Most couples have sat through a reception slideshow: childhood photos, the engagement, a song underneath. A live photo slideshow is a different thing. It shows the photos your guests are taking right now, on the screen in the room, minutes after they take them. It builds through the night, and it is the single best way to get guests sharing. Here is the setup and the decisions that make it work.

What a live slideshow actually is

A live photo wall, which is the same thing by another name, is a web page that shows photos as guests upload them. Guests scan a QR code on the table, their photo goes into one album, and it appears on the screen. Nothing needs installing in the room: the screen just needs a web browser.

TV or projector?

Ask the venue what is already there before you hire anything.

• A smart TV with a browser. Open the link, make it full screen, done. A TV gives the best picture in a bright room.
• A house projector and screen. A laptop plugged in over HDMI runs it. Projectors wash out in daylight, so this suits the evening. The full setup, and the laptop settings that ruin it, are in how to run a photo wall without a TV.
• Nothing. Hire a TV on a stand from an AV company, or borrow a large one. A TV on a stand near the dance floor beats a projector behind the bridal table.

Go bigger than you think. A television that looks enormous in a lounge room looks small in a function room, and guests should be able to make out the photo from their seat.

Where to put the screen

Put it where people look when they are not eating: beside the dance floor or near the bar. Keep it away from the bridal table, where it competes with the speeches, and out of the spots the band, the DJ and the photographer need. Check the cable run so nobody trips, and keep it out of direct sun through windows. If the night moves rooms, put the screen where guests spend the longest.

When to start it, and when to pause it

Start it as the first guests arrive at the reception. The early photos are what get the next person scanning, and an empty screen does nothing. Then run it through to the end: the last hour is often the best content of the night.

Pause it for the speeches. A photo of the best man landing on the screen mid-speech is funny once and a distraction after that. Pause it for the first dance too, because guests should be looking at you, not the screen. If your tool cannot pause, switch the input or turn the screen off for those minutes.

Ask the MC to point at the screen when they mention the QR code. Seeing a photo go up is what convinces people to share, so the first mention should come while there are already photos on it. More on that in getting guests to actually share.

Approve photos first, or let them straight through?

On a live wall, every photo is public to the room. If you would rather have a check, there are two ways: approve each photo before it goes on screen, or let everything through and remove anything afterwards. Approval adds a small delay, so if you use it, give the job to one person with their phone, a bridesmaid or the planner, and make it their job for the night. It also tidies the screen, because the blurry shots and the five identical ones never make it up. Approval is worth having when children are there, when work colleagues are mixed with family, or when a lot of people at home will be watching the same wall.

Music and sound

A live slideshow does not need music. The band or DJ is handling the room, and a screen with its own audio fights them. If your tool can play music and you want it, keep it for dinner, run the laptop's headphone output to the sound desk, and have someone press play once, because browsers will not start audio on their own.

What goes wrong, and the fix

• The laptop sleeps or shows a notification. Turn off sleep and the screen saver, turn on Do Not Disturb, and make the browser full screen before the first guest arrives.
• The internet drops. The wall is downloading photos, not uploading them, so a phone hotspot handles it. Test it in the corner the screen will sit in.
• Nobody shares. Almost always because the QR code is not where guests are looking. Put it on every table, at the bar and at the photo spot. See what to print and where.
• The projector washes out. Close the blinds, or accept that it comes alive at dusk.
• The screen dies. The night still works. Photos keep arriving in the album, and you have them all in the morning. Tell whoever is running the event so a dead screen does not become a panic.

After the night

The slideshow is the show; the album is what you keep. Before you choose a tool, check that you can download everything in one go, that guests can be sent a view-only link, and how long the photos are kept. More in how to collect photos from your wedding guests.

GuestCam is QR code photo and video sharing for weddings: guests scan a code with their phone camera and share with no app and no account, the live photo wall runs in any web browser on a TV or a laptop and projector, you can approve each photo before it goes on screen, and afterwards everything is in one album with a ZIP download. See GuestCam for weddings.