Today, I want to share with you a piece of wedding planning advice that is often very overlooked- how to store your wedding photos. Your wedding day is one of the most significant days of your love, and definitely one you don’t want to forget. If you hire a professional photographer, then you need to make sure you do everything you can to keep your photos safe once they give them to you! The last thing you want is to lose them forever, because your photographer won’t hold onto them for long. So, here’s a few ideas on how to store your wedding photos!
External hard drives have been around for a while, and for a good reason! They offer a significant amount of storage space and availability. One external drive can hold hundreds of high-resolution wedding photos. For extra level safety, I would recommend having two external drives with the same data just in case one fails.
Cloud-based storage services are another means to ensure that your photos are safe. They allow you to access and share your wedding photos from anywhere at any time! Importantly, cloud storage automatically backs up your images, thus protecting against inadvertent deletions or hardware malfunctions. There are various providers available such as Google Drive, iCloud, or Dropbox each offering different plans based on storage needs.
Investing in high-quality wedding albums and prints lets you enjoy the physical aspect of your cherished moments! Printed pictures allow you to have an ‘unplugged’ experience of reliving the memories. These albums can be easily stored and don’t require any digital devices to enjoy. However, ensure they are kept in a dry, dark place to prevent damage from humidity and sunlight.
Having multiple backups of your wedding photos is crucial to ensure their safety. I can’t recommend this enough! The most secure method would be to combine digital storage (external hard drives and cloud storage) with physical storage (photo albums). I would not recommend relying on only one or the other, computers and photo albums can be easily damaged. That’s why you should create multiple copies of your photos in different formats, greatly reducing the risk of loss.
Finally, don’t store all your backups in one place! Keep them in different safe locations. For example, keep them on a flash drive in a weather proof safe, and then also in the cloud etc. This practice keeps them safeguarded against possible theft, natural disasters, or accidental damage that could occur within a specific location.
Your wedding photos deserve the best care, as they encapsulate your significant life moments! Make use of a combination of storage methods such as hard drives, cloud storage, physical albums, and diversifying the storage location. Doing so, your memories remain secure, easily accessible, and primed for longevity. Your wedding photos are not just pictures; they are cherished memories that deserve to be well-stored and loved for years to come.
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“Amazing in all ways – helped make the whole wedding day run smoothly. Prepared to take all the wedding shots I was looking for. So helpful when I had no idea what I was doing. Highly recommend!!”
-Kathryn