A wedding hashtag, or a shared gallery?

For about ten years, the answer to collecting guest photos was a hashtag. Pick a phrase nobody else has used, print it on a sign by the door, and search it the following week. It was a genuinely clever use of what existed at the time, and plenty of couples still do it.

A hashtag can help guests find public posts carrying the same label. It cannot collect everything in their camera rolls, and a private profile or restricted audience changes who can see the post. Ask guests to share the files they want you to keep rather than assuming a tag search will find them.

Choose according to the audience you want and how you will keep the files. You can use a hashtag and a shared gallery together.

What a wedding hashtag is still good at

It costs nothing and it needs no setup. You agree on a phrase, you print it, and the work is done. Nothing to buy, nothing to configure, and no decision to revisit in the last fortnight when you have run out of patience for decisions.

A public hashtag lets people browse the posts the platform makes available to them. A Melora gallery can also show guests the approved photos others have shared. On paid events it updates as new public photos arrive, and approval settings decide whether a photo appears immediately or waits for the host.

You can send a Melora gallery link to relatives who could not attend. They do not have to be in the room to view it. Decide who should receive the link, and use the optional event PIN when you want an additional access check.

The five things it never solved

None of these are new. They were true in 2016 as well, and every one of them got worse as accounts got more private.

• A private profile or limited audience may prevent other guests finding a post through its hashtag.
• Social platforms may resize or re-encode uploaded media. Ask for the source file when that matters.
• Do not rely on a temporary story as the only copy of a video you want to keep.
• You do not control another person’s post. Ask them to remove it if somebody objects.
• Search and download features can change. Keep a separate copy of the files shared with you.

The last one is the one couples underestimate. A hashtag is a pointer into a database you do not own. Everything you collected through it exists at the pleasure of a company with no obligation to keep it and no obligation to tell you when it stops. The fourth one is softer than it looks too, and mostly comes down to what guests should and should not post, which almost nobody tells them.

What a shared gallery trades away, and what it buys

Melora gives the host a collection point with photo approval and whole-gallery downloads on paid events. Photos are not watermarked, but large images may be reduced to 3000 pixels on the longest edge before upload. Ordinary gallery video is included on paid packages. A guest link is shareable, so keep it within your intended audience and use the optional PIN if you need one.

The setup is a host account, an event and a package. After payment, open Get QR Code on the event page to design and download the card. You print the files yourself or take them to a print shop. How Melora works explains the sequence. The card is one way to share the event link, and sending the link to relatives is another.

It also asks the guest for one action they would not otherwise take. Scanning a code is small, but it is not nothing, and a card nobody reads collects nothing at all. Where you put the card decides most of the outcome, and it is the part couples spend the least time on.

How to decide

Answer one question first. Do you mostly want the night to be seen, or do you mostly want to keep it?

Use a hashtag if public posts on that platform are something you and your guests want. Agree what is appropriate to publish, especially when other people appear in the photo.

Use a shared gallery when you want a collection you can manage and download. You can still share its link with relatives. Ask your photographer separately about delivery and permissions for their professional set.

If you want both, give guests both options. A public post and a file shared with the couple serve different audiences. Nobody needs to post publicly in order to contribute to a Melora event.

What the paid option actually costs

Current paid Melora packages start at EUR 50 for one event, paid once with no subscription. All include unlimited event storage, photo and ordinary video uploads, and QR print files. The package page lists the included services and any features still in development. Physical printing is separate. A small Demo is available for trying the basic photo flow.

Whether it is worth it comes back to the first question. If you would be content with the photographer's set plus whatever your friends happened to post publicly, the hashtag is genuinely fine and you should keep the money. If the thought of losing your aunt's photos because her account is private bothers you, this is the cheapest fix for that on the list.