Your wedding photos are treasured memories! Your first look with your dad, the gift exchange between you & your husband, and the moment you first became husband-and-wife. Those moments are ones you never want to forget, and thanks to your photos you never have to.
Not if you have them backed up properly! Most photographers do not guarantee they can keep your images safe for life. We store all of ours on online galleries for up to 10 years. Everything else gets deleted from our hard drive within 30 days to make room for the next wedding. It’s nothing against you, but on our end, it is so expensive to keep images.
So, we recommend you back up your own images to keep them safe. There are a ton of cost-effective, easy ways for you to do this on your own! Here are a few practical tips for how to do that.
Where to Back Them Up
There are a ton of great options for backing up your photos. The easiest way is to download them all to your computer. You can also put them on a thumb drive, external hard drive, or a CD if you’d like. Some people also keep them online through services like Dropbox or Google Drive. Any of these are great, easy-to-use, and fairly affordable options.
Back Them Up Quickly
We recommend backing up your images as soon as you get them from us. The sooner you do this, the safer they are. You wouldn’t want to wait or forget and then have something happen to them. We create an “ALL” folder in all our wedding galleries to make it as easy as possible for you to download them quickly. Also, don’t forget to download your other sessions with us like your engagement photos or bridal session.
Back Them Multiple Times
Don’t trust just one source to back them up. CDs can be scratched, thumb drives can be lost, and passwords can be forgotten. Having more than one backup is the safest way to ensure the safety of your memories. We even recommend keeping a copy with a trusted parent or friend if you are really concerned.
Put Them Somewhere Safe
Literally, please put any physical copies of your backups in a safe. Online, just make sure you know your passwords and keep your subscriptions up-to-date. Sadly, we never know when tragedy could strike so our philosophy is better safe than sorry.
We hope these tips give you a practical way to keep your photos safe! If you have any specific questions or concerns, as always we’re an email away!
Blessings,
Katie & Alec
Looking for more wedding tips & tricks? Head to the Katie & Alec blog series for brides here!
