Where to store your wedding photos

What a wedding archive needs

• Originals. Messengers compress photos and videos; you want the original files.
• One place. The photographer’s shots, the film and the guests’ photos in one album — not in twenty chats.
• Access control. Links get forwarded, so you need to be able to switch them off.
• Room for big files. A wedding film runs to several gigabytes; RAW files are tens of megabytes per frame.
• A second copy. One service is not an archive. Keep a copy on your own drive too.

For the couple: an album only your people can see

Create a “Wedding” album in My Albums and upload the originals. Then share it in one of two ways:

• A link with a code. “Share a link” → choose 7 days, 30 days or no expiry → send guests the link and the code. Without the code the album won’t open, and the code itself never reaches our server: it unlocks the album key on the guest’s phone.
• Members. Invite family as “can view”, “can view and add” or “can manage” — up to 50 people. An invitation is valid for 7 days, and you approve each member. That way photos from your family’s phones end up in the same album.

Photos are encrypted on the phone before upload. A shared album has its own key, so sharing it opens that album only — not your whole library.

For guests: nothing to install

A guest opens the link in Telegram, enters the code and sees the whole album. No extra app, no sign-up, no key of their own. Any photo opens full screen, and the original can be downloaded. There’s no limit on how many guests can use a link.

For photographers: deliver the shoot without a Drive link

• RAW and TIFF: CR2, CR3, NEF, ARW, DNG, RAF, ORF, RW2, PEF and more. The preview comes from the embedded JPEG, the capture date from the file, and the original downloads untouched.
• Files up to 20 GB — the whole film. Uploads go in 8 MB parts, so a dropped connection resends one part, not the entire file.
• Whole folders from a computer: a folder becomes an album, and subfolders become separate albums.
• Up to 20 links per album. Switch any of them off or delete it, or close access for one person.
• Bonus: +5 GB for every guest who starts keeping their own photos with us (uploads 10 files), up to +50 GB. The guest gets +5 GB too.

Honest limitations

• The album opens only in Telegram, and only with the code.
• Guests download photos one at a time. The whole album at once works only in Telegram Desktop, after tapping “Keep my photos — free”.
• Telegram on Android doesn’t let mini apps save files: originals up to 50 MB arrive in the chat with the bot; bigger files go through Telegram Desktop.
• Videos over 300 MB won’t open on an iPhone — watch the film on a computer or Android.
• RAW and TIFF are shown in the app by their embedded preview.
• You can close access at any time, but whatever guests have already downloaded stays with them.
• My Albums is not a substitute for your own archive of originals — keep one more copy.

What it costs

The first year is 5 GB free, no card — enough to try it on a small shoot. A full wedding with a film will need a plan: 50, 100 or 250 GB for 100, 200 or 500 ⭐ a month (about $2, $4 or $10), paid with Telegram Stars. If you don’t renew, your photos aren’t deleted: you can still view and download them; only new uploads pause.

Frequently asked questions