Introduction
When my wife and I got married, we paid for everything in cash. Not in literal bank notes, but we didn’t run a high balance on credit cards or take out a personal loan. We cut back on the monthly expenses, took on some extra hours at work, and saved as much as possible for over a year to pay for everything. Other cost-cutting measures included keeping the guest count to less than 50 people, doing all the planning ourselves, and making all the decorations ourselves. Even after all that it was still expensive, but worth the effort. Personal bias aside, it was one of if not the most fun weddings I’ve ever attended. The guests carried on with lively conversations, people danced, and there was an open bar.
In the United States, attendees traditionally write something in a guest book and participate in some other memory-making activity for the newlyweds. We placed an Instax instant photo camera and several packets of instant film on the entryway table next to a framed engagement photo. Guests snapped candid photos and taped them in the guestbook with a message.
In this article I wanted to share a budget-friendly way to create lasting memories for you or a friend’s wedding using photo mosaics with Bouquet. Let’s get into it!
Previous Articles
Posted below are the articles related to Bouquet. Those titled Bouquet: Photo Mosaic Tutorial and Advanced Features of Bouquet are written in a tutorial style format. All the articles take less than 5 minutes to read. If you’re new to Bouquet as a platform and want to learn more about its features and how to use it, I highly recommend checking out those articles.
Introducing Bouquet: Creating Stunning Photo Mosaics
Bouquet: Photo Mosaic Tutorial
Better Quality Mosaics with Bouquet
Where to Download
The app is free to download. Use the links below.
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1494245634
Official Website: https://bouquet.sola.inc/
Guest Table Mosaics
Technology has made it easier than ever to take and share photos. That got me thinking… what if guests contributed to the wedding in a meaningful way by sharing photos of the bride and groom? Using their contributions to create the guest table, or other photos, gets people involved and excited. Memories are such a powerful emotional phenomenon. Each guest submitting their favorite photos of the bride, groom, or couple together, would be such a kind and thoughtful gesture. Of course, I don’t want to exclude other kinds of relationships. If the couple consists of two grooms, two brides, or something else entirely, the gesture still works.
The idealized version of the concept is to have anywhere from 1-3 high-resolution photo mosaics sitting at the guestbook entryway table. One photo of the bride, one of the groom, and one from the engagement photos seems like a good amount. Alternatively, one larger portrait of the couple from their engagement is another option. Friends and family members would upload their favorite photos of the wedding party to a platform like Google Drive before the event. Depending on the size of the respective families, it could result in hundreds of photo contributions, serving as unique piece images for creating the mosaics.
How to Share the Photos
Bouquet can source piece images for building mosaics manually from the device’s memory, from a photo album, Google Photos, or from a video. Bouquet’s ability to automatically crop piece images from short-form video adds another dynamic for guest contributions. In my testing for this article, I could not find a way to share access to albums with others using Google Photos. The simplest free solution was to use Google Drive. There are several screen-captures below illustrating how one might set up their sharing folders with friends and family.
If pursing the main decoration idea proposed in this article, sharing edit access to larger Bride’s Family and Groom’s Family folders for contributions is one method. I then broke down each side of the family into smaller subfolders for individualized photo sharing. Guests take photos constantly during these kinds of events. By providing additional access to other key wedding party members like the Father of the Bride, Mother of the Bride, Bridesmaids, or Groomsman, it creates a unique secondary opportunity for even more guest memories.
To facilitate the upload process, sending emails to the respective families with clearly labeled links translates to more photo contributions. After writing thank you letters, the different bridesmaids, groomsman, and others, could also receive a beautiful photo mosaic commemorating the event.
Conclusion
The focus of any wedding is, of course, the ceremony itself and marrying the couple. No one here is discounting that. However, the more guests can be involved and contribute, the more fun it is for everyone. With prices for wedding planners ranging anywhere from $2,000 – $5,000, venues ranging from $4,000 – $20,000+, and a professional photographer charging $2,000 – $5,000+, weddings get obscenely expensive in the blink of an eye.
Having a few back-pocket ideas that are both cheap and fun for guests seems like a win-win to me. Speaking personally, knowing my candid cell phone photos went on to a greater purpose would motivate me to take more. It may feel like an insignificant gesture in the moment, but ever year around our anniversary my wife and I break out the guestbook and reflect on all the great memories. Sometimes the small things in life really do matter.
As always, leave a comment below or send the author an email at michael@sola.inc for any feedback or idea for future articles. Catch you on the next one!
Where to Download
The app is free to download. Use the links below.
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1494245634
Official Website: https://bouquet.sola.inc/
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