Most couples don’t think about how to safely store their wedding photos until the “gallery expiration” email from their photographer arrives. 🙂 Worse, some forget to download or do, and misplace them or have a hard drive failure. While I do keep my couples images as long as possible, it is important to take charge of your digital assets. Follow this plan and you won’t ever be wondering where your wedding and other important photos are!
3 Steps to Safely Store Wedding Photos
Before copying files to multiple locations, verify you have a good, high resolution and complete collection to start. Compare the numbers in your photographer’s gallery and open random files to ensure they are not corrupt.
Hard Drive #1 – Local
#1 Get a flash drive or solid state external drive from a reputable manufacturer. Copy the files to the drive and label it. (Verify they copied well!) Getting a larger drive than you need now (at least double the space) is a good idea. Combine existing photos and start your family archive! I prefer physically larger drives so they are not as easy to misplace. Keep this drive in the fire safe in your home. (Tip: I recommend getting the most current connectivity (Thunderbolt 3, USB-C in 2025) to ensure it will be years before you’ll need to transfer the data. Drive speed is less important for storage.) For larger capacity, I’d recommend this at the moment.
Hard Drive #2 – Off Site
#2 Make a copy on another device (can be identical to #1). Store it in a bank box or at a friend’s place or secondary location. Once a year or more often if you can, add any new files in. (Or start a new drive when full. If you organize by year it will be as simple as dragging the folder over. (For more complex copying and verification, I recommend ChronoSync for Mac users.)
Online Storage #3
#3 Keep a copy in online storage. (As long as the provider isn’t reducing file sizes!) You may already have space you can use in Amazon Prime or another back-up service. Back-up to this location often so you will have two current locations at any given time.
Why Not Store Wedding Photos Separately?
By using the drives for new photos, you will be alerted to a possible drive failure much faster than if you just make copies and leave them be. While I do believe a good solid state will be fine for years in a climate controlled bank box or firesafe, it is important to periodically check on drives. Consider your wedding to be the starting point of a new family’s history. Once you set up good digital photo storage habits, you’ll create an archive over time.
What Are More Ways to Ensure Our Digital Wedding Photos Last?
Aside from physical local/offsite and online copies of your digital wedding photos, making prints and albums is a great idea. Printing the entire collection of digital images may be cost and space prohibitive for you. However, considering printing a favorites collection in 4×6 or 5×7 format. There are slip in albums or storage boxes that can be customized and embossed or just kept plain. Just be sure they are archival. Color c-print photographs can start to fade in as little as 20 years, even in dark storage. Of course, if you keep track of your wedding digital files, you can always reprint them.
Albums are another way to enjoy and share your wedding story. (To learn more about my album options, see my album guide.)
