Setting up your event
About five minutes of work, most of which is Google asking whether you're sure. Everything lands in your own Google Photos or OneDrive — PicMeUp never stores your photos, it just moves them from your guests' phones into your album.
The five-minute setup
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Create the event
In the dashboard, fill in the New event box:
- Event name — becomes your album name and the web address ("Smith Wedding" → /e/smith-wedding).
- Date shown to guests — pick it from the calendar. It's shown on the guest page, and it's how we know when your event has passed and the card can settle down to just the album and guestbook.
- Hosts' names — what guests see: "Leave a memory for Tom & Kate".
- Owner — you. Events belong to whoever creates them, so there's nothing to fill in. Admins see an extra field here and can create an event on someone else's behalf; if that person hasn't signed in yet, the event appears on their dashboard the moment they do.
The owner is emailed the links, the PIN, and both QR codes right away.
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Choose where your photos live, and connect
The checklist offers Google Photos and OneDrive. Pick one, sign in to that account, and approve the permission screen. The album or folder is created for you at the same time, named after your event.
Which one? Whichever you already use. Google gives 15 GB free across your account; OneDrive gives 5 GB unless you have Microsoft 365. OneDrive also skips the share-link step below. You can't change providers later without leaving the photos behind, so pick once.
You'll see "Google hasn't verified this app." That's expected — we're in Google's review queue. Choose Advanced → continue. PicMeUp only asks to add photos to the album it creates and read back those same photos for the slideshow. It cannot see anything else in the library, and you can revoke access anytime at myaccount.google.com/permissions.Neither provider lets us connect something you made by hand: Google's API only shows an app the albums it created, and on OneDrive we deliberately ask for one folder of our own rather than your whole drive. If you already have photos, move them into the new album or folder afterward. -
Paste the album share link (Google Photos only)
On OneDrive, skip this — we create the link for you. Google removed programmatic album sharing in 2025, so it's the one manual step there. In Google Photos: open the new album → Share → Create link → copy it. Back in PicMeUp, click Add link on the checklist and paste it in — the dialog has an Open the album button to get you there.
It's only used when a guest asks to see the photos and you approve — PicMeUp emails them this link. Google removed the ability for apps to do this automatically in 2025, hence the copy-paste.
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Print your QR codes (optional — do it whenever)
Click Get QR codes on the checklist and download the Guest upload code. Put it on table cards, the welcome sign, the bar, the bathroom mirror — wherever people will see it. (They were emailed to the owner too.)
This step never holds your event back — once your photo account is connected and the album link is in, the event is ready and the QR code stays available on the card and under ⋯.
Tip: add a line of text next to it — "Scan to share your photos with us!" — people scan far more when they know why.
Safe to print early. Until your photo account is connected there is nowhere for an upload to go, so anyone who scans ahead of time sees a friendly “almost ready, check back soon” page rather than an upload that fails.
On the day
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Start the photo slideshow
On the laptop or TV at your venue, open the Photo slideshow screen link from your event, enter the display PIN, and press F for fullscreen. Photos appear about 20 seconds after guests upload them.
Controls: ← / → step back and forward, space pauses and resumes, F toggles fullscreen.
Set the laptop to never sleep, and plug it in. A phone hotspot works fine as a backup if venue Wi-Fi is unreliable — the slideshow uses very little data. -
Optional: the guestbook screen
Open the Guestbook screen link on a second display or a tablet near the guestbook table, so people can read what others have written. Same PIN.
The guestbook is on by default. Switch it off in Settings (or on the event card) and the message tab disappears from the guest page along with this screen — anything already written is kept, and you can still read or email it from ⋯.
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Optional: hand your DJ the request screen
If you switched on song requests, send your DJ the 🎧 DJ request screen link from your event, plus the same display PIN. They work down the Waiting column: Approve puts a song in the numbered play order, Skip moves it to a Skipped list at the bottom, and Played files it under Played once it's been. Both lists keep an Undo, so a skipped song can go back to Waiting.
The Spotify icon next to each track opens it in Spotify search so your DJ can drop it into their own queue. PicMeUp never touches their decks or their Spotify account — approving is a suggestion, not an instruction. -
Let it run
Nothing else to do. Guests scan, add their name once, and upload as many times as they like throughout the day.
Options worth knowing
| Setting | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Slide duration | Settings | How long each photo holds on screen, 3–120 seconds. Eight is a good default; go longer for a quiet dinner, shorter once the dancing starts. |
| Guestbook | Settings or the event card | On by default. Switch it off and guests get the photo upload page without the message tab, and the guestbook screen link disappears. Messages already written are kept and can still be read or emailed from ⋯. |
| Guestbook messages in the slideshow | Settings | Mixes guests' written notes into the photo rotation as quote cards. |
| Song requests | Settings | Adds a “Request a song” tab to the guest page and a DJ request screen to your event. Off by default. Repeat requests for the same track become votes, so your DJ can see what the room wants. |
| Ways to sign in | 👤 My account, top right or on the help card | Add Google or Microsoft to the account you already have, so either button signs you in. It's the same account either way — same events, same role, same email address, and the two addresses don't have to match. Use this rather than making a second account: a new account can't see the events the first one owns. |
| Filter events | Top of the Events list | Type to match on name, owner, co-organizer, host names or date — "June" works as well as "2027-06". The dropdown narrows to events still being set up, ready ones, or finished ones. |
| Change photo account | Change, on the album row | The album row names the account holding your photos, and flags it if that isn't the event owner. Connected the wrong one? Change disconnects it so you can pick again — but only while the album is still empty. Once guests have uploaded, the account is locked, because photos can't be moved between libraries. The album itself is never deleted. |
| Co-organizers | Settings | Other PicMeUp accounts who can manage this event — planner, best friend, the cousin who's "good with computers". |
| Reset slideshow link / Reset PIN | Event card → ⋯ | Regenerate either if a link leaks. Old links and PINs stop working instantly, including on screens already open. |
| Read / email guestbook | Event buttons | Read every message guests left; remove any you'd rather not display with the ✕ on it; and email the whole guestbook to the event owner, any co-organizer, or yourself. |
| Open the album / folder | Event links | Jumps straight to your album — where you go to delete a photo you'd rather not keep. |
Afterwards
Get the guestbook before you delete anything
Use Read / email guestbook to send every message to the event owner, a co-organizer, or yourself — tick whoever should get it. Guestbook messages are deleted along with the event; your photos are not.
Removing a message you'd rather not show
In the same panel, click the ✕ on any message. It comes off the guestbook screen and the slideshow within about 20 seconds. Deleting is permanent, so email yourself a copy first if you want the complete record.
Removing a photo you'd rather not keep
Open the album or folder where it lives, select the photo, and delete it. The slideshow drops it within about 20 seconds. Guests can never delete anything themselves.
Your album is yours
It lives in your own Google or Microsoft account. Delete the event, stop using PicMeUp, forget we exist — every photo stays exactly where it is, at full quality.