IT’S DONE! You got the final gallery with aaaaaall of your elopement photos ready to view and download. HELL YEAH!

Now what?

Most photographers will allow you to continually download the high-resolution digital files for a certain amount of time, anywhere from a few weeks to a year or more. But what do you do when that gallery is about to expire and you need to keep your photos stored somewhere safely?

I’ve got you!!

#1: Download your files

You’d be surprised how often I hear that people forget to download their entire elopement gallery. It’s probably a lot more large files than you’ve had to manage before, and it might take a little bit to download! But when you’ve put SO much time, energy, and love into having incredible elopement day photos, you’re going ot want to keep every last photo for a lifetime!

That being said, the first step in backing up your memories is to go to your gallery and locate the button to download the entire gallery.

For my clients viewing their gallery on a desktop, it looks like this:

For my clients viewing their gallery on a mobile device, it looks like this:

Once you download the photos, you may need to unzip them, but then you’ll have all the files on your computer or phone!

#2: Copy the photos to a Hard drive or USB Drive

Now take that folder of images and plan where you want to keep a copy (or two) long term. Keeping a copy on your own computer is a great place to start, and putting another copy in a secondary location is my best advice and will ensure that even in the event of a hard drive failure or if you lose your computer for one reason or another, you’ll still have the files!

Your secondary location could be on a USB drive - I would recommend getting a minimum of 8GB of storage so you can fit all of your photos on one USB drive. Grab one next time you’re at the store, they’re cheap and effective! Then I’d highly recommend keeping that USB drive either in a fireproof/waterproof safe or storing it somewhere else (like a parent’s or friend’s house).

Fun (or, not so fun) data about drive failures: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/02/new-data-illustrates-times-effect-on-hard-drive-failure-rates/

#3: Cloud Storage

At this point in the technology world we live in, most people use iCloud, Google Photos, Amazon, Dropbox, or a similar service to back up their phone photos, so why not add your elopement day photos, too? That way, in the event that your hard copies on on a hard drive or USB drive are lost, you’ll still have a safe copy in the cloud. Plus, then you’ll be able to access the files from anywhere, not just when you’re at home!

Bonus tip: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket!

This rule applies to many things in life, and your wedding photos are no different. If you can get your photos on a hard drive/USB drive and store them somewhere in the cloud, do it!! You’re just lending yourself more protection for the future. If you keep just one copy in your home computer, the chance of natural disaster or a break-in can happen. If you keep your only copy in the cloud, what if that specific service goes out of business and/or loses your files? None of these events are likely to happen, but why not be prepared anyway?

That’s it, folks. Get those precious photos backed up (and backed up a second time!) so you can rest easy knowing that you’ll always have a copy of your elopement day photos.