How to Add a Live Photo Gallery to Your Wedding Website
By Matt Specker
You spent weeks building your wedding website, and then most photo-sharing tools send your guests somewhere else to actually share photos. The site sits frozen while the memories pile up on a separate link. It does not have to work that way. You can put a live guest photo gallery right on your wedding website, so guests add their photos and watch the album fill up without ever leaving your page.
Here is how to do it, with the exact steps for the most common website builders.
What "embedding" actually means
Embedding is pasting one small snippet of code into your website so a live widget appears on the page. With PhotoShare Events, that widget is your event album: guests see photos and videos appear in real time, and depending on what you turn on, they can add their own, open a full-screen slideshow, find every photo they are in with Find My Face, and download favorites. You control it from your event, and you can switch it off anytime.
First, get your embed snippet
- Open your event in PhotoShare Events and go to Manage, then "Add to your website."
- Turn on website embed. This generates a revocable snippet, so you can kill it anytime.
- Choose who can view (passcode or open), which actions to show, and a full-width or sidebar layout.
- Copy the one-line embed code. You will paste it into your website next.
Squarespace
- Edit the page and click an insert point where you want the gallery.
- Add a Code block, or an Embed block.
- Paste your PhotoShare Events snippet and save.
The gallery appears right in your page section. Full-width layout works best for a dedicated "Photos" page.
Wix
- Click Add Elements, then Embed Code, then Embed HTML.
- Choose "Code" and paste your snippet.
- Drag to resize and position the widget, then publish.
WordPress
- Edit your page or post and add a Custom HTML block.
- Paste your snippet and preview.
- Publish or update the page.
Zola, The Knot, and Joy
Some all-in-one wedding website builders, including Zola, The Knot, and Joy (WithJoy), limit or do not allow custom HTML, so a pasted embed may not work. That is a limit of those builders, not of the album. The simple fix: share your event as a link instead. Add a button or text link on your wedding website that points to your PhotoShare Events album, and guests tap through to the same live gallery, where they can add, view, and download photos. You still get every photo in one place.
Which builders support an embedded gallery
| Website builder | Embed a live gallery? | How |
|---|---|---|
| Squarespace | Yes | Code block or Embed block |
| Wix | Yes | Embed HTML element |
| WordPress | Yes | Custom HTML block |
| Zola | Limited | Share the album as a link |
| The Knot | Limited | Share the album as a link |
| Joy (WithJoy) | No custom code | Share the album as a link |
A few tips
- Give it its own page. A dedicated "Photos" or "Share your photos" page in your site menu is easier for guests to find than a buried section.
- Keep uploading gated. Leave the passcode on for uploads so only your guests can add to the album. Viewing can stay open or gated, your call.
- Match your branding. The gallery carries your branding and fits your layout, so it reads as part of your site.
- You can revoke it anytime. If you ever want to take the gallery down, one switch in your event turns the embed off everywhere it is pasted.
That is the whole thing. Guests share from the website you already sent them, the album fills in real time, and you keep every photo and video in one place.