Hi! I’m Aya Ishibashi from the Moments editorial team 🌱
This blog talks a lot about wedding photos, but the problem of “the photos everyone took never reach me” isn’t just a wedding thing, right? A friend’s birthday, a reunion after years apart, the office year-end party… The more fun the day, the more likely the photos just sit untouched on everyone’s phones.
In this post, I’ve put together the common problems at each kind of event and how to gather the photos in one place!
Whatever the event, photos go uncollected for the same reasons
- The same people take the photos: there’s always someone who takes the pictures, and they’re the only one not in them
- Sending is a hassle: you mean to pick some out and send them later, then forget
- There’s nowhere to send them: there’s no group with everyone in it, and you don’t have some people’s contacts
The reasons wedding photos never arrive are actually almost the same. Our article on why guests’ photos don’t get collected goes into detail, with survey data.
Birthdays and surprises
For a birthday with just family or close friends, an album in a LINE group everyone’s already in (LINE is the messaging app most people in Japan use) is often enough. Keep in mind, though, that photos in LINE albums are saved at standard quality, so for photos you want to keep looking their best, consider other options too.
For a surprise, I also recommend setting up the album without the guest of honor knowing and setting the photos to be revealed “after the party.” When they open the album later, they get to feel happy all over again 🎂
Class reunions
At a reunion, lots of people haven’t seen each other in years, and there’s almost never a group with everyone in it. For the organizer, collecting the photos afterward and sending them out is a lot of work.
Put a QR code at the reception desk or on the tables and collect the photos in a place people can join just by scanning, and you’ll get photos even from people you haven’t exchanged contacts with.
Company events
At company events like year-end parties, all-staff meetings and anniversary parties, quite a few people would rather not swap personal LINE accounts with coworkers. A shared place people can join by QR code, without exchanging personal contact details, makes it easy.
With work photos, watch out for documents, screens and other people’s faces that end up in the shot. Say a quick word before things start about whether it’s OK to post photos on social media.
Using Moments at your event
Moments is a camera app we made for weddings, but the flow — “create an album → put out the QR code → the photos everyone takes come together in one place” — is the same for any event.
- People who join don’t need to sign up (no app to install on iPhone; on Android they join in the browser)
- You can choose how many shots each person gets — 5, 15, 25 or unlimited — so it feels like a “disposable camera”
- You can choose when the photos are revealed: right after they’re taken, when the album ends, or 12 or 24 hours after it ends
- Pricing is a one-time payment based on the number of people: free for up to 10, ¥2,500 for up to 25, ¥5,000 for up to 50, and ¥10,000 for up to 100
A small birthday is free, so feel free to give it a try. You’ll find pricing and supported devices on the facts page, and how it differs from other ways of collecting photos on the comparison page!
