Example 01
Your photos, on the big screen Text your pictures to the number below and watch the slideshow — it updates all night
Table signPersonalize
Guest photos & videos
A live wedding slideshow fed by your guests' phones
A live wedding slideshow shows your guests' photos on a screen at the reception as they take them: guests text their pictures to your wedding number (or scan a QR code on the table), every photo lands in one shared feed, and the feed plays on a TV or projector that updates all night. Guests install nothing — and because texted photos ride the cell network instead of the venue wifi, the feed keeps filling even when 150 phones are hammering one router.
Copy it straight onto the sign
🪧 Table & bar sign wording
The screen shows the photos; the signs are what fill it. Three short lines per sign — what's happening, what to do, and where to look — with the text-in number printed at least as large as the QR code.
Example 02
Tonight's slideshow stars: you Snap it, text it, see it on screen in seconds No app, no wifi, no uploading
Table signPersonalize
Example 03
Get your table on the big screen Text a group photo to the number below — first table up wins nothing but glory
Table signPersonalize
Example 04
While you wait for your drink — text a photo to the number below and catch it on the big screen before your glass lands
Bar signPersonalize
Example 05
The slideshow is hungry for photos Text yours in — candids, selfies, dance-floor chaos Screen's by the dance floor. Cheers.
Bar signPersonalize
No app. No upload form. No venue wifi.
With Text My Wedding, guests text their photos and videos straight to your wedding number and they land in one live feed, ready for the big screen. MMS rides the cell network, so the feed keeps filling even when the venue wifi buckles — the QR sign is the shortcut for scanners, and texting catches everyone else.
Put it in the room
🎤 DJ & MC announcement scripts
One thirty-second announcement fills the screen faster than every sign combined. Hand your DJ or MC these four — launch, first photo, mid-reception nudge, and last call — and let them make the screen a running bit all night.
Example 06
Everyone, look at the big screen — that slideshow is live. Every photo you take tonight can be up there in seconds: just text it to the number on your table card. Let's fill that screen before the first dance.
DJ announcementPersonalize
Example 07
See that photo that just went up? That came from table five. The rest of you have some catching up to do — text your photos to the number on your table and watch for yours on the screen.
MC scriptPersonalize
Example 08
The slideshow is still rolling — if your table isn't on the big screen yet, fix that. Best photo of the night gets bragging rights at brunch. Text it in; it shows up in seconds.
DJ announcementPersonalize
Example 09
One last song — and one last call for the slideshow. Text your favorite photo from tonight before you head out, and keep them coming from home: the couple wakes up to every single one tomorrow.
DJ announcementPersonalize
Set it up at the door
🖼️ Welcome sign & program copy
Guests decide in the first ten minutes whether they'll feed the screen all night. A welcome sign frames it as their job — the photographers can't be everywhere — and a program line catches everyone who walked past the sign.
Example 10
Your photos on the big screen tonight Text every picture you take to the number below and watch the slideshow grow all evening
Welcome signPersonalize
Example 11
Tonight, you're the photographers Text your photos to Priya & Marcus's wedding number and see them live on the reception screen
Welcome signPersonalize
Example 12
One photographer can't catch everything — you can Text your photos in as you take them and watch the big screen fill up all night
Welcome tablePersonalize
Example 13
Photos appear on the reception screen all night — text yours to the number in this program or scan the code on your table.
Program footerPersonalize
Compare the methods
Which live slideshow setup actually fits your reception?
Four ways to put the night's photos on a screen — with the wifi question answered honestly, because the venue's router is where most live slideshows quietly die.
1
Guests text it (MMS live feed)
Best for: Mixed guest lists and venues with weak or no guest wifi — snapping and texting is one gesture every guest already knows, and MMS rides the cell network.
Cost: $0 extra for guests — it works on the phones they already hold, as part of a wedding texting plan.
Tradeoff: You still need a screen and someone on the moderation queue, and texts need a service that renders them as a slideshow — forwarding photos to a laptop by hand doesn't scale past the first dance.
2
QR code to a web-upload slideshow service
Best for: Tech-comfortable crowds at venues with genuinely solid guest wifi.
Cost: Free tiers with photo or guest limits; full-event use is typically a paid per-event plan.
Tradeoff: Scan, open browser, pick files, upload — the two-minute version of a ten-second text, and the upload fails quietly when the whole room shares one access point. Print a text-in fallback line either way.
3
Shared album as a screensaver
Best for: Small, casual receptions where a Google Photos or iCloud album looping on the TV is genuinely good enough.
Cost: $0 with the accounts you already have.
Tradeoff: Built as an album, not a show: no moderation queue, uneven display order, some guests need the right account to join, and casting hiccups mid-reception with nobody on duty to fix them.
4
Pre-made montage (slideshow maker)
Best for: The dinner-hour tribute — childhood photos and how-you-met, set to music.
Cost: Free with tools you already have (Photos, Canva, PowerPoint).
Tradeoff: It's finished before the reception starts, so nothing guests capture that night will ever appear. A different job, not a competitor — many couples play the montage at dinner and run the live feed after.
Screens, cables, and signs
Setting up the screen — and the signs that feed it
The display side of a live slideshow is one screen, one cable, and one decision about timing. Work down this list in order and the whole setup takes fifteen minutes at rehearsal, not a scramble on the day.
1
Start with the venue's own screen
Many ballrooms and barns already have a mounted TV or a drop-down projector screen. Ask three things: does it exist, can you plug into its HDMI input, and who controls it on the night. Venue AV is already sized and placed for the room — use it if you can.
2
Own TV beats a projector in a lit room
A TV stays crisp with the lights up, which matters for a slideshow that starts at dinner. A projector wins on sheer size, but only once the room goes dark — if your reception runs before sunset, bring the TV and a sturdy stand.
3
Wire it; cast only as a backup
A laptop on HDMI is boring and bulletproof. Chromecast and AirPlay both lean on the venue wifi — the same wifi 150 guests' phones are about to hammer. Pack an HDMI cable, the right adapter for your laptop, and a power strip.
4
Point the screen at the dance floor
The sight line that matters is from the dance floor and the bar, not the head table. Beside the DJ booth is the classic spot: the MC can point at it mid-announcement, and someone technical is within arm's reach all night.
5
Go live as dinner starts
By dinner, the feed already holds approved ceremony and cocktail-hour photos, so the screen opens full instead of blank — and a full screen recruits harder than any sign. Never run it during the ceremony itself.
6
Print the feed onto the tables
The screen shows photos; the signs make them. A card at every place setting, a sign at the bar, and one line in the program — each with the text-in number printed as large as the QR code.
Slot the go-live moment and the announcements into your evening with the reception timeline guide, pair the screen with a video guest book so the clips guests text in become a keepsake too, and compare every way to gather the night's photos and videos on the photo & video collection hub.
Keep the screen safe
Moderation and timing, handled
An unmoderated live screen is the one genuine risk of the whole idea — and it's fully solved by three decisions you make before the first guest arrives.
1
Turn on pre-approval before anyone arrives
Approve-first mode means nothing reaches the screen unvetted: photos queue privately until someone taps yes. Set it before the ceremony and the cocktail-hour photos simply wait while you're off taking portraits.
2
Clear the backlog during dinner
Dinner is the natural moderation window — guests are seated, the screen is warming up, and whoever holds the queue can approve the whole cocktail-hour batch in five minutes. The screen is then full before the dancing starts.
3
Name one queue-watcher — not the couple
A planner, a bridesmaid, or the DJ-booth neighbor checks the queue for thirty seconds every few songs. It is genuinely that little work — but only if exactly one named person owns it, because a shared job is nobody's job.
4
Have a plan for that one uncle
Every wedding has one. The plan: his photo quietly never gets approved. No announcement, no confrontation, no scene — it stays in your private feed, and he assumes the screen just hasn't cycled to it yet.
5
Pause the screen for the big moments
During toasts, the first dance, and the parent dances, pause the slideshow or switch the input so every eye is on the moment, not on a photo of the cocktail hour. Resume when the floor opens — that's when the screen earns its keep.
Easy to avoid
Live slideshow mistakes couples regret
Every one of these comes down to a decision you can make before the wedding day — none of them is fixable at 9pm with a full dance floor.
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Announcing it after the dancing starts
Participation is set early. Have the DJ point at the screen as dinner begins, while everyone is seated and the screen is already showing cocktail-hour photos — a working screen recruits harder than any instruction.
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A QR-only setup with no text-in line
A QR-to-upload flow silently drops the guests who won't scan and everyone stuck on overloaded wifi. Every sign needs the one-line fallback: “or text your photos to the number below.”
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Betting the night on venue wifi
Casting the display and web uploads both fail the same way — quietly, mid-reception, when every guest's phone piles onto one router. A wired screen plus texted photos removes both failure points at once.
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Running the feed unmoderated
One well-meaning joke photo at the wrong moment is the thing everyone remembers about your reception. Approve-first moderation plus one named queue-watcher costs minutes and removes the risk entirely.
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Printing a trial-tier dynamic QR code
Your table cards point at the slideshow feed all night — and a dynamic code on a free trial can expire or start redirecting mid-reception, sending scanners to a dead page while the screen rolls on. Encode the feed link in a static code; static codes can't die.
✕
Letting the screen babysit itself
Laptops sleep, screensavers kick in, batteries die, and a venue TV can switch inputs at 9pm. Plug everything into power, disable auto-sleep, and make the queue-watcher's other job a glance at the screen every few songs.
Free QR sign generator
Make your slideshow QR code
Paste your slideshow or photo feed link, pick a print size, and download a crisp code for your table cards and bar signs. The generator runs entirely in your browser — the link you type is never sent anywhere — and the code is static, so it never expires.
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Wedding QR code generatorFree forever · runs entirely in your browser
Any link works: a registry, a playlist request form, a livestream, a map pin.
Private by design: the link you enter never leaves your browser — the code is generated on this page. It's a static code, so it never expires and there's nothing to renew.
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Keep exploring
More ways to collect the day
Collect wedding photos & videosEvery guest-collection method in one place→Digital wedding guest bookHow it works, plus a free QR sign→Wedding guest book alternatives20+ ideas guests actually love→Wedding video guest bookTexted videos vs phone rentals→Wedding guest book with photosIdeas, real costs, and prompts→Disposable cameras at a weddingThe real math, and what works better→
Good to know
Live slideshow questions
How does a live wedding slideshow work?
Guests take photos on their own phones and text them to a wedding number (or scan a QR code on the table). Each photo lands in one shared feed, and that feed plays on a TV or projector at the reception, adding new photos as they arrive all night. With moderation on, a designated person approves each photo before it appears on screen.
How do I make a slideshow of our photos — like a montage for dinner?
That's a different thing: a pre-made montage you build before the wedding in Photos, Canva, or PowerPoint from photos you already have, usually played once during dinner. This page covers the live version — a slideshow guests feed during the reception itself. Many couples do both: the montage at dinner, the live feed once the floor opens.
Do we need venue wifi for a live slideshow?
Not for the guest side — texted photos travel over the cell network, so uploads keep working even on overloaded or nonexistent guest wifi. The display device does need a connection to refresh the feed, but that's one device, not 150: if the venue's wifi is shaky, a phone hotspot to the laptop covers it. QR-to-web upload services and wireless casting are the setups that genuinely depend on strong venue wifi.
What equipment do we need?
A screen (the venue's TV or projector, or a TV you bring with a stand), a laptop or streaming stick to show the feed, an HDMI cable with the right adapter, and power for everything. That's the whole list — no rented hardware, no photo booth. Setup is about fifteen minutes, which is why doing it at rehearsal beats doing it on the day.
How do we keep embarrassing photos off the screen?
Turn on approve-first moderation, so photos queue privately until someone taps yes, and give the queue to one named person who isn't the couple — a planner, a bridesmaid, or whoever sits near the DJ booth. Thirty seconds of approving every few songs keeps the screen both full and safe, and a photo you skip simply never appears; nobody is called out.
When should the slideshow start and end?
Go live as dinner starts — by then the feed holds approved ceremony and cocktail-hour photos, so the screen opens full instead of blank. Pause it for toasts and the first dance, run it through the last song, and leave the number open afterward: some of the best photos arrive from the hotel that night and the morning after.
How much does a live wedding slideshow cost?
Usually close to nothing beyond what you have: the screen is the venue's or a TV you own, and guests' phones are the cameras. A text-in photo feed comes as part of a wedding texting plan, while QR-upload slideshow services typically charge a per-event fee for unlimited photos. There's no hardware to rent — which is exactly the appeal over photo booths and camera setups.
One number.
Every photo, video, and message.
Guests text their photos, videos, and well-wishes to your wedding number — nothing to download, no account, no upload form. Print the QR sign as the shortcut for scanners, and everything still lands in one place either way.