Wedding hashtag alternative
A modern alternative to the wedding hashtag.
Built for couples planning a wedding — and the planners helping them.
One QR code on every table. Every guest's photos and videos in one live gallery. No app downloads, no accounts, no chasing people in group chats.
Free tier — no credit card.
Wedding hashtags don't really work anymore.
Couples used to print a custom hashtag on their table cards and ask every guest to tag their photos with it. The idea was beautiful: one searchable feed of the whole day.
In 2026, it almost never works:
Guests post way less to Instagram than they used to. Stories disappear, the feed is dead, and most of the photos never make it online at all.
Hashtag search no longer surfaces posts reliably. Even guests who do tag get buried.
The instruction gets scrolled past. Half your guests never see the table card.
Even when it works, you don't get the photos. They're compressed, scattered across captions, and there's no clean way to download them.
You spent a year planning the day. You shouldn't have to chase down everyone's camera roll after it.
What Toast does instead.
Toast replaces the hashtag with something that actually works — and that your guests will actually use.
- Step 1
You create one QR code.
Print it on table cards, programs, or the welcome sign. Show it on a screen at the reception.
- Step 2
Guests scan with their phone camera.
It opens your upload page in their browser. No app to download. No account to create.
- Step 3
Photos and videos flow into your live gallery.
You watch them arrive in real time. Display the gallery on a big screen at the venue if you want.
- Step 4
You own everything.
Review, approve, or remove anything. Download all of it as a ZIP, or send it straight to Google Drive with one tap.
One link. Every guest. Every photo.
What this looks like at a real wedding.
Before the day
You make the event in under a minute, customize your gallery, and download a QR code for your table cards.
At the reception
Guests scan. Photos start streaming in. Optionally, a slideshow on the venue screen auto-plays the photos and short videos as they arrive — guests see their own shot go up and upload more.
The next morning
You open the gallery. Every candid moment is there. One tap and the whole thing is in your Google Drive.
The moments your photographer couldn't be in the room for? They're in the gallery.
How Toast compares to other ways to collect guest photos.
| Approach | What goes wrong |
|---|---|
| Wedding hashtag | Guests barely post to Instagram anymore. Hashtag search is unreliable. No central download. |
| Shared iCloud or Google Drive album | Guests need an account and the album invite. Most never join. |
| WhatsApp or iMessage group chat | Media is compressed. Everything is buried in scroll. No way to bulk download. |
| A second photographer | Costs $1,000+ and still cannot be in every room. |
| Toast | One QR code. Phone browser, no app. Host-owned live gallery. One-tap Google Drive export. |
Pricing — one payment per event.
Toast is paid per event, never a subscription. Every paid tier includes 12 months of gallery storage, unlimited photos, short video clips, bulk ZIP download, and Google Drive export.
Free
$0
Up to 5 guests · 30-day storage
Starter
$4.99
Up to 15 guests
Standard
$14.99
Up to 50 guests
Plus
$29.99
Up to 100 guests
Premium
$49.99
Up to 200 guests
Unlimited
$69.99
Unlimited guests
FAQ
Common questions
Do my guests really not have to download anything?+
No. Toast runs in the browser. Guests open their phone camera, point it at the QR code, and start uploading. No app, no sign-up.
What if older guests can't use a QR code?+
Their phone camera does it for them — every iPhone and Android camera detects QR codes automatically and opens the upload page in a single tap.
Can I keep the photos private from other guests?+
Yes. You decide whether the gallery is public to guests or private to just you. You can switch it at any time.
Can my videographer use this too?+
Yes — guests can upload short video clips up to 3 minutes and 200MB per clip.
What happens to the photos after the wedding?+
They stay in your gallery for 12 months on any paid tier (30 days on the free tier). You can download the whole gallery as a ZIP or push it to your Google Drive whenever you want.
Built for the moments your photographer cannot be everywhere for.
Your photographer is doing the ceremony, the first dance, and the toasts. Your guests are catching everything else — the cousin who flew in from London, the kids at the candy table, the late-night sparklers, the grandma laughing at the speeches.
Toast gives you all of it, in one place, the morning after.
Free tier — no credit card.
Want the long story? Read why wedding hashtags stopped working →
Are you a wedding planner running galleries for multiple clients? See planner credit packs →