Do I need an account before I start?
You create an account on the way in. Sign in with your email, we send you a magic link, and you land on your dashboard. There are no passwords to remember and no credit card required just to explore.
Help Center
Everything you need, in one place.
Answers for couples setting up Partake and guests joining an event. Use the quick links below or press Cmd+F to search the whole page.
Getting started
The first ten minutes with Partake. Picking a package, setting up your event, and understanding the wizard.
How long does setup actually take?
Most couples finish the wizard in 10 to 15 minutes. The games work with zero extra setup: the Fill-in Story Game ships with ready-to-play stories, and making one from your own story is a few minutes of typing and tapping. Every step is optional except the basics (names, date, PIN).
Can I come back and finish setup later?
Yes. The wizard saves your progress as you go. You can close the tab, come back tomorrow, and pick up where you left off. Nothing is published to guests until you pay and press Go Live.
Which package should I pick?
Partake Engage ($149) is the right choice if all you want is a live photo wall and the photo scavenger hunt. Partake Experience ($299) adds the Fill-in Story Game, couple trivia, the virtual video guestbook, song requests with guest voting, the DJ reveal dashboard, and priority support. Most couples pick Partake Experience.
Can I change my mind later?
Yes. Before you pay, switching packages is free from your dashboard. After payment you can still upgrade from Partake Engage to Partake Experience any time before your wedding with one tap. We charge the difference between the two package prices ($150, less on Founding Couple pricing), then walk you through choosing which Experience features to turn on. Paid downgrades are not supported, but you can turn individual features off from your dashboard.
Can I edit the wedding date or couple names after setup?
Yes. Names, date, cover photo, PIN, per-guest caps, trivia questions, story game, challenges, and video-guestbook prompts are all editable from your dashboard up until the wedding day itself.
Can the maid of honor or shower host set Partake up?
Yes. Anyone can create the event: a maid of honor, a shower host, a parent, or the couple themselves. Building is free, and the single package payment at Go Live covers every celebration from that day forward, so a host can have the wall running at the bridal shower months before the wedding. One thing to plan for: the account that creates the event is the account that manages it, so if the host sets it up, use an email the couple can access too, or sign in together once to hand things over. Everything from the shower lands in the same gallery and memory portal the couple keeps after the wedding.
The guest experience on the day
How guests actually get in, find their name, and come back later. No app downloads, ever.
How do guests join the event?
Guests scan a QR code (from a printed sign, a table tent, or your wedding website), type the 4 digit PIN you chose, pick or enter their name, and they are in. The whole thing takes about 15 seconds on a modern phone.
Where should I put the QR code?
We recommend three places: the welcome sign at the entrance, a small card on each table, and the back of the program. Couples tell us the welcome sign drives most of the early scans, and the table cards pick up the quieter guests later in the night.
What happens if a guest closes the tab?
Nothing is lost. Their name and session are stored in their phone browser, so when they scan the QR code again or reopen the page, they land straight back in the guest hub with a friendly "Welcome back" message. Story games and trivia resume from the last blank or question they answered.
What if two guests have the same name?
When the second guest types the same name, we ask "Someone already picked this name, is that you?" If they say yes, they resume the original session. If they say no, we create a second session and both guests keep their own uploads, answers, and memories.
Can guests upload photos before the wedding day?
Yes, on any package. The moment you go live the QR code works, so photos from the bridal shower, the bachelorette, the rehearsal dinner, or an engagement shoot land in the same live gallery and memory portal. There's nothing extra to switch on. The one exception is wall videos, which unlock on the wedding day itself (video guestbook messages work any time).
Do guests need to create an account?
Never. Guests only give us a name. No email, no phone, no account, no password. We only ever ask couples to sign in.
Photos, videos, and per-guest limits
How the photo wall works, how per-guest caps are enforced, and what happens when a guest hits their limit. Guests can add a caption when they share, and like each other’s photos — the wall updates live for everyone.
How many photos can each guest upload?
The default is 20 photos and 3 videos per guest. You can raise or lower both from your dashboard, up to a ceiling of 100 photos and 20 videos per guest (a per-guest cap, not per-event). We picked 20 as the default because it lets most guests share the night without anyone accidentally filling the gallery.
What happens when a guest hits their per-guest cap?
Uploads do not silently fail. The upload button changes to "Replace a photo", which opens a modal of their existing uploads so they can delete one and swap it for the new one. The counter always shows how many photos they have left.
Who owns the photos guests upload?
The person who took it does. A guest keeps the copyright to their own photos and videos; as the couple you get a license to view, download, print, export, and keep them, and your own uploads stay yours. Either way, Partake never claims ownership of any of it, and we never sell, license, train models on, or share your content with anyone outside your event.
Can I delete a photo I do not like?
Yes. From the memory portal you can delete any photo with one tap. Guests can also flag photos for review, which hides them from the public gallery until you approve or delete them.
What file types are supported?
JPEG, PNG, HEIC (iPhone), and WebP for photos. MP4 and MOV for videos. Partake converts HEIC to JPEG on the fly so every guest sees every photo, even on Android.
Are there limits on video length?
Yes, 30 seconds per video. This keeps file sizes sane and prevents one guest from eating the whole storage allowance with a single long clip. It is plenty for a toast, a dance move, or a first-look reaction.
Why can guests share photos but not videos before the wedding day?
Photos at every celebration. Videos unlock on your wedding day. Your event covers the bridal shower, bachelorette, and rehearsal dinner as well as the wedding, and photos flow at all of them. Videos are the storage-heavy item (one 30-second clip weighs about as much as 30 photos), so the wall starts accepting them on the wedding day itself. That is what lets one package cover every celebration without the gallery filling up before the first dance. Video guestbook messages are different: guests can record those at any celebration.
Event storage and the warning system
Each package comes with a total storage cap for the whole wedding. Here is how the cap works and what happens at 80%, 95%, and 100%.
How much storage do I actually get?
Partake Engage includes 10 GB, which is roughly 3,400 photos (or about 2,800 photos plus videos). Partake Experience includes 25 GB, roughly 3,000 photos (or 2,400 with videos mixed in).
What happens at 80% full?
Your dashboard shows a calm yellow banner. This is a heads-up, not a problem. You can lower per-guest caps, delete a few already-uploaded photos, or keep going and upgrade if you want the headroom.
What happens at 95% full?
The banner turns orange and we email you to recommend upgrading before the band plays the last song. You are still fine to take photos, but this is the point where most couples hit the upgrade button.
What happens at 100% full?
Guests see a friendly message: "The couple's gallery is full. Your photo will upload after the wedding when they make space." The photo is held safely in the guest's phone browser and uploads automatically the moment you free up space or upgrade. Nothing is lost.
How do I see live storage usage?
Your dashboard shows a live storage meter on both the event card and inside the event. It updates in real time as guests upload, so you can watch the night unfold from your seat at the head table.
How is storage calculated?
We count every photo, every video, and every guestbook message against the same total. Photos are small (about 3 MB each), videos are larger (about 50 MB each). The meter always reflects what actually landed in storage, not an estimate.
Is there a hard limit on how many guests I can invite?
Partake is built for weddings of up to 500 guests. There is no hard cap on the guest list itself. What bounds you in practice is storage. Estimates assume 20 photos per guest, so a 500-guest wedding uploading everything would need around 29 GB, more than any single package holds. For a wedding that large, lower the per-guest caps (drop to about 10 photos each and you are comfortably inside Partake Experience's 25 GB), or email us before booking and we will size the event right. For smaller weddings, your numbers drop proportionally.
Fill-in Story Game, trivia, and the photo scavenger hunt
The game layer on top of the photo wall. The photo hunt ships in every package; the Story Game and trivia come with Partake Experience, powered by The Partake Wizard.
How does the Fill-in Story Game actually work?
Out of the box, your event comes with ready-to-play wedding stories we wrote, blanks already chosen. Want it personal? Write your love story in your own words, the way you would tell a friend, then tap the words you want to turn into blanks. The Partake Wizard suggests a label for each one, like 'a place in your town' or 'a type of food'. Your guests fill in the blanks one at a time on their phone without seeing the original story, and the results are hilarious.
What if I do not like the suggested labels?
Edit them. You pick which words become blanks by tapping them, and the Wizard only suggests the label a guest sees for each blank. Accept a suggestion, rewrite it, or write your own from scratch. Tap a word again to un-blank it.
Do guests see my love story?
Never the original. They only ever see the labeled blanks ("enter a place", "enter a type of food"), fill them in, and then see their own silly version of your story at the end. The real version is private to you, always.
Can I add my own trivia questions?
Yes. Add, remove, or reorder questions any time. You can run the wedding with just the defaults, a mix, or entirely custom questions.
What is the photo scavenger hunt?
Ten photo challenges that get guests mingling. "Snap a photo with someone from the other side of the family", "Capture the best dance move of the night", that kind of thing. Guests complete a challenge by taking the photo, and it lands on the live wall highlighted in gold with the challenge as its caption. The DJ dashboard shows a live leaderboard of who has completed the most.
How does the virtual video guestbook work?
You set a short list of questions you want answers to ("What's your favorite memory of the bride?", "Any advice for us?"). Guests pick a prompt, tap to record up to 30 seconds on their phone, and the video lands in your memory portal grouped by the question it answered. It replaces the paper guestbook nobody remembers to sign, and works especially well for guests who could not travel. Send them the link, they record from their couch, it shows up next to every in-person answer.
How does the magic work behind the scenes?
Guests see a finished game that feels handmade. You see The Partake Wizard: the name we give to every generative-engine feature across the product. Story game label suggestions, story polish, custom challenge maker. The magic just works, and nothing on any surface breaks the illusion for your guests.
The DJ reveal dashboard
A shareable big-screen view for your DJ, MC, or whoever is running the room. Partake Experience only.
How does the DJ get access?
We give you a shareable URL on your dashboard. Send it to your DJ in advance. They open it on a laptop or tablet hooked up to the venue screen, and it runs full screen in high contrast with no login. Only the live feeds are visible, no guest list or couple email.
Is the DJ dashboard safe to share?
Yes. It only shows guest-facing data: trivia answers, story games, challenge completions, live counts. The URL is unguessable, but we still recommend treating it like the PIN and only sharing with your vendors.
How do trivia answers get revealed live?
Answers stream in as guests submit them. Your DJ or MC can pin funny ones, then tap "Reveal real answer" when the moment is right. The answer slides in with a small animation that reads well from 20 feet away.
Do I need the DJ dashboard for Partake Experience to be worth it?
No. Plenty of couples run trivia and story games as a "look what my cousin wrote on her phone" moment rather than a live reveal. The DJ dashboard is a bonus if you want to make it a show.
DJ, photographer, planner: how Partake fits in
Partake is an experience layer, not a replacement for your existing vendors. Here is how to brief each of them.
What do I tell my DJ?
A week before the wedding, send them two things: the partake.app/host URL and your 6-character event code. They type the code at that URL and land on a live dashboard showing guest trivia guesses, completed story games, and song requests in real time. Your dashboard has a ready-to-send message you can copy and paste into iMessage or WhatsApp.
Can my DJ use this without a login?
Yes, that is the whole design. No account, no credentials. The short code is the access key and the dashboard rotates access automatically after 24 hours, so they re-enter the code if they bookmark it and come back later.
Does my photographer need to know about this?
Not really. Partake is guest-generated content, not a replacement for the professional photos your photographer is taking. Most couples tell their photographer as a courtesy and it is a non-issue. If your photographer asks, you can reassure them that guest photos are the "candid behind-the-scenes" layer, not competition for the hero shots.
Can my wedding planner manage this for me?
Today, only the account that created the event can edit it. If you want your planner to help, the simplest path is to sign in together once and let them drive from there. We know planners often handle vendor-facing tools, so a proper "coordinator access" flow is on our roadmap.
Can I use the same event for the shower, bachelorette, or rehearsal dinner?
Yes, and you should. One price covers every celebration on the way: the same QR code and PIN work at the bridal shower, the bachelorette, the rehearsal dinner, and the wedding itself. Guests who scan at an earlier celebration stay signed in for the next one, and every photo lands in the same gallery and memory portal. When the gallery spans more than one day, it groups by day so the shower and the wedding each keep their own chapter. Photos flow at every celebration; wall videos unlock on the wedding day.
Will guest photos be high-enough resolution to print?
Depends on your package. On Partake Experience we preserve every guest's original file at the resolution their phone produced it — on any iPhone 12 or newer that's plenty for 8x10 prints and beyond. On Partake Engage photos are stored at a high-quality web size that looks great on screens and in albums but isn't intended for large prints. If print-quality matters to you, Partake Experience (or a one-tap upgrade before the wedding) is the safe choice.
One payment, when you go live
When and how we charge you. Our whole model is "build your wedding free, pay once when you go live".
When exactly are you going to charge me?
Once. Creating and building your event is free — you pay the full package price ($149 for Partake Engage or $299 for Partake Experience) from your dashboard when you are ready to go live. That single payment covers everything. Nothing else is ever billed, and no charge ever happens without you pressing the button yourself.
Is there really no charge until I go live?
Really. You can create your event, upload a cover photo, write trivia, build your story game, and sit on it for months without paying anything. Guests see a holding page until you have both paid and pressed Go Live.
Do you accept anything other than cards?
Stripe supports Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Link on top of credit and debit cards. We are not yet set up for ACH, bank transfer, or PayPal. If you need one of those, tell us and we will make it work.
Upgrading from Partake Engage to Partake Experience
One tap, one charge, everything unlocks. The usual reason is guests are having too much fun and the storage meter is filling up.
When can I upgrade?
Before you pay, switching between packages is free from your dashboard. After payment, the one-tap paid upgrade is available any time before the wedding — and during the wedding itself, from the storage warnings. One tap, Stripe Checkout, and you are done.
How much does the upgrade cost?
$150, and less if you booked as a Founding Couple. That is the difference between the two tiers ($149 to $299). We do not double-charge you. You only pay the delta on top of what you already paid.
What happens the moment I upgrade?
Your tier flips to Partake Experience and storage jumps to 25 GB (about 3,000 photos). The Fill-in Story Game and virtual video guestbook switch on automatically, so you get what you paid for right away. Couple trivia and song requests stay off until you turn them on. We then walk you through a quick pass to refine it all, and the DJ dashboard and priority support come with the tier.
Do I lose my photos during the upgrade?
No. Everything already uploaded stays exactly where it is. The upgrade only adds capacity and features, it never resets anything.
Can I upgrade after the wedding?
Not really. The reason to upgrade is to unlock features during the event. Once the wedding has happened, the games and DJ dashboard are not much use, so we would rather you save your money.
Refunds and cancellation
Your payment is fully refundable until 30 days before the wedding, and non-refundable inside that window. Postponements are handled separately.
Can I get my money back?
Yes, if your wedding is more than 30 days away: your payment is fully refundable on cancellation. Inside 30 days of the wedding it is non-refundable, because that is when we are running the event for you in earnest.
What if my wedding is postponed?
Reply to your payment receipt email and we will transfer your booking to the new date at no extra cost, including all the setup you have done.
What if my wedding is cancelled entirely?
If you cancel more than 30 days before the wedding, we refund the payment in full. Inside 30 days it is kept. If the cancellation is caused by something catastrophic outside your control, reply to your payment receipt and we will try to be human about it.
What if Partake fails on the wedding day?
Then it is on us. If Partake is down on your wedding day because of something on our end, or your event data is lost while still inside the 12-month retention window due to our error, we refund in full.
Give friends $10 off
Share Partake with engaged friends. Anyone who books through your link gets $10 off their package.
Where do I find my referral link?
On your dashboard, under "Referrals" in the top nav. The page shows your unique link, a big copy button, and pre-written share messages for iMessage, WhatsApp, and native phone share.
When does my friend actually get their discount?
The discount is applied at checkout when they pay using your link. They see $10 come off before they type their card in. There is no limit on how many friends can use it.
Do I earn anything when a friend books?
Not in dollars — the program is a straight $10 gift to your friend, with nothing owed back to you. You do get the warm glow of being the couple whose wedding sold them on it.
Can I share my link on Instagram or TikTok?
Yes, and we love when couples do. The only rule is no paid ads, no affiliate-network reposts, and nothing misleading. Organic shares to real friends are exactly what the program is designed for.
Your memory portal and how to export everything
After the wedding, everything your guests uploaded lives in a private portal only you can see. You have 12 months to enjoy it or export it.
When does the memory portal become available?
Immediately. The portal is live from day one, so you can preview it during setup, watch it fill up in real time during the wedding, and come back to it as often as you like afterwards.
What is in the memory portal?
Every photo and video your guests shared. Every story game. Every trivia answer (with the real answer shown alongside). Every video-guestbook message grouped by question. Every photo-hunt challenge completion. A full account of the night.
How long is everything kept?
12 months after your wedding date. About a month before expiry we send you a reminder with a direct export button, so nothing is ever deleted out from under you.
How do I export my memories?
One click from your dashboard hands you back a single ZIP with every photo, video, story game, trivia answer, guestbook message, and challenge from the night. On Partake Experience we keep your guests' original full-resolution files; on Partake Engage photos are optimized to a high-quality web size. Save it anywhere you like: an external drive, your preferred cloud backup, wherever your photos already live.
Can I download everything individually instead?
Yes. Every photo and video has its own download button in the portal if you only want one or two. The ZIP export exists for people who want the whole lot in one go.
Privacy, security, and deleting your data
The short version: your data is yours, we never sell it, and you can delete any of it at any time.
Who can see my guests’ photos?
Only your guests and you. Photos are stored in a private bucket and served through signed URLs that expire after an hour. There is no public feed, no social algorithm, and no way for a stranger to stumble into your gallery.
What happens to my guest list?
If you add one, it is encrypted at rest and used only to help guests find their name at the door. We delete it the moment the 12 month memory retention window ends, or immediately on request.
Is Partake GDPR compliant?
Yes. We offer a data processing agreement for couples with EU guests, and every guest can delete their own data from the session footer on the guest hub. We treat every guest name and photo as personally identifying information.
How do I delete my whole event?
From your dashboard, in the danger zone section. Deleting an event wipes every photo, video, story game, trivia answer, and guest session permanently. It cannot be undone, so we ask for double confirmation.
How do I delete a single guest’s data?
The guest can do it themselves from the footer of their guest hub. As the couple, you can also delete any guest session from the memory portal. In both cases everything that guest ever uploaded or answered goes with it.
Do you use my love story to train any models?
No. Your love story is only ever used to build your Fill-in Story Game template and suggest labels for its blanks, and only within the event you submitted it to. The model provider behind The Partake Wizard does not train on the prompts we send through their API.
The 24 hours around your wedding
What to do the night before, what to do that morning, what to do when something surprises you.
What should I check the night before?
Five things. (1) Open your dashboard and confirm your event shows Live, not Setup. (2) Scan one of your printed QR codes with your own phone and make sure it lands on the PIN screen cleanly. (3) Type the PIN yourself to confirm it still matches. (4) If your DJ is using the dashboard, send them the ready-to-send message from your event dashboard one more time as a reminder. (5) Tell whoever is emceeing the table-card moment at the start of the reception to say the PIN once over the mic.
Do I need WiFi at the venue?
Nice-to-have, not required. Guests upload over cellular just fine. If the venue has guest wifi, post the name and password on the same card as the QR code, that’s been good enough for every wedding we’ve run. If cellular is spotty, Partake queues photo uploads in the guest’s phone browser and retries automatically when signal comes back.
How many QR codes should I print?
One per table at a minimum, plus a few extra for the bar and the gift table. The dashboard downloads a print-ready PNG at 1024x1024 which prints crisp at any size from business card to 11x17.
What if the venue kills cell service (caves, barns, etc.)?
Tell guests to keep the tab open. Partake holds photos and text answers on the phone and uploads them automatically once it reconnects on the drive home, so those are safe. Videos are the exception, both wall videos and video guestbook clips. They are too large to hold, so on a weak signal a guest should re-record or upload once they have better reception.
Something broke mid-reception. What do I do?
Email support@partakeweddings.com from your phone right now. We monitor that inbox and we will respond during your actual wedding if we are awake. Include the URL of the screen that looks wrong and a one-line description. If it is a guest-specific issue (can’t upload, can’t enter the PIN), grab the troubleshooting section below and try those first.
Can I change something after I hit Go Live?
Yes, everything except the slug (your event URL). Trivia questions, story game, challenges, prompts, PIN, feature toggles, per-guest caps, even the couple names: all editable from dashboard settings. Changes apply instantly for every guest whose phone is connected.
When does the memory portal open?
Immediately. Every upload is available for download from /dashboard/<your-event>/memories the moment it lands. Most couples wait until a few days after the wedding to browse in peace, but nothing stops you from checking at 2am during the reception.
What if a guest uploads something inappropriate?
Three options. (1) Any guest can tap the flag button on the photo, which hides it from the gallery immediately pending your review. (2) You can one-tap delete from your memory portal. (3) If it is an emergency and you cannot get to a laptop, email support and we will delete it for you via the admin tools.
Troubleshooting guest uploads and common issues
The things that go wrong on wedding day, and what to do about them.
A guest says their photo will not upload, what do I do?
Ask them one question: do they have full bars? On cellular at a reception venue, signal comes and goes. Partake queues failed photo uploads automatically in their phone browser and retries as soon as the connection is back, so tell them to keep the tab open and walk around a little. Their photos are safe. Wall videos and video guestbook clips are too large to hold, so on weak signal a guest should re-record or try again once reception improves.
A guest says the QR code will not scan
Have them open their camera app, point it at the code, and wait 2 full seconds. Some older Android phones require the built-in QR scanner rather than the camera. If that still fails, type the URL by hand, we keep it short on purpose so it works in an emergency.
A guest forgot the PIN
Anyone with the PIN can share it, but no one outside the event should have it. Tell them the PIN, or point them to the welcome sign where you printed it. We deliberately do not send PIN recovery links because that would let anyone into the event.
Photos are not showing up in the gallery
The live gallery updates every few seconds through a real-time connection. If nothing is coming through, ask the guest to pull-to-refresh. If multiple guests see nothing, check your storage meter: at 100% full, new photos are held on the phone and upload once you free up space or upgrade. Wall videos are too large to hold, so those need re-uploading once there is room.
The story game is not assembling into a story
A guest needs to fill every blank before the reveal button appears. If they got stuck partway through they can come back later, Partake remembers their progress and resumes from the next blank.
My DJ cannot open the dashboard on their iPad
The DJ dashboard runs anywhere a modern browser runs, including iPad Safari in landscape mode. If the page looks squashed, double-check that they are not in split-view. If it still misbehaves, send them the same URL on a laptop as a backup.
A guest says the Unsubscribe link in an email took them to an error page
The unsubscribe tokens are signed, and some corporate email clients rewrite the URL for phishing protection, which breaks the signature. Ask them to forward the original email to support@partakeweddings.com and we will unsubscribe them by hand.
I see a "Viewing as admin" banner on my dashboard
That banner only renders for Partake staff who are actively investigating an issue on your event (usually after you emailed support). If you see it and you did not email us, that is a bug — email support@partakeweddings.com and we will look immediately.
My payment did not go through at checkout
Card declines at checkout are almost always the bank flagging an unfamiliar merchant or a 3D Secure challenge that got dismissed. Try again from your dashboard — nothing was created twice, and nothing is lost. If it keeps failing, a different card or Apple Pay / Google Pay usually sails through.
I cannot log in with my magic-link code
Codes expire a few minutes after send. If you typed it late, request a fresh one. If the code is brand new and still fails, check that you copied the whole 6-digit number (no leading zeros missing) and that you are entering it on the same device that requested it. Different device is OK too, but some email clients add hidden characters to the text you copy.
A guest wants a copy of their own uploads, can they get them?
Yes. Have them email us at support@partakeweddings.com from the same address they used if they entered one, or ask you (the couple) for the export. The memory portal export is the simplest path since it is couple-controlled.
Still stuck?
Reply to any email we have sent you, or write to support@partakeweddings.com. We answer within 48 hours, or within 24 hours on Partake Experience with priority support.