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 longest single step is writing your love story for the Mad Libs generator, and even that is usually under 5 minutes of typing. 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 your deposit and launch.
Which package should I pick?
Partake Engage ($149) is the right choice if all you want is a live photo wall and social ice-breakers. Partake Experience ($349) adds Love Story Mad Libs, couple trivia, the virtual video guestbook, the DJ reveal dashboard, pre-wedding photo uploads, and priority support. Most couples pick Partake Experience.
Can I change my mind later?
Yes. You can upgrade from Partake Engage to Partake Experience any time before your wedding with one tap. We charge the $200 difference and immediately unlock the extra features. Downgrades are not supported after deposit, 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, mad lib story, challenges, and video-guestbook prompts are all editable from your dashboard up until the wedding day itself.
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. Mad libs 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 from the week before the wedding?
Yes, but only on Partake Experience. Pre-wedding uploads are unlocked automatically when your tier includes it, and anything guests upload before the day lives in the same live gallery and memory portal.
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.
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 1,700 photos per guest (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?
You do. Always. Every photo, every video, every guestbook message, and every mad lib answer stays under your copyright. Partake is the software you host them on, not a publisher. 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. The app 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.
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 5 GB, which is roughly 1,700 photos (or about 1,400 photos plus videos). Partake Experience includes 15 GB, roughly 5,100 photos (or 4,200 with videos mixed in).
What happens at 80% full?
Your dashboard shows a calm yellow banner and we send you an email. 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, we send a second email, and we gently 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 use roughly 29 GB of 15 on Partake Experience. For weddings over 500 guests, email us before booking and we will size the event right. For smaller weddings, lower the per-guest caps on your dashboard and your numbers drop proportionally.
Love Story Mad Libs, trivia, and social challenges
The game layer on top of the photo wall. Available on Partake Experience, all powered by The Partake Wizard.
How does Love Story Mad Libs actually work?
You write your love story in your own words, the way you would tell a friend. How you met, your first date, the proposal. The Partake Wizard picks the 8 to 10 most interesting words in the story and turns them into labeled blanks like 'a place' or 'an adjective'. 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 the Wizard picks boring words?
You can ask the Wizard to try again. Every regeneration uses a different seed, so you can click until you get something you love. You can also hand-edit the blanks yourself if you already know which words you want replaced.
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.
How does Trivia Auto-fill work?
After you write your love story, the Wizard can pre-fill all 8 default trivia answers based on what it learned. You review, edit anything it got wrong, and confirm. It is the single biggest time saver for couples who do not want to type out 8 answers from scratch.
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 are Social Challenges?
Light ice-breakers that help guests meet each other. "Find someone who has visited more than 5 countries", "Find someone who shares your birth month", that kind of thing. Guests tap when they complete one and log who they met. The feed on the DJ dashboard turns into a live "who met who" ticker.
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. Mad libs, trivia auto-fill, 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 RSVP list or couple email.
Is the DJ dashboard safe to share?
Yes. It only shows guest-facing data: trivia answers, mad libs, 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 mad libs 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 mad libs, 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 paid the deposit can edit the event. 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 rehearsal dinner?
You can reuse it in a soft way: anyone who already scanned the QR at the rehearsal still has their session active on the wedding day and can just keep uploading. What is not supported yet is a separate rehearsal event tied to the same wedding. Pre-wedding uploads (Partake Experience only) cover this use case well for most couples.
Will guest photos be high-enough resolution to print?
Usually yes. We keep guests’ originals at the resolution their phone produced them, which on any iPhone 12 or newer is plenty for 8x10 prints. We compress on upload only if your guest is on a slow connection, and even then we aim to stay above 1920 on the long edge.
Deposits, final payments, and failed charges
When and how we charge you. Our whole model is "a small deposit to lock in your date, the rest a month before the wedding".
When exactly are you going to charge me?
Twice. A deposit when you finish the wizard (25% of the tier price, so $39 for Partake Engage or $89 for Partake Experience), and the remaining balance 30 days before your wedding date. You will not get charged on a random weekday with no warning.
Will I get a reminder before the final charge?
Yes, 7 days before. The email shows the amount, the card on file, and a link to update your payment method if anything has changed. You can also see the exact date on your dashboard at any time.
What if my card fails on the final charge?
Stripe retries 3 times over 5 days. If every retry fails, we send you a clear email with a one-click update-card link. Your event is locked (view only) until the balance is paid, but no data is deleted. The moment the payment clears, your event is live again.
Can I pay the whole thing up front?
Not yet. The two-payment split is there to keep the upfront commitment small. If you have a reason you need to prepay (company billing, expense reports), reply to your deposit confirmation email and we will handle it manually.
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?
Any time before the wedding, and any time during the wedding itself. The upgrade button is on your dashboard, in the storage warning emails, and in the big banner that appears when you hit 80% or 95% full. One tap, Stripe Checkout, and you are done.
How much does the upgrade cost?
$200. That is the difference between the two tiers ($149 to $349). We do not double-charge you and we do not re-run the deposit. You only pay the delta.
What happens the moment I upgrade?
Your tier flips to Partake Experience, storage jumps to 15 GB (about 5,100 photos), and every Partake Experience feature turns on: Love Story Mad Libs, couple trivia, the virtual video guestbook, DJ dashboard, pre-wedding uploads, priority support. You can still turn individual features off from your dashboard if you do not want something.
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. You can still turn on pre-wedding uploads retroactively, but we would rather you save your money.
Refunds and cancellation
Deposits secure your date and are not refundable. Final payments are refundable up to 30 days before the wedding. Postponements are handled separately.
Can I get my deposit back?
Deposits are non-refundable. Booking reserves your date, provisions your event infrastructure, and covers processing fees we cannot recover. Please make sure Partake is the right fit for you before placing a deposit.
Can I cancel before the wedding?
Yes. The final payment is fully refundable up to 30 days before the wedding. Inside 30 days the final payment is non-refundable, because that is when we are running the event for you in earnest. The deposit stays with us regardless.
What if my wedding is postponed?
Reply to your deposit confirmation email and we will transfer your booking to the new date at no extra cost. This includes your deposit, any setup you have done, and any referral credits you have accrued.
What if my wedding is cancelled entirely?
The deposit stays with us. If you cancel more than 30 days before the wedding the final payment is refunded. Inside 30 days the final payment is also kept. If the cancellation is caused by something catastrophic outside your control, reply to your deposit confirmation and we will try to be human about it.
What if Partake fails on the wedding day?
Then it is on us. If the app 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.
Do referral credits count toward refunds?
No. Referral credits are a reduction on what you owe us, not cash. If you cancel, any unapplied credits are forfeited along with the booking. They never pay out as actual money.
Referrals and credits
Share Partake with engaged friends. You earn up to $60 off your final payment. Your friend always gets $10 off.
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.
How much can I earn from referrals?
$20 per paid referral, up to $60 total (3 referrals). After that the cap is hit and you no longer earn credit, but your friends still get $10 off forever.
When is the credit applied?
Automatically to your final payment, the one we charge 30 days before your wedding. You do not need to do anything. It shows up as a line item on the receipt.
When does my friend actually get their discount?
The friend discount is applied at checkout when they pay their deposit using your link. They see $10 come off before they type their card in.
What counts as a paid referral?
A friend has to visit your link and pay a deposit for their own event. We award the credit the moment their deposit clears through Stripe. If you yourself have already paid your final payment by the time they sign up, your friend still gets their $10 discount but your referrer credit window has closed. The credit can only land on a final payment you have not yet made.
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 mad lib. Every trivia answer (with the real answer shown alongside). Every video-guestbook message grouped by question. Every social challenge completion. A full account of the night.
How long is everything kept?
12 months after your wedding date. We send you a reminder 1 month before expiry and a second reminder 2 weeks before, both 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, mad lib, trivia answer, guestbook message, and challenge from the night. Photos and videos are at full resolution. 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 RSVP list?
If you upload 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, mad lib, 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 generate your Love Story Mad Libs template and your trivia auto-fill, 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 share card copy from /dashboard/referrals 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 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 queues uploads locally and flushes them automatically once their phone reconnects on the drive home. Nothing is lost, just delayed. The video guestbook is the exception: videos are too large to queue, so guests see a "try again" banner if their upload fails.
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, mad lib, 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 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. Nothing is lost.
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 uploads queue until you free up space or upgrade.
The mad lib 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, the app 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, reply to your deposit confirmation and we will look immediately.
I got a "payment failed" email but my card is fine
Off-session charges (what we use for the final auto-charge) fail for reasons that do not show up when you use the card normally: the bank flagged an unknown merchant, your 3D Secure rule requires a live challenge, or the card expired between deposit and final. Open the Billing Portal from your dashboard banner, confirm the card is the one you want to use, and we will retry within 48 hours.
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.