Gallery delivery email templates for wedding photographers

The delivery email is read on a phone, at work, between 2 other emails. It needs the link, the password, how to download, and one sentence that sounds like you. Everything else gets skipped.

Here are the 3 emails every wedding needs: the sneak peek, the full delivery, and the expiry reminder. Copy them, replace the brackets, and delete the optional lines you do not use.

Email 1: the sneak peek

Subject: A few from Saturday

Hi [Names],

I could not wait. Here are [12] photos from Saturday while I work on the rest: [link]

The full gallery will be ready by [date]. I will email you the moment it is live.

Thank you for having me there. [One specific line about the day: “Your dad’s toast is going to be hard to narrow down to one photo.”]

[Your name]

Email 2: the full gallery delivery

Subject: Your wedding photos are ready

Hi [Names],

Your full gallery is live: [link] Password: [password]

There are [640] photos in [5] sections: [Getting Ready, Ceremony, Family, Portraits, Reception]. If you only have 5 minutes tonight, start with [Portraits].

To download everything: open the gallery on a computer, click Download, and enter the PIN [PIN]. You get a ZIP of the full-resolution files. A large ZIP can take a few minutes to build, and you may get the download link by email instead of in the browser.

To download one photo: open it and use the download icon. Choose high resolution for printing and web size for your phone.

To share: send the link and password to anyone you like. Guests can download too. If there are photos you would rather guests not see, tell me and I will take care of it.

Two requests. First, download the full gallery to a computer this week and keep a copy somewhere other than your phone. Second, if you post any of these, a mention of [studio] helps more than you would think.

The gallery stays online until [date]. I will remind you before then.

[Your name]

Email 3: the expiry reminder

Subject: Your gallery comes down on [date]

Hi [Names],

A quick reminder: your wedding gallery goes offline on [date], [30] days from now.

If you have already downloaded the full set, you are done and can ignore this. If not, here is everything again:

[link] Password: [password] Download PIN: [PIN]

Download to a computer, not only your phone, and keep a second copy on a drive or in cloud storage. After [date] I keep an archive, but re-delivery costs [fee], so it is worth 10 minutes now.

[Optional: Prints and albums can still be ordered through the gallery until it closes.]

[Your name]

When each one goes

Sneak peek: within 72 hours. The couple is still telling the story of the day to everyone they meet, and a dozen photos gives them something to show. Send 10 to 20 photos, a mix of the couple, the families, and the party, with at least one that is not a portrait. Later than a week, and the sneak peek competes with guests’ phone photos that have already been posted. Choosing them is covered in sneak peeks: when and how many.

Full delivery: the day the gallery is finished, at a time the couple is likely to be near a computer. A Tuesday evening beats a Saturday morning. Send it once, to the email the couple named for the gallery, and copy the other partner.

Expiry reminder: 30 days before the date, then a shorter one 7 days before if the activity log shows no download. If your galleries do not expire, delete this email and say in the delivery email that the gallery stays up. Which policy to run is discussed in the gallery expiration guide.

Why the emails are this short

Couples do not read delivery emails. They scan for the link. So the link is in the first 2 lines, the password is on its own line, and the download instructions sit under bold labels so they can be found again in 6 months when someone finally goes looking for the ZIP.

The one personal line in each email does the work that 3 paragraphs of warmth would not. Make it specific to the day: a toast, a grandparent, the rain that held off. Never a line that could be sent to any couple.

Leave out how many hours you spent editing, how honored you were, and what the photos mean. The couple decides what they mean.

Getting the download to happen

Galleries get viewed the day they arrive. The download is the part that gets postponed. The 2 lines in the delivery email that change that are “download to a computer this week” and “keep a copy somewhere other than your phone”. Say it plainly, say it in both emails, and check the activity log before the expiry reminder goes. How to get couples to download their gallery covers what to do when they still have not.

The unlesses

• If the couple’s parents paid, or asked for their own access, send them the delivery email too, with the same link. Do not make the couple forward it.
• If guests are not allowed to download, cut that line and replace it with what guests can do.
• If the gallery has a print store, one line in the delivery email is enough: “Prints are available in the gallery.” A paragraph about prints on the day the couple wants their photos reads as a sales pitch.
• If you deliver in 2 rounds, portraits first and the rest later, send email 2 twice, and say in the first one what is still coming and when.

Before any of these go out, run the delivery checklist.