Create your first event

Creating an event is a one-minute job. Partyreel asks for a name, how the album should feel, and a look for the QR code, and hands you the link. Every other setting starts with a sensible default you can change later.

Before the wizard

The first time you sign in, Partyreel asks for the name your guests will see (Add your name) and offers a three-screen tour you can skip. Tap Create my first event at the end of the tour, or New event on your dashboard any time later.

1. Dashboard
2. New event

Step 1: Name

Create opens on a screen of its own, the question at the top: Name your event. Your answer is the event's name, up to 80 characters, and the title guests see when they scan. Tap Continue; the name stays at the top of the screen, and tapping it (or the back arrow) takes you back to change it.

A note for guests and the date come later, in the event's Settings under This event. The note sits under the name on the page guests open (good for "add everything from the ceremony too"); the date, and for a weekend or a trip an end date beside it (Add an end date), are for your reference, and never open or close anything.

Step 2: The album's style

The question is Pick your album's style, over three cards that each show a small album at the moment they differ: every photo in, all but the newest waiting for you, or only your own shot before the develop. The card you pick plays its album once, from guests arriving to the next morning. Live shows every photo the moment it's added. Review holds each one until you let it in. Disposable gives every guest the album's camera and a roll of shots, and everyone's photos develop at once at a time you set: pick it and Continue opens a screen of its own, When do the photos develop?, offered as 9 am tomorrow (a tap on it picks another day and time), with how many shots each guest gets under it. It opens on Live, so Continue alone keeps the usual album, and every style can be changed later in Settings (see review uploads before they appear and the Disposable camera).

Step 3: The code's look

Your code is shown where guests meet it, on your phone and on the room's screen, with four looks under it: Classic, Bold, Rounded, or Dots. Every one scans reliably (dark squares on white, always), so choose on looks. These codes are samples; your event's own arrives on the next screen. You can change the look later from Share. Tap Create event.

Step 4: Your code

The sample turns into your event's own code: the event exists now, ready for guests, with its permanent link and a live, scannable QR code. Under the code is your link as guests will receive it in a group chat: tap it to copy the link. Print the table cards, or Share it from your phone, or come back for either any time; a custom link waits in Share (see set a custom event link). Tap Go to your event to step into it, your code waiting at the top. If Create can't make the event (a dropped connection, say), the screen says nothing was lost and offers Try again; the back arrow takes you to change anything first.

The defaults you inherit

A new event starts out:

• Public: anyone with the link can view. The link is never listed or indexed, so "public" means your guests, not the internet.
• Live: accepting uploads, each shown the moment it's added, unless you pick Review or Disposable on the second screen.
• An email first: guests confirm an email before seeing the full album and adding photos. It's free, and it's what confirms the name on every upload.
• No cap on file size beyond the universal 10 GB per file.
• No password. You can add one afterward, on any plan.

All of these live in event settings; see event settings, explained. When the date is close, work through a day-of checklist for hosts.

One host per event

An event belongs to the account that created it. There's no co-host or shared-admin role yet, so if a partner, planner, or photographer needs to run the album, create it from the account you'll all sign into. A photographer can still add their batch as a guest, or you can add it yourself; see add your own photos.