Let’s be real. Bad things happen. Hard drives crash. Phones glitch out. Passwords are forgotten. All of these could have mega impacts on your memories, especially if you haven’t appropriately backed up your wedding photos–the priceless images you paid a pretty penny for and will miss if they go missing. Thankfully, there are three easy and relatively inexpensive ways to preserve wedding photos.

1. PUT THEM ONTO A PHYSICAL STORAGE: Honestly, I recommend you buy a wedding hard drive just for all digital files related to your wedding. That way everything you have that you want to save will be in the same, save place. I have had great luck with Seagate, and this 1 TB should be plenty for your digital needs (and yes, that is an affiliate link). This is the least restrictive way to preserve wedding photos.
2. UPLOAD TO THE CLOUD: When you receive your images, they will likely be in the form of a link that grants you access to a cloud storage system; you also likely will not have indefinite access to it (my couples have one-year access to their gallery). In addition to the physical hard drive, I would recommend a cloud-based service as well. Dropbox, Amazon Photo, Flickr are all fantastic options. Unlike a physical storage, however, these will likely come with a monthly fee over a certain storage limit, so if nothing else, at least use this to save your favorites so you have them forever and ever.
3. PRINT PROOFS OF THEM: Having a physical proofs of your images is a final way to preserve wedding photos. All I have left of my senior photos is a sweet little book of proofs (I had my portraits taken prior to the digital revolution). It is better than nothing (and, worse case scenario, I could scan and digitize an image if I really needed to). Your photographer can and should be able to print you a physical proof book of your images upon request; it would be a small investment to insure your memories and preserve wedding photos.

Whatever you do…DO SOMETHING FROM THIS LIST. I would recommend at least two of the three; specifically, I would suggest the hard drive and the proof book. Whatever you choose, just do it; future you will be eternally grateful.

Kayla Lee is a Minnesota-based wedding and elopement photographer (and handcrafter and designer on the side). She serves elegant, authentic, sentimental couples who not only choose their own adventures, but also live them to the fullest! See more about the KLP Wedding Experience!