How to project your guests’ photos on the venue screen

• A laptop — any laptop with an up-to-date browser. Not a tablet: they go to sleep and handle a second screen badly.
• The venue screen — a smart TV, a projector or an LED wall. Ask the venue what they have, and which input — almost always HDMI.
• A 15 to 30 ft HDMI cable — the venue’s is often too short, or missing.
• A USB-C to HDMI adapter — Macs and most recent PCs have no HDMI port. Test it at home, not the day of.
• The charger and a power strip — the laptop stays on for eight hours. On battery it dies mid-dinner.

The laptop has to stay connected all night.

• Venue Wi-Fi — ask for the password before the big day, and test it when you arrive. Beware of guest networks with a login page: they often drop you after an hour.
• A phone hotspot — your backup, on 4G or 5G. Check the signal inside the room, not in the parking lot. Keep the phone plugged in: a hotspot drains it in two hours.
• An Ethernet cable — if there’s a jack near the screen, the most stable option of all.

1. Sleep off — in the laptop’s power settings: never sleep, no screen saver, display always on.
2. Notifications off — Do Not Disturb mode, or a private message pops up in front of 120 people.
3. Mirror the display — when you plug in the HDMI, choose mirror or duplicate. The venue screen shows the same thing as the laptop.
4. Full screen — open the wall link shared from the WeWere app and go full screen (F11 on Windows, Ctrl + Cmd + F on Mac). No tabs, no address bar.
5. Brightness up, sound off — on the TV and on the laptop. A projector in daylight is invisible: close the curtains or wait for the evening.
6. Updates done the day before — a forced Windows restart at 10 p.m. is a classic.

The photo wall is a backdrop, not the show. It runs during the social parts of the evening and stops when someone speaks.

• Cocktail hour — yes, starting with the first photos. That’s when guests discover they’re on screen and start playing.
• Dinner — yes, between courses. It gives two tables who don’t know each other something to talk about.
• Speeches, surprise video, first dance — no. A photo scrolling behind a crying best man steals the moment. Turn off the screen or cut the signal, then turn it back on.
• Dance floor — yes, unless the screen sits right behind the DJ and competes with the lights.

Not the couple. Name one person — a groomsman, a cousin who’s comfortable with a laptop — who has the Wi-Fi password and the wall link. Their job: a glance every half hour. If the screen goes black, in this order:

1. The screen or projector — still on, on the right HDMI input? A remote left lying around can change the source.
2. The cable — reseat both ends. HDMI plugs work loose when someone walks behind the table.
3. Sleep — move the mouse. If the laptop went to sleep, go back to the power settings.
4. The network — page no longer updating? Switch to the hotspot and reload.
5. Full screen — a stray click exited full screen? F11, and you’re back.

If nothing works after five minutes, let it go. The photos keep landing in the album; the screen was only the store window.

On WeWere, the live wall is included at no extra cost from the 300-photo tier up (for a wedding: $14.99 for 1,000 photos, $29.99 for 2,500, one payment, unlimited guests). You turn it on from the iPhone app, which gives you a link. Open it in the browser on the laptop plugged into the screen, go full screen, done: your guests’ photos appear as they’re taken. Delete a photo from the app and it leaves the screen. The live photo wall in detail · See pricing · WeWere for weddings.

To get guests playing, see 12 photo game ideas.