Your wedding photos, kept truly private

When you share your most intimate moments through a photo sharing app, you deserve to know exactly where those photos go, who can see them, and what happens to them afterwards. Few photo sharing apps say where your photos are processed, or which third parties see them.

Gather & Group does things differently. Your photos stay on UK servers. Our facial recognition runs locally - not through external AI services. Your album is password-protected, and you decide who sees what. When you're done, you download everything and we delete it.

A couple sitting together on a sofa at home in the evening with their private wedding gallery open on a laptop

What "private" actually means with Gather & Group

Where your photos live, who processes them, and what happens when you leave.

Your photos stay in the UK

Every photo uploaded to Gather & Group is stored on servers in the United Kingdom. We don't route data through US data centres or process images in regions with weaker data protection laws. For UK couples, this means your photos are covered by UK GDPR.

Facial recognition runs locally

Our facial recognition runs on our own UK servers. We don't send your guests' faces to Google, Amazon, Microsoft, or any other third-party AI service for analysis. The processing happens in-house, on our servers, and the facial data is never shared, sold, or used for any purpose beyond helping you find your photos.

Only you can see your album, unless you choose to share it

Your gallery is private to you and your partner. Guests can upload photos via the QR code, but they can't browse your album, see other guests' uploads, or access anything beyond their own upload page. If you'd like everyone to relive the day, you can choose to share your gallery with guests through a private link, with an optional password, an expiry date, and full control over what they can see and download. Sharing is off until you turn it on, and you can switch it off again whenever you like.

No ads, no tracking, no data mining

There are no ads in your album, we don't track your guests, we don't sell data, and we don't use your photos to train AI models. You pay for the service, and that's how we make money.

You own your photos

Every photo in your album belongs to you and the guests who took them. We claim no rights over your content, and we never will. When your access period ends, we delete your data from our servers.

What a wedding album contains

Your wedding album is one of the most comprehensive biometric datasets of your family and friends that exists. It contains clear, well-lit photos of faces from multiple angles, often with names attached (table plans, place cards visible in shots). It includes photos of children. It captures people in unguarded moments - laughing, crying, dancing - the kind of authentic human expression that AI training datasets prize.

When you upload these photos to a platform that processes them through external AI services, you're sharing biometric data about dozens or hundreds of people who never consented to that processing.

With Gather & Group, facial recognition happens on our infrastructure, using our own models. Guest faces are processed, matched, and grouped - and the facial data stays within our systems. Your guests' faces are never sent anywhere else.

Printed wedding photographs spread on a linen tablecloth beside a linen-bound photo album and a keepsake box
Guest photos, printed from your own gallery.

How it compares

Google Photos shared albums

Free, but Google processes all images through their AI services. Photos are used to improve Google's products. Data is stored across global data centres. No UK data residency guarantee.

WhatsApp photo sharing

End-to-end encrypted in transit, but Meta's terms allow broad use of metadata. Photos are compressed and lose quality. No organisation, no facial recognition, no album structure.

Other wedding photo apps

Most store photos on AWS or Google Cloud, often in US regions. Some use third-party APIs like Amazon Rekognition or Google Vision for face detection - meaning your photos are sent to those services for analysis.

Gather & Group

UK servers. Local facial recognition. No third-party AI processing. Password-protected albums. Full GDPR compliance. You own your data.

Built for GDPR compliance

As a UK-based company storing and processing data in the UK, Gather & Group operates under the UK General Data Protection Regulation.

Lawful basis for processing

We process photos based on your explicit consent when you create an album. Guests consent by choosing to upload their photos.

Data minimisation

We only collect what's needed to run the service - photos, optional guest names, and the minimal technical data required for uploads to work.

Right to deletion

You can request deletion of your album and all associated data at any time. Close your account and everything is permanently deleted within 24 hours.

Facial recognition transparency

We're upfront about how our facial recognition works, what data it generates, and how that data is handled. We don't hide it in page 47 of our terms.

No international transfers

Your data doesn't leave UK jurisdiction. We don't use sub-processors in other countries for image processing.

Frequently asked questions

Where exactly are your servers?

Our servers are located in UK data centres. We don't use overseas infrastructure for any part of our service, including facial recognition processing.

What facial recognition technology do you use?

We use open-source facial recognition models that run entirely on our own infrastructure. We don't send your photos to Google, Amazon, Microsoft, or any other third-party service for facial analysis.

What happens to my photos after my access period?

Your album is accessible for the duration of your plan: three months after your wedding on Basic, or a full year on Premium. During that time, you can download everything in full resolution. After your access period, we delete your photos and all associated data from our servers.

Do you use my photos for anything else?

No. Your photos are used solely to provide you with the Gather & Group service. We don't use them for marketing, AI training, analytics, or any other purpose. Ever.

Is my album visible to search engines?

No. Your album is not indexed by search engines and cannot be found through Google or any other search engine. It's only accessible via your unique link or QR code, protected by your password.

How is this different from just using a private Google Photos album?

Google Photos is a general-purpose photo service that processes images through Google's AI infrastructure globally. Gather & Group is purpose-built for weddings, processes facial recognition locally in the UK, and doesn't use your photos for any purpose beyond your album. You also get a QR code for easy guest uploads, automatic face grouping, and a dedicated wedding gallery - none of which Google Photos offers out of the box.

Create your private wedding album

Your photos stay on UK servers and face grouping runs on our own machines. $67 for Premium, paid once.

Start your free trial