When to create it, how long it collects

The clock starts at the party

An album lives its plan s retention window measured from the event date, not from the moment you paid. Creating it 4 months ahead therefore costs you no collecting time at all, and there is no reason to wait — an album created early is an album whose code is printed early.

This is also why the date field matters more than it looks. It is not decoration; it is where the window starts.

1. Create it early. Creating months ahead costs nothing, because the window does not start until the event date.
2. Set the real date. The date is what the clock anchors on, so a placeholder date shortens or lengthens the album by mistake.
3. Download before the end. The warnings arrive by email at 14, 3 and 1 days before deletion. Do not use them as the plan.

A date in the past starts now

Setting a date that has already gone does not create an album that expired before its first guest. The clock starts at creation instead. This is not an edge case: a large share of albums are created the same day as the party or within a couple of days of it.

So collecting after the fact works exactly as you would hope. Create it the morning after and you still get the full window.

The grace period is the same length as the first warning, so nobody loses an album without having been told.

The warnings before deletion

Email warnings go out 14 days, 3 days and 1 day before an album is removed. If the scheduler misses a stage — a gap in a run, say — you get 1 email covering what you passed rather than 3 at once. Deletion never happens without a warning having been sent.

Treat them as a safety net, not a plan. Download the album in the week after the party, while everyone still cares about it.

The upload window is separate

How long the album exists and how long guests may upload are 2 different switches. You can close uploads the morning after the party and keep the album open for months, which is the usual shape for a wedding. Closing uploads also invalidates guest links immediately.

Leave uploads open longer than you think you need. The second wave of photos arrives the next day, from people who were too busy dancing.

Extending an album

Moving to a longer plan lengthens the window, and the new length is measured from the same anchor rather than from the day you upgraded. That means an upgrade shortly before expiry genuinely buys the difference between the 2 plans.

It does not resurrect a deleted album. Once the grace period has run out, the files are gone.

A timeline that works

Create the album as soon as the date is fixed. Print the codes a week ahead and test them. Leave uploads open for at least 3 days after the party, download everything in the first week, and only then decide whether the album still needs to be online.

Every step of that is reversible except the last one, which is why it comes last.