Moment tags (Ceremony, Reception, Dinner, Dancing, Speeches, Other) are how guests filter the gallery and how you chunk photos when delivering to the couple. Tagging them by hand for a 500-upload reception is painful. Auto-tag does it based on when each upload was received.
How auto-tag works
Every upload has a timestamp, when it arrived on our servers. Auto-tag takes a set of time windows you define (e.g., "Ceremony = 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM") and applies the matching tag to every upload whose timestamp falls inside that window.
It is not image recognition or AI, it is a very literal "uploads between 4 and 5 PM get tagged Ceremony" rule. That is intentional: image recognition for wedding moments is hit-or-miss, but time windows are near-perfect because guests upload during the moment they are witnessing.
How to use it
From your event page:
- Click Settings in the toolbar
- Click Auto-tag uploads
- A modal opens with five default windows pre-filled
- Adjust the start/end times for each moment to match your wedding schedule
- (Optional) Toggle "Only tag untagged uploads", this is on by default, meaning auto-tag will not overwrite existing tags you set manually
- Click Apply
- The modal reports: scanned X uploads, tagged Y, broken down by tag
Takes about 2 seconds to run on a 500-upload event.
The default time windows
The modal starts with a typical wedding timeline:
| Tag | Default window |
|---|---|
| Ceremony | 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM |
| Reception | 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM |
| Dinner | 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM |
| Speeches | 8:00 PM - 8:45 PM |
| Dancing | 8:45 PM - 11:59 PM |
These are just starting points. Adjust to match the actual schedule the couple gave you.
Common timeline variations
Morning or brunch wedding
| Tag | Suggested window |
|---|---|
| Ceremony | 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM |
| Reception | 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM |
| Dinner | 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM |
| Speeches | 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM |
| Dancing | 2:30 PM - 5:00 PM |
Late-night / destination
| Tag | Suggested window |
|---|---|
| Ceremony | 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM |
| Reception | 8:00 PM - 9:30 PM |
| Dinner | 9:30 PM - 11:00 PM |
| Speeches | 11:00 PM - 11:30 PM |
| Dancing | 11:30 PM - 3:00 AM |
For events crossing midnight, set the dancing window end time to 23:59 and it will catch everything up to the end of the day. Uploads after midnight go untagged unless you add a second late-night run.
Two-day events (rehearsal dinner + wedding)
Auto-tag currently runs against a single event's timeline. If you are covering both the rehearsal dinner and the wedding day as one event, you will need to run auto-tag twice, once for each day's windows.
Or better: create two separate events, one per day, and tag each independently.
Overlapping windows
If two windows overlap (Reception ends at 6:30 and Dinner starts at 6:15), we apply whichever window's start time is later. So an upload at 6:25 PM would get Dinner because Dinner started more recently.
This is rarely what you want, so we recommend no overlap, end Reception at 6:30 and start Dinner at 6:30. Uploads at exactly 6:30 get Dinner.
"Only tag untagged uploads"
On by default. When this is on, auto-tag skips any upload that already has a moment tag, whether you set it manually or a previous auto-tag run applied it.
Turn it off when you want to re-run with corrected time windows. For example: the ceremony actually ran long and ended at 5:30, not 5:00. Adjust the windows, turn off "only untagged," and re-apply. Everything in the extended window gets re-tagged.
What it does not tag
- Uploads outside any window: stay untagged.
- Custom tags you added in Manage mode: not touched.
- Uploads that already have a moment tag (if "only untagged" is on): skipped.
Pro tip: run it after the event, not during
Auto-tag works on upload timestamps. During the event, guests are still uploading and the windows are still in progress. Running it mid-reception means you'll tag everything up to that moment, but later uploads (once the dance floor opens) will arrive untagged.
Wait until the reception is over, or run it the next morning, for clean tagging in one pass.
Pro tip: use the guest-facing filter in Delivery Gallery mode
Once uploads are tagged, Delivery Gallery mode surfaces the tags as filter chips at the top of the guest gallery. So the couple and their family can filter to Ceremony, Dancing, etc. without scrolling through 500 photos.
If you are building a delivery gallery, auto-tag is the single biggest time-saver in the workflow.
Running it multiple times
You can run auto-tag as many times as you want. Each run is non-destructive (unless you turn off "only untagged"). Common pattern:
- First run: with the couple's stated timeline from the rundown.
- Look at the results. Check the Ceremony tag, does it include the first-kiss photos? If not, extend the window.
- Re-run with corrected windows.
- Spot-check one or two moments. Adjust if needed.
What happens with group photos
Group photos (often shot during cocktail hour, labeled Reception in the timeline) get the Reception tag based on when they were uploaded. This usually matches the reality because guests upload their own shots during reception.
If you shoot group photos yourself and upload them later as a batch, you may need to hand-tag those, since they were uploaded at midnight when you were tagging, not at 5:30 PM when the photos were taken. Manage mode handles that in a single operation.
API access
Auto-tag is available in the UI. There is also a programmatic endpoint at POST /api/events/[id]/auto-tag if you are building automation on top of Capture Club, contact support for the API key setup.