You know a wedding is great when the guests arrive as strangers and leave as friends. At my wedding, we achieved this by having a bonfire on Friday night. Under a Harvest Moon in Central Vermont, my very-soon-to-be wife’s friends and family mingled with my crew. By Sunday, real friendships had formed. People who did not know each other 48 hours before were hugging each other goodbye.

I share this story because I recently heard about Spottah bringing people together at a wedding. Basically, one woman created an album specifically for her friend’s wedding. As the day passed, she invited a few guests to the album. Those people, in turn, invited a few more. By the time the reception was in full swing, a dozen or so people were adding photos in real-time to one collaborative album. The next morning, they invited the bride and groom. They loved it. Rather than having to check their various friends’ Facebook pages, the newly weds had the most memorable photos in one place.

The album will live well beyond the wedding. The wedding’s guests can comment on each other’s photos. They can create new albums together and get introduced to one another’s friends who have similar interests. In other words, all of these once-strangers are now connected by one social network.