Life was so simple when photography used film and your wedding photos came in an album. All you needed to do was make some space in a drawer and barring flood fire or some other disaster your photos would be safe. Even if the worst happened there was a good chance that if the photographer was still alive he could dust off the old negatives and print some new copies.
With a little thought your digital wedding photos can be just as safe, perhaps even safer as the ability to make unlimited multiple copies allows you to reduce the risk of a disastrous loss.
When you get your disc of wedding photos the first priority is to make some copies. When the CD was first invented some exaggerated claims were made about long life and resistance to damage. These are definitely not true for home written discs which can deteriorate over time to the extent that they will be unreadable.
Copy your original disc onto your PC and store it somewhere safe where it is at normal room temperature and not subjected to changes in temperature or high humidity. Avoid using your original apart from occasional checks to see if it can still be read.
Copy the images from the PC onto CD/DVD and send copies to relatives and friends.
Upload images to an online storage service. Many offer free space but watch out in case images are reduced in size or compressed. Download a sample or two to check quality.
Keep copies on an external hard disc preferably left disconnected from the PC to reduce the chances of a virus infestation
Put a set on a memory stick to carry around and show to friends.
If you are permitted put copies on your PC at work. (Probably best not on a network, but there is usually plenty of room on your C drive.)
If some new memory format comes along don't forget to transfer all your photos and check that you can view them OK. The history of computing is littered with dead formats from punched ticker tape through magnetic tape, floppy discs of different sizes, Jaz drives....Even if your master CD survives you may not have a machine you can read it with.
You are probably starting to get the idea by now! The key is to have multiple copies on different platforms in a number of places. A final good tip is to "twin" with some friends and keep copies of each other's photos.
Paradoxically, one of the best ways to ensure that an image survives is to get a decent large print made. Have prints made by a photographic process, not a dodgy home inkjet print from a machine which has been topped up with a do-it-yourself ink refill kit. Store prints in a waterproof box inside acid free envelopes. Prints made in this way will last hundreds of years and even a torn or faded photo is better than the blank screen produced by a corrupted digital image file.
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