Paying by transfer: an invoice reference, and nothing stored anywhere
A package is reserved, an invoice reference is issued, you pay it by transfer or reply with proof, and the collection opens when the payment is confirmed. Card is the other door. Here is the transfer path in full, including when the money has gone and nothing has changed.
One price per event, paid once, in a currency stated plainly, with no card stored, no renewal, and nothing that quietly becomes a subscription in the second year. For most hosts that is a convenience. For the ones paying from a family account, a work budget, or a bank that will not accept an overseas card payment, it is the reason the purchase is possible at all.
The path, in five steps
Choose and reserve
Pick the package on the activation screen. Reserving it raises an invoice and gives you a reference — a short code that identifies your order and nothing else. The same screen offers **Pay by card** if you would rather the collection opened in the next minute than when the banks introduce themselves.
Pay by transfer
The bank details are on the invoice, named there rather than pasted into a page that could go stale. Put the reference in the payment note; it is the only thing that ties a line on a bank statement to your collection.
Or reply with proof
A screenshot or a receipt reply to the invoice email works just as well, which suits the hosts whose bank does the transfer through a branch or an assistant.
Confirmation opens the collection
Nothing is manual on your side. The order moves to confirmed, the collection opens on its own, and the receipt, the guest link and the two dates that matter arrive by email.
The card keeps working
The QR code on the printed stands carried only the address, so the code that was printed while the collection was a draft is the code that opens it now.
The four order states
- Awaiting payment
- The invoice exists and the money has not been matched. The collection is held as a draft and the guest link still does not take files.
- Confirmed
- The transfer was matched to the reference. This is the state that opens the collection.
- Not paid
- A reserved invoice whose transfer never landed. The collection stays closed rather than being deleted — write to us with the reference and we will release the invoice, because a form letter is a poor way to end somebody's wedding.
- Released
- The order was let go, at your request or because the situation changed. Nothing about the files you already collected is destroyed by a release; the collection simply stops being open.
The free package needs none of this. It opens the moment you choose it, which is why it is the right way to test the flow on a real dinner before spending anything on the next event.
When the money has gone and nothing has changed
Transfers take anything from a few minutes to a working day, depending on the banks involved, and an unmatched one is not a mystery — it is a reference that did not arrive with the payment. If it has been a working day, raise it under payment and invoices with the reference, or write to the support address if you cannot sign in. Say the collection name, the package, the amount and when you sent it, and the order gets matched from the bank record rather than from a guess.
- Reserve the package with a day or two in hand rather than on the morning of the event
- Put the reference in the payment note, in the words the invoice used
- Send proof of payment as a reply rather than waiting for the banks to introduce themselves
- Check the order state on the dashboard before you send the invitations, not after
- Tell us the same day if a collection is due to open and the order still reads as awaiting payment
A guest arriving at a collection that is still waiting for payment reads that it is not open yet. Nobody is told anything alarming, but the first hour of an evening is a bad time to be testing whether a bank has noticed your transfer.
Changing your mind, and what happens to the money
Before the collection opens
Tell us and the invoice is released. Nothing was spent on your behalf and no files exist, so this is the easy case.
After photographs are in
The work is already done, and the honest position is that a collection with other people's memories inside it is not refundable in the way an unused subscription would be. This is also what the free package is for: test the flow on a real dinner first, with nothing at risk.
Upgrading mid-event
A new invoice for the difference in the same style, and nothing about the collection changes. The address stays, the printed stands stay, the files already uploaded stay, and the ceilings go up when the second payment is confirmed.
Extras
More photographs, more clips, more time, the video guestbook, the room screen — each priced once against the one collection, and none of them turning into a recurring charge.
No card detail is ever typed into a Candid Photos page
A card payment happens on the payment provider's own hosted page; the site records a reference and an amount, never a number off your card. That is also why a bank transfer needs its invoice reference in the payment note — it is how a transfer is identified without a transaction record on our side.
Host questions, answeredPayment questions
Can I pay by card?
Yes. Reserving a package offers **Pay by card**, which takes you to Paystack's own page and opens the collection as soon as the receipt checks out. Nothing is charged until you confirm there, and no card detail is held here afterwards. A bank transfer against the invoice reference is still offered for the hosts whose bank will not take an overseas card payment.
Do I get a receipt?
Yes, by email, when the order is confirmed — with a one-page PDF attached, the same letter on paper: the collection, the package, the amount, how it was paid and the reference. It is the copy to file or hand to an accountant. Every order also sits in the Orders and receipts screen in your account.
Is there a subscription or a renewal?
No. Every price is one-off and attached to one collection. Nothing renews, nothing is stored, and no payment detail exists to charge again.
Can I pay after the event?
A collection has to be open for guests to upload, and a paid collection opens on confirmation, so in practice the payment comes first. If the event genuinely went ahead while an order sat unmatched, say so with the reference and it is sorted from the invoice rather than by refusing the files.
Why is the free package not enough for a real event?
Twenty photographs from ten guests, no clips, no downloads and seven days online. It is a working demonstration of the flow on a small evening, and on a room full of people it stops in the middle of the evening — which is worse for the guests holding their pictures than for the host.
The price is on the screen before anything is reserved
Four packages, their ceilings, and the extras, with the same numbers that govern your collection. Nothing is charged until you choose one.
Packages
One price for the collection, chosen before the invitations go out
Every package carries the guest link, the printable stands and the private gallery. Guests never pay and never register.
Something this page does not answer? Write to support@candidphotos.myjoyfullday.com.