Comparison

Revel vs Shot List Planner

Revel is a guest photo app — QR code on the table, everyone's photos in one album — with a free shot list generator built as a front door to it. The generator is better than most. It's also not really the product.

	Shot List Planner	Revel
Primary product	Shot list planning	Guest photo app
Family-combination auto-expansion	Peel-away builder	Yes
Generator output	Live, shareable list	Copy, download, or print a text file
Priority flagging	Yes	No
Live mobile checklist, photographer ticks off shots	Yes	No
Covers the whole day, not just formals	Yes	Checkboxes for other phases; combinations only for formals
Guest headshots	With Seat the Day	No
Seating chart tool	Via Seat the Day	Yes
Price	Free	Free

What it does well

You type the names on each side — parents, siblings, grandparents — and it expands them into the standard family-formal combinations a photographer needs. That's the tedious part of building a formals list, and automating it is the right call. You can copy the result, download it as a plain-text checklist, or print it.

The advice attached to it is honest, too. Their own page tells you to send it two weeks out, appoint someone to call names, and trim before printing, because generated lists run long. That's the same advice I'd give.

Their FAQ is straight about what it is: a shot list for the photographer's planned shots, and Revel for the candid moments. Two different jobs.

Where it stops

The output is a text file. Copy, download, print — that's the whole exit. Nothing happens after that. When your grandmother's plans change on the Thursday, you regenerate and reprint, and hope the version your photographer has is the new one.

No priorities. Every combination comes out weighted the same. They recommend keeping the list under 25 combinations, which is good advice precisely because the tool can't tell your photographer which five matter most. That's a job flagging solves and trimming doesn't.

Nothing to check off. Your photographer works from paper or a screenshot. There's no live list, so nobody watching the clock can see what's done and what's left.

Formals only, essentially. There are checkboxes for getting ready, first look, wedding party and reception, but the intelligence is in the family combinations. The rest is a standard list you could get anywhere.

It's a funnel. That's not a criticism — free tools that feed a product are a fair trade and this one gives real value. But it explains why the generator ends at “print” rather than continuing into the wedding day. The wedding day is the other product's job.

What's different here

The list stays live. Change it Thursday and the link your photographer already has is the changed one — no regenerating, no reprinting, no version anxiety.

You can flag what matters, so a photographer running twelve minutes behind knows which three shots to protect.

Your photographer ticks shots off during the day, on their phone, without an account.

And the same “which one is Melinda” problem Revel's advice solves with a designated name-caller, this solves with a face: headshots from your real guest list, attached to the groups they belong to. That comes with Seat the Day. The rest is free.

Worth knowing

Revel also runs a free seating chart maker. If you're comparing seating tools as well, that's the same conversation one level over at Seat the Day.

Which one you should use

Pick Revel if…

You want a fast, free, printable family-combination list and you're comfortable managing changes yourself
You want a guest photo app for candids — worth having alongside whatever you use for the list

Pick Shot List Planner if…

You want the list to still be doing work on the wedding day rather than sitting in a bag

Comparison based on each product's own public pages, checked September 2026. Products change — if something here is out of date, tell me and I'll fix it.