Welcomed is operated by Vola Ventures LLC, which is the “we” in this policy. To reach us about your information, use our support form.
Welcomed gives events their own guest website: seating, menus, a photo and video wall, a guestbook and more, reached by a QR code. This policy explains what we collect from the hosts who set up events and the guests who use them, and what we do with it. In short: we collect what's needed to run your event, we don't sell it, and we don't use advertising or analytics trackers.
What we collect
From hosts. Your email address and, if you sign in with Google, your name from that account. Everything you add to your event: its name, date, branding and details, guest lists and table assignments, menus, floor plans, the pages and links you add, and the files and messages you share with the setup chat (such as an invitation, a menu or a seating spreadsheet).
From guests. Photos, videos, guestbook messages and video messages you choose to post, and any name you add to them. To find your seat you type a name, which is matched against the host's guest list. Your browser stores a private key so you can manage and delete your own uploads later; that key stays on your device.
When you contact us. Your name, email address and message.
Technical information. Like most websites, our hosting provider records basic request logs (such as IP address and browser type) to keep the service secure and working. To limit abuse of our contact form and of iPad booth sign-ups we keep a one-way hash of your IP address for about an hour, never the address itself.
How we use it
- To run each event's guest site and the host dashboard.
- To send emails you need: sign-in links, export-ready notices, and reminders before an event site is taken down.
- To answer support requests.
- To keep Welcomed secure, prevent abuse, and fix problems.
We don't sell personal information, and we don't use it for advertising.
Your content and our art
You keep whatever rights you have in your photos, logos, videos, messages, invitations and other content. We store, process and display them to run, maintain and improve the service. The theme art Welcomed generates (designed themes, their backgrounds and decorations, and the booth frames made from them) belongs to Welcomed, and you have a license to use it for your events, as our terms of service explain.
The setup chat and AI
Hosts can set up an event by chatting and sharing files. To do that, the messages and files you share are sent to our AI provider, Anthropic, which processes them to provide the service to us. Before a guest spreadsheet is sent, we remove street addresses, email addresses and phone numbers. Nothing is changed in your event until you review and approve it.
Hosts can also ask for designed themes for their event. The event's name, date and place, any idea the host types, and the invitation image they shared in the setup chat are sent to Anthropic to write the design, and the design and that invitation image are sent to OpenAI's image model to paint its background and decorations. Anthropic is called directly, or through Vercel's AI Gateway if that fails, and OpenAI through the gateway. Nothing changes on your event until you pick a design, except that an event started from an invitation or a described theme gets its first design automatically, which the host can keep or change. Designs you don't pick are deleted after 7 days. When a host shares an invitation or flyer while creating an event, a round of designs starts from it automatically. To offer its decorations for photo booth frames, the invitation, flyer or logo image is also sent to Anthropic to redraw them as simple shapes and to OpenAI's image model to repaint them as stickers, through the same gateway. Pictures not picked are deleted after 7 days; redrawn shapes are small drawings kept with the setup chat. A host can also ask the setup chat to change a design in use: the host's words, the design and a picture of its booth start screen (which shows the event's name, date and logo) go to Anthropic to work out the change, and when the change repaints its corner art or background, that picture and the host's words go to OpenAI's image model the same way. A change that's never applied is deleted after 7 days.
The photo booth and AI looks
An event can have a photo booth that guests open on their own phones. A classic booth photo is framed on the phone and saved to the event like any other photo; it is not sent to an AI. When a guest picks an AI look (“Surprise me” or a named look), their photo is sent to Google's Gemini image model, through Vercel's AI Gateway, to restyle it, and the result comes back to the event. The booth tells guests which options use AI before they choose, unless the host has turned that notice off, and the host can ask for a grown-up's OK before AI looks when children are expected. Hosts can turn AI looks off at any time.
Hosts setting up looks can try one on their own selfie. That photo goes to the same Gemini model the same way, the result is shown to the host once, and neither is saved. Look descriptions hosts write are sent to Anthropic's Claude to write them out and to check they are family-friendly.
The booth keeps the original photo with the finished one, for the host. Both are deleted when the photo is deleted (after the trash period) or with the event. Photos started but never finished are deleted after a day. A booth photo's page can be opened by anyone with its link, which is long and random; it isn't listed anywhere or indexed. The phone that took a photo can delete it.
Some events also run the booth on an iPad at the venue. It works the same way: a classic photo isn't sent to an AI, an AI look goes to Gemini as above, and the guest scans a QR code to open their photo's page on their own phone. A photo taken while the iPad is offline waits on that iPad until it uploads, then is removed from it. The iPad's “Find my photo” shows the event's iPad photos (never hidden ones) to people at the booth, so they can scan theirs. The host, or a helper the host gives a link and PIN to, can pause the booth, turn AI looks off, hide a look and hide a photo.
AI providers and training
Claude, from Anthropic, writes the setup chat's answers and the designs: we call Anthropic directly, and through Vercel's AI Gateway if that fails. Theme art is painted by OpenAI's image model and AI looks by Google's Gemini image model, both through Vercel's AI Gateway. We use these providers' business services, not their consumer apps. Vercel lists each of them as a provider that doesn't train on prompts, and says its gateway doesn't either. Welcomed doesn't train AI models on your content. Providers may keep requests for a limited time, for example to detect misuse. Images go to an AI only when a feature needs them, for example invitations, flyers, logos and files you share for designs and in the setup chat, a host's test on their own selfie, and a guest's photo when the guest picks an AI look. A classic or Instant Backdrop booth photo is never sent to an AI.
Who can see what
- An event's guest site can be opened by anyone with its link or QR code. We don't publish a list of events, and event sites ask search engines not to index them.
- There is no browsable guest list. Guests see their own table after typing a name; table rosters are shown by default and the host can turn them off. Dietary notes are never shown to guests.
- Photos, videos and messages posted to an event are visible on that event's site. Hosts can require approval for videos, hide or remove anything, and keep written guestbook messages visible only to themselves.
- One event's guests, uploads and messages are never visible from another event.
- Hosts can see and download everything posted to their own event.
- Welcomed staff may look at the uploads you share for your event's look and the designs made from them, to improve how designs are made.
Service providers
We use a small number of companies to run Welcomed, each only for the job listed:
- Vercel: hosting the website, and the AI Gateway that passes AI requests to Anthropic, OpenAI and Google.
- Supabase: our database, host sign-in, and private storage for uploaded files.
- Stripe: payments. Hosts enter their card details on Stripe's checkout page; we keep what was bought and whether it was paid, not card numbers.
- Resend: sending email.
- Anthropic: the AI behind the setup chat, theme designs and look writing.
- OpenAI: the image model that paints theme designs.
- Google (Gemini): the image model behind photo booth AI looks.
We may also share information if the law requires it, to protect people's safety, or as part of a sale or reorganization of the business, in which case this policy continues to apply.
Cookies and browser storage
Hosts get a sign-in cookie so they stay signed in. Guests' browsers store the upload-management key described above, a random key the photo booth uses to count this phone's AI looks, and small preferences. An iPad running a photo booth keeps a cookie that identifies it to the event it's paired with, and stores photos waiting to upload; a booth helper gets a sign-in cookie that lasts 12 hours. We don't use advertising or analytics cookies.
How long we keep it
- A published event's site stays live until its gallery closes (30 days to 12 months after the start date the host sets, plus any extension); one that was never published stays for 12 months after its date. We email the host before taking a site down. Once an event is published, hosts can download everything at any time; before that, they can download individual photos, but not a full export or the booth originals.
- Deleted guests, photos, videos and messages stay in the host's trash for 30 days so mistakes can be undone, then are removed.
- A host can delete an event early from its settings.
- Support messages are kept as long as we need them to help you.
Your choices
You can ask us for a copy of your information, to correct it, or to delete it. Hosts can edit or delete their event content from the dashboard. Guests can delete their own uploads from the same phone or browser; if that's no longer possible, ask the host or contact us. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under local law, and we'll honor them.
Children
Welcomed is for adults: hosts must be at least 18. Welcomed is not directed to children under 13 without a parent's or guardian's supervision. Some events, such as birthday parties, bar and bat mitzvahs and youth sports, include children, and a child may appear in photos or use the photo booth while an adult supervises. The host is responsible for getting a parent's or guardian's permission before children's photos, videos or messages are added, and before a child uses an AI look.
These are the tools that keep children's use of an event in an adult's hands:
- The host can ask for a grown-up's OK before AI looks, and can turn the AI looks off.
- A classic booth photo is never sent to an AI. The host can turn off the AI modes, hide a look and pause the booth, and a helper the host gives a link and PIN to can do the same, and hide a booth photo.
- The host can require approval for booth photos before the wall shows them and for videos, and can hide, reject or remove anything at any time.
- A look the host writes is screened by an automatic check before guests can use it.
- Guests can delete their own uploads from the phone or browser that posted them.
If you are a parent or guardian and want your child's photo or information removed, tell us which event and photo it is. We'll contact the host and ask them to remove it, and removed items are permanently deleted after 30 days, unless the host restores them. We may ask you to confirm who you are. If we learn that we've collected personal information from a child under 13 without a parent's permission (see the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, COPPA), we'll treat it as a removal request.
Security
Uploaded files are stored privately and served only through short-lived links from the event site. Each event's data is kept separate. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and will tell affected hosts if a breach affects their event.
Changes
We'll update this page as Welcomed changes and change the date at the top. If a change materially affects how we use your information, we'll tell hosts by email first.
Contact us
Questions about this page? Send us a message and we'll reply by email.