Sending Emails Through Pic-Time with Your Own Email Address
In this blog post, I’ll guide you through the process of configuring your domain so you can send emails via Pic-Time using your own email address.
I am not affiliated with Pic-Time in any way. I have been a client since early 2020, but my only connection to the company is as a user of their platform.
Please keep in mind that this blog outlines the process I followed, and I cannot be held responsible for any issues that may arise if you make changes to your DNS settings.
Please Note: This setup requires an email from a custom domain or one that is routed through a custom domain (mine is saywellhq.co.uk). I’m not sure if this process works with email addresses using gmail.com or other generic providers.
WHY WOULD YOU WANT EMAILS FROM PIC-TIME TO LOOK LIKE THEY COME FROM YOU?
When you set up and start using Pic-Time, you’ll be asked to provide your email address.
This is solely for your admin access and login—it does not affect how emails are sent to your clients.
Below is an example of how emails to your clients will appear.
Notice the sender address in the top left corner?, Pic-Time we@pic-time.com — this is the email your clients and anyone placing an order through your online gallery will see.
When an email lands in my clients’ inbox but doesn’t appear to come from me, it reflects poorly on my business. Communications related to my brand should look and feel like they’re coming directly from me.
The bigger issue, however, is that important emails can easily be missed.
In the past few months, I’ve had two instances where couples overlooked crucial emails simply because they didn’t recognise the sender. As a result, they either ignored or even deleted them.
One couple missed their gallery expiration email, while another overlooked their wedding album proofing email—which ended up in their spam folder because it wasn’t from a trusted sender.
However, Pic-Time offers the option to configure your own domain settings, allowing emails to be sent from your own email address instead of we@pic-time.com.
POINTS TO NOTE AND ADVICE BEFORE STARTING
The entire process takes a few days, as you’ll need to communicate with both Pic-Time and SendGrid. You’ll go back and forth with them as they guide you through making changes, verifying settings, and then updating or adding additional configurations as needed.
Adding DNS settings to your domain provider isn’t difficult, but you must know how to access them. My domain is hosted with GoDaddy, which makes this process straightforward.
It’s also essential to screenshot, print, or save your DNS settings at each stage. This ensures that you have a reference if anything needs to be reset.
However, you won’t be asked to delete any existing settings—only to add or modify an existing DNS entry.
OVERVIEW OF THE STEPS NEEDED
Create a TXT Record in Your DNS Manager with your domain host.
Check that your TXT Record has worked via MX Toolbox.
Email Pic-Time or use their chat to inform them that you’ve completed the steps. They will then coordinate with SendGrid on your behalf.
SendGrid will send you an email containing the necessary information, which you’ll need to add to your DNS settings.
Email Pic-Time or use their chat to reply to your ongoing support ticket, letting them know that the SendGrid changes have been made.
At this stage, SendGrid sent an additional email requesting two more changes.
Email Pic-Time again or reply to your ongoing support ticket in their chat box to confirm that you have completed the latest SendGrid requests.
At this stage, I received a “Pic-Time Support Email Test”, which confirmed that my email was now appearing as the sender.
My support ticket was then updated, confirming that the changes were complete. From this point forward, all emails sent from Pic-Time under my login would be sent from my own email address rather than we@pic-time.com.
REMEMBER AFTER EACH REQUEST TO CHANGE OR ADD IN DNS SETTINGS - PRINT, SCREENSHOT OR SAVE DOWN YOUR SETTINGS.
STEP 1 - TXT Record
Log in to your domain host (mine is GoDaddy), where the interface looks like this. Click on “Manage Domain”, then select “Manage DNS”.
Check your DNS settings to see if you already have an SPF record in place, as this will affect the next step.
ALREADY HAVE A SPF RECORD IN DNS SETTINGS?
Mine already had a SPF record which looked like this:
@ 600 IN TXT v=spf1 include:secureserver.net -all
This is the only change I need to make to an existing setting, and as per Pic-Time’s own help page (HERE), I need to add "v=spf1 include:sendgrid.net" (without the quotes) to the setting I already had.
This is what I changed it to look like:
@ 600 IN TXT v=spf1 include:secureserver.net include:sendgrid.net-all
The only change was adding in the extra bit at the end, nothing else was changed.
NO SPF RECORD IN YOUR DNS SETTINGS?
If you do not have an SPF record, and you have checked and double-checked to confirm this, you will need to add one.
As shown in the screenshot from my Godaddy domain, click on “Add New Record”, then add in the following (correct as of Feb 2025, please check HERE first):
Type
Select the “TXT” option
Alias/Host
Enter "@" (without the quotes)
Points to
Enter "v=spf1 include:sendgrid.net" (without the quotes).
TTL
I left this as the default, and it updated itself.
Click save, and this is step one done.
STEP 2 - CHECK THE SPF RECORD.
Next, we need to verify that the changes or additions have been successfully applied and are working as expected.
Navigate to the following address - https://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx#
Enter your email address into the search bar, select “SPF Record Lookup” from the dropdown menu, and then press Enter to check the record.
You should see a table filled with green ticks if everything has worked correctly.
If you encounter any errors, wait a few minutes and try again. If errors persist, double-check your SPF records in your DNS settings to ensure they have been entered correctly.
STEP 3 - Email or Chat Pic-Time Support
Send an email to Pic-Time support or use the chat bot after logging in. Let them know that you would like to “Send Emails with My Own Email Address Instead of we@pic-time.com.”
Inform them that you have updated your SPF records and confirmed the changes using MX Toolbox.
Additionally, if you already have a SendGrid account, mention this, as it may impact how you receive the next steps from SendGrid.
Here is a copy of the support email I sent:
STEP 4 - SENDGRID INSTRUCTIONS
Once Pic-Time support receives your request, they will coordinate with SendGrid. You can expect to receive your first set of instructions within a few hours, or up to 24 hours.
The email will come directly from SendGrid and will look something like this:
Clicking the link in the email will take you to a page displaying the DNS changes that SendGrid requires. You’ll need to add these records to your domain’s DNS settings.
This is my example, with parts blocked out for security:
Simply log back into your domain host (mine was GoDaddy) and add the provided settings into your DNS.
You may find (like me) that copying the details may throw up an error, similar to the screen shot below, but it’s quite obvious that you only want the settings to resolve to saywellhq.co.uk and not saywellhq.co.uk.saywellhq.co.uk.
Once you have added and confirmed the settings, go back to SendGrid and click “I’m Done.”
STEP 5, 6 & 7
Once you have updated your DNS settings with the information provided by SendGrid, update your support ticket with Pic-Time, letting them know that you have completed the latest SendGrid DNS request.
You may receive another email from SendGrid with additional DNS entries to add. Follow the same steps as before (as outlined in Step 4), and once completed, inform Pic-Time support that you have processed another round of DNS updates from SendGrid.
STEP 8 & 9
This isn’t really a step-by-step process but more of a “what happens next” update.
After completing the second round of DNS updates requested by SendGrid, I received an email from my own address (andy@saywellhq.co.uk) via Pic-Time. This confirmed that the setup was working correctly and that emails were now being sent from my domain rather than we@pic-time.com.
A few hours after receiving the test email, I received an update to my support ticket confirming that my custom email setup was complete. From that point forward, all emails sent to my clients through Pic-Time would come from andy@saywellhq.co.uk instead of we@pic-time.com.
FINAL THOUGHTS
So you have gotten to the end of this blog posts!?
I apreciate that it might have been a long read, but I wanted to put together a post which gave people as much info as possible, and to not rely on everyone wanting to change their emails needing a degree in domain settings.
I think the process is fairly straight forward, I only changed one existing setting, and made sure after each change, I printed a copy of my DNS settings, and I will keep those on file should I need to remove the settings at some future date.
I’m pleased that I have gone through this process, as I think the benefits are greater than the time it has taken me to update my settings.
I’ll keep coming back to this post every so often and make sure that it’s unto date with any changes that Pic-Time have made to their walk through, so if you do spot something which I have missed - just let me know!
Andy.