While the social media wedding has risen over the last few years making your wedding easily accessible across social media with the use of a wedding hashtag (which we discussed last month), we are now seeing the backlash of this phase with the increasingly popular trend of unplugged weddings!
An unplugged wedding simply means that the bride and groom ask their guests to put their phones and cameras down, or better yet, turn them all off! How do you accomplish an unplugged wedding? A simple sign, and perhaps a friendly reminder from your wedding officiant prior to the ceremony can make a huge difference! Some weddings may have the entire night “unplugged” while others may choose to have just the ceremony unplugged—that choice is up to you!
Five Reasons why should you consider an unplugged wedding:
1. You most likely have paid a professional photographer to capture your day; we promise your guests will not have ‘better’ photos from their devices then the ones your photographer will get.
2. Your photos can potentially become compromised by competing camera flashes and your photographer might not be able to capture all of the shots they would like to as they are constantly trying to shoot around other wedding guests attempting to capture the same picture.
3. You will not have to be interrupted by the obvious audible distraction of clicks, pops, and whirls as guests take pictures, or power up and down phones and cameras.
4. Your guests will all have a much better view of the ceremony without their sightlines being blocked by other people’s cell phones and cameras, or even other people’s bodies as they scramble around trying to get a picture perfect angle of the glorious bride walking down the aisle.
5. Wouldn’t it be nice to be standing up at the alter looking back at all of your guests’ smiling, maybe even teary-eyed, faces instead of being greeted by the backside of their cell phones because they are busy taking your picture?
Asking your guests to put down their phones enables them to truly enjoy and be fully present in the event or at the very least, the magical moment when the bride walks down the aisle and the couple says their “I do’s”. While pictures are great memories, so is actually being there, present in the moment.
Your wedding is a once in a life time event and your guests were not invited as paparazzi. You have invited them to share in your wedding, not necessarily share your wedding with their Instagram followers.
