Photo Credit @ Huffington Post

Go Old School and Unplug Your Wedding, Please!

It’s your wedding day. Everything is perfect. You feel beautiful as you slowly walk down the aisle and instead of every eye being on you, all eyes are on cellphones or personal cameras. As for your professional pictures, your beautiful gown is blushed from the red flash sensor of Uncle Bob’s new SLR camera or washed out in the white beams of most of your guests’ cellphones and not a frame can be found that doesn’t have some well-meaning guest’s cellphone aimed high and in the shot. Sigh, my heart breaks to see perfect shots ruined.

If you have any hope of the day you planned  being as wonderful as you imagined it would be, request your guests put away the cell phones and cameras for the wedding ceremony and formal pictures. They can go camera crazy at the reception but save the ceremony and formal wedding party and family pictures from the intrusion. Save the photography that you have paid a professional to do from being ruined by a well-meaning friend or family member (or dozens of them) from cellphone bombing that “only one shot” moment by having phones or cameras in the frame, in their faces, or in the way of photographer capturing the best image of you.

What you get if you unplug for the wedding ceremony and formal wedding party and family pictures:

1. Your guests actually paying attention and enjoying the ceremony
2. YOU get to choose which ceremony image gets blasted all over social media
3. Once in a lifetime images show your guest looking adoringly at you in the background, not a sea of cellphones hiding faces
4. Your photographer has clear range to be sure to capture all the important moments
5. You, your new spouse, or wedding party are all looking at the same camera when formal photos are taken. If you have multiple guests with cell phones snapping pictures, there will be few to no images where everyone in the image is looking at the same camera.
6. You won’t lose dozens of professional images because of a random head, hand, or cell phone darting in front of the photographer 
 7. Your wedding is one that your friends and family will remember because they were present and engaged, not distracted by playing photog and posting to social media.

If you need more convincing on why an unplugged wedding ceremony is a must, read this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bridal-guide/why-you-might-want-to-con_b_3331528.html

Or enjoy this video that uses humor to support the unplugged wedding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=I6tCzbmFCNY

It is my hope for you that your wedding day is as beautiful and wonderful as you imagined. Please consider my advice for going unplugged during the wedding ceremony and formal pictures. This detail, just like the right shade of fabric for your wedding party, can make the difference between something perfect or something you only want to look at once.

Some ideas to encourage your guests to comply with your unplugged wedding ceremony request:

*Include an “unplugged” ceremony request in your wedding program
*Have the Officiant make an announcement to the guests right before the ceremony to silence all cellphones and that the wedding party has requested no photography
*My FAVORITE: Before the bride walks down the aisle, she can call the groom on his cell phone while he is at the altar. After a brief little banter, the groom can request the guests comply with the unplugged ceremony.

After the wedding ceremony and formal wedding party and family photos are done, the guest should feel free to use their cell phones cameras. The more the merrier at the celebration party. They will often catch those funny little moments that I might miss because I am focused so much on you, your wedding party and your family. Come up with a clever hashtag your guest can use for photos they are posting on social media so you can find them later to enjoy.

If you still need convincing to have an unplugged wedding ceremony, Google can provide you with page after page of reasons and images to encourage you to go old school and technology free for your wedding ceremony and formal pictures.