Forget I DO, To Plug or Unplug that is the question…..? An offline or unplugged wedding is becoming more and more popular; if you are a social media angel you might love seeing all those posts and photos, however more and more couples are choosing to go unplugged on their wedding day and with good reason too.
Smart phones are no doubt one of the greatest inventions of our time allowing us to carry one device that does everything and keeping us connected with the world around us but in certain situations they can be a real hindrance.
Reasons to go unplugged on your wedding day
Couples invest a lot of their wedding budget in hiring professional photographers and therefore have an expectation that they will provide them with stunning photography from all parts of their wedding day – photographers simply cannot do this if they are fighting for space in the church or during the cake cutting or the first dance. Your guests should always be behind the professionals if they are taking shots!
Photographers simply cannot get the best shots of you during your ceremony if they are faced with guests hanging out into the aisle with their phones and tablets trying to get a photo of you! In addition to this, your view of each other as you walk up the aisle is shielded and after months of waiting, trust me, you really want to be able to clearly see the moment that your partner turns around to watch you walk up the aisle.
Ask yourself, will Uncle Ted’s ceremony photo that he’s taken of you walking up the aisle make it into your album?!
Photographers are there to capture those great emotive moments, walking down the aisle, your first married kiss, the emotion from those close around you, a lot is lost when every photo is a sea of mobile phone distractions or people stepping in to what would have been the perfect shot.
This is probably the single biggest day in your life to date and you have invited your close friends and family to spend it with you. Do you really want them spending half the day on their phones and viewing your wedding through their phones?
The big one for any wedding professional is respect. Last year at a wedding, we found a group of guests desperately trying to find out the wi-fi code at a venue because they absolutely ‘needed’ to check the football results which were coming in during the ceremony and drinks reception. We had to remind these guests why they were there on the day and that the results wouldn’t change if they waited until at least after the ceremony. We then asked the venue to turn the wi-fi off as up to 25 guests were consumed with their phones and not the wedding!
I don’t know about you but If I were a couple that found out half the guests were on their phones checking sporting results whilst I was in the middle of my vows, I’d find that very disrespectful and upsetting.
Overall the day is and should be about you as a couple, your guests should be focused on your day without the distractions of social media, the latest whatsapp chat or snapchat. If you speak to any photographer they will have a host of magical shots from every wedding that never make it to the couple as they are ruined with a mobile phone or amateur photographer stepping into shot.
How to have an unplugged wedding?
It’s easy to have an unplugged wedding! Ideally the best thing to do is decide early on so that you can make it clear on your invitations that you expect guests to leave cameras at home and keep phones in their pockets. In addition your wedding planner, venue coordinator, celebrant, registrar or wedding official can all instruct guests on the day if they know your wishes beforehand. Finally if you want to play hard ball and really go unplugged you can request guests leave cameras at home and provide a secure concierge service where mobile phones are removed from guests during the ceremony/wedding.
However you decide to do it, remind your wedding guests that as they say the gateway to the soul is through the eyes, you want them to experience your wedding day through their eyes not their mobile or camera lenses.
All photos by Lina and Tom Photography
