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Your wedding day is near, but do you want to have your wedding day broadcast across the world of social media for all to see even before you?
We have always enjoyed taking pictures at a wedding, however with technology being so advanced anyone with a smart phone now also owns a camera!
I’m probably showing my age but many years ago I had just a Camera with a 35mm film that you had to physically take out of the camera then send it off to get it developed. In those days the film was used sparingly and may even have as many as 4-5 events before it goes off for developing!
Eventually you get the physical photos to share with friends and family. It was about as quick as a snail travelling from Land's End to John o' Groats, I kid you not!
With technology being so advanced now we can share pictures immediately to social media which comes with benefits but also downsides. We can now take 100’s of pictures and videos in quick succession of our friend’s wedding day and share them on social media in a matter of seconds or even a FB Live, and couples have no say over it, but can they?
I recently had a wedding where my clients asked me to request their guests do not post any pictures on their social media platforms for 24 hours. If you were enjoying a good night out this really wouldn’t be an issue, but this couple actually wanted make the decisions when their photos were being posted, so I really do hope that their guests managed to carry out that very small request.
So are nearlyweds becoming more select who they share their special day with? And what is being done to manage this?
Here’s some options you could consider for your day if you are unsure.
Have a completely unplugged wedding day and discourage any pictures (more often popular in the celebrity world)
Allow pictures to be snapped but ask guests to put phones away during the ceremony
Ask for a complete social media blackout first 24/48 hours only
Ask for a social media blackout until you have had the chance to share your own professional pictures of the day
Allow guests to post pictures as long as it does not include the Newlyweds
Get a photo app where the photos are only shared and kept within the wedding party!
The first option of course can obviously be disappointing for the guest however, there are some benefits to them !
Let me elaborate on the benefits! I went to see Motown a few years back. I had back stage passes and I was so close to them I could smell the adrenaline! Whist it was an incredible show I spent so much time trying to snap pictures and take videos I missed at good portion of the show not to mention when I looked back at my videos later, it didn’t take me back to that happy place so I really missed out and wasted much of the experience. The good news is I can see the Motown time and time again, you get only one chance on a wedding day!
So as much as we like to spend time on our phones, we will immerse ourselves far more into the day if we just put our phones away.
Newlyweds have spent an age planning their day and we are likely to remember much more of the day if we didn’t see it through a small screen.
Only slightly off topic, but have you ever though about how often you actually look back over your pictures? Not very often I'm sure.
I snapped mine here, and I have over 25,000 pictures on my phone.
Every single wedding, event, show, family gathering, a million pictures of my dog, although he only has to move to get papped, but how often do I go back to look over them, not often enough to justify this quantity.
So now I do my best to enjoy the moment and be present - apart from when my boy is posing with my sunglasses of course!
Consider the Professional Photographers
An equally important issue to consider here is that your newlyweds may have spent a lot of money for their photographer to get those all-important posed shots. So having lots of guests taking pictures at the same time makes it impossible to know what camera to look at which can severely compromise their photography. So when the professionals do their post production and find that the happy couple are looking elsewhere, that's a missed opportunity and a missed photo for them, so please bare this in mind if your happy couple allow you be snap happy on their wedding day.
There is of course also a downside to having an unplugged wedding and that is the newlyweds don’t get to see any photos of their wedding day until their official photographer has finished post production and ready to share with them, which in some cases could take 6 weeks plus if in peak wedding season.
So whilst it’s always nice to be able to keep photos private until they are ready to share it’s worth considering a picture sharing app. They really have come a long way.
Unless photos are completely embargoed, I recommend using an app for sharing pictures. This allows the newlyweds to log on the very next day and see all the pictures that have been taken from their day, whilst also still keeping it off social media, which tends to be more the issue than guests actually taking pictures.
My go to app was Wedpics but this is no more. Now there’s a new kid on the block, Scripin Weddings. Well not totally new but they have come up very fast as the UK’s BEST free photo and video sharing app on the market. This app allows you to splurge on a full suite of features and feels like it’s built for your wedding day. You can even invite your guests and order stationery too!
We think it’s a fabulous app! A big thumbs up from us!
Check it out www.scripinweddings.com
So what are your thoughts on wedding pictures?
Here is a three question anonymous survey below, do let us know your plans!