Q:I’m getting married in a month, and I have a teeny bit of a problem. How do I discourage our guests from taking out their phones and using social media during the ceremony?
Most of my friends are Instagram addicts, and I’m totally expecting lots of selfies and #OOTDs on my wedding day and putting them up a few minutes later. The problem is, I’ve seen my friends put up live feeds of the entire ceremony on Snapchat, and I find that so disrespectful. My fiancé and I have spent a lot of time on and put a lot of thought into our vows, and they’re meant to be shared with people we love, not random stalkers on social media.
Party pictures are great, but how did you discourage (okay‚ let’s face it—STOP!) people from taking out their phones during the ceremony?
ANSWER FROM THE EDITOR:
Let’s get this straight, people love their phones. But your guests also love you and should respect any rules that you have set for your wedding ceremony. It’s totally realistic to politely impose a social media ban during your ceremony. As you said, this is an intimate moment between you, your partner and your guests, not random stalkers on social media.
If you feel like meeting your Instagram addict friends half way, let them know that they can post to the ‘gram with a wedding hashtag that you and your partner decided on for the reception. You’ll have even more photos from different perspectives to look at and won’t have any heartbroken friends that wished they could’ve added some magic to their feed.
Did you have a social media ban during your wedding? How did you enforce it? Were there leaks?
If you want the APW community’s two cents, send it to QUESTIONS AT APRACTICALWEDDING DOT COM, and we’ll do our best to crowdsource you some answers!
