I have not had the opportunity to photograph a truly “unplugged wedding” yet, but I do look forward to the day. There are many, many reasons why couples are choosing to request that their guests leave their cell phones and cameras at home (or at least asking them to turn their devices off during the actual wedding ceremony!)
Reasons range from stories of grooms unwittingly seeing photos posted online of his bride-to-be before she walked down the aisle and ruining that special moment when he gets to see her for the first time, to brides not wanting unflattering pictures of them and their family plastered all over Facebook, to guests and their cameras getting in the way of the images that the couple paid the photographer that they spent a lot of time and money selecting and hiring to capture their special day.
Yes, I have had plenty of times where guests have unintentionally gotten in front of my perfectly framed shot or where everyone in the background of an otherwise great image is staring down at their phone instead of focusing on the bride and groom, but in my opinion the most important reason for having friends and family put down their devices at your wedding is so that they can be there for you! Isn’t that the reason why many of them have flown across the country and sometimes half way across the world to attend your wedding? Sure they might get a nice picture on their Iphone every once and while, but didn’t you want them at your wedding first and foremost to give you their love and support? That is a tough offering to make when they are juggling their camera settings and quickly trying to clear some extra space off their memory card, and oh, they just happened to notice a text that came through from a business associate that they haven’t heard from in a while right as you two are exchanging your vows… you get the point.
There are so few times in our busy, fast-paced lives where we truly unplug and are able to be completely present. Let your wedding be one of those times… that way you get to look out at the faces and into the eyes of the ones you love instead of at a sea of camera lenses and screens.
And don’t worry a good professional photographer will get more than enough pictures :-)
