One of the biggest debates my couples have when planning their wedding is whether or not they should have an unplugged ceremony!

An “unplugged” ceremony means to not allow cell phones, cameras (except for the professional photographers/videographers you hired), iPads, or any other type of device at the ceremony.

There are a few great reasons unplugged ceremonies are popular:

 

1. It forces your guests to be truly present and not watch the ceremony through a screen. We spend soooo much time looking at the screens that we don’t even know about the little moments that we’re missing out on. Your wedding is a BIG moment, and it’s something people should be paying full attention to.

 

2. No distracting iPads, phones, or cameras blocking your view. Many guests will lean into the aisle when the bride is walking down, completely blocking the bride and groom’s views of each other. Imagine walking down the aisle toward the love of your life and having Grandma’s iPad in your face, totally obstructing your view of your future husband. Not fun.

 

3. No annoying shutter sounds coming from 100+ devices. Let’s be honest, not everyone is tech-savvy, especially older guests. Some people might not be aware that their device is making a loud shutter sound every time it takes a photo, or they might not know how to shut it off.

 

4. No chance of someone’s phone ringing. No matter how many times you remind your guests to put their phones on silent, someone’s phone ALWAYS goes off. Always. It’s best to ask them to shut them off completely.

 

5. It makes the professional photographer/videographer’s life soooo much easier to not have to work around someone holding up an iPad! Our #1 pet peeve when shooting a ceremony is when you find the perfect shot… just to have a guest move in the way so they can get the perfect shot. Let’s be real, you’re paying us a lot of money to do our job, and sometimes guests can make it really difficult for us to do that to our best ability (I think the professional’s photos would be 1000x better anyway. Not that I’m biased…).

 

 

There also a few reasons why some couples are okay with having phones at the ceremony:

1. Gives you more photos from your day to enjoy and cherish. Different angles can be fun to look at!

 

2. Don’t want to offend anyone. Some guests might have hurt feelings if you tell them you don’t want them taking photos.

 

3. You can use a special hashtag to see the photos your guests have posted, which is cool!