Getting married on a beach, in the woods or halfway up Mount Snowdon makes it easier to eschew modern distractions in favour of getting back to nature a bit. Even then some things, like a mobile phone signal, are hard to leave behind.
Our life-saving, always-on, wireless devices can perform feats that took National Institutions like the BBC six months of practice to achieve in 1937. Hold up your mobile phone and you can perform a live outside broadcast to the world from your fingertips.
If you don't mind that, then it doesn't matter. I'm of the opinion that photographs of the wedding should be seen by the client first - that's the happy couple in nearly all cases. After that there needs to be a time when family and friends get to see the shared photos. If a guest is livestreaming from the stalls the couple may feel their moment was stolen.
How do you unplug a wireless device?
Some school lessons and secure buildings will literally divest you of your devices and place them in isolation until the big event is over. At a wedding this can be kind of voluntary - you're unlikely to x-ray or frisk people to make sure they comply. Some devices have essential personal medical functions or the owners may be psychologically attached, but they probably won't feel the need to use their devices if the other 95% of the guests have surrendered them on the door.
Force will work, if your wedding theme also conforms to the kind of atmosphere this creates.
Action movie tactics sound foolproof. No one needs to know. It might have the opposite effect though. Imagine a room full of desperate phone addicts waving their devices around trying to find a signal so they can hashtag where they are right now. It doesn't stop the recording happening, only the releasing of the recording into the world. The people missing from the big group photo immediately after the ceremony are the ones who have dashed off to find a better signal (ie: out of range of your jamming device) so they can be the first to Facebook-congratulate you: #iwasthere
Celebrants' services now include saying a little word to the gathering before the ceremony to make sure they understand what an unplugged wedding is and how to go about it. Along the lines of "keep your phones in your pockets, and your hands out of your pockets". Don't let them mention the "Emergency Exits" though — there's a good reason why flight attendants talk about all the safety features on an aeroplane, it reduces some people's flying anxiety to know that there's lots of backup. But, if you're in a perfectly normal building and someone takes the time to tell you where the (very clearly marked) emergency exits are you do start to wonder what emergency they're expecting to happen, which will have the net effect of raising some people's anxiety.
An advantage of the live announcement is that they tend to explain the reason for having an unplugged wedding including these two facts:
1. Brian's here and he's taking professional photos that you can all have later.
2. If you hold up a phone to take a photo then those professional photos will be full of guests holding up little screens to take photos.
I know this is going to sound like the best option, keeps the occasion light, and uses social pressure. Your guests will police each other: "no filming, didn't you see the sign". Which brings us to 'The Sign'. I had a little look to see if anyone anywhere had thought about how to word the sign, and I got a huge shock. Many people have an opinion on this and there are many variants offered. People on the net are selling signs ready to go. In fact it seems to have become a whole category: Unplugged Wedding Sign supplier. You can pay as much as you like for a sign — the more you pay the more scorn you can rain down on anyone who dares to pull out their little screen for a photo in the middle of your vows. I'm thinking of selling them myself (FOMO).
Inevitably the best reason for having an unplugged wedding is because the happy couple would like everyone to be present 'in the moment'. Except the photographer. He's not a guest he's doing a job.
Funnily enough I always take the time between photos to just be present and absorb the atmosphere and all the radiating emotions of the people in the room. It's how I do my job better. It's how I make each wedding unique by putting the emotions of those moments back into the process. They are not to be missed.
Fill Me In about your wedding plans so far to get the ball rolling — saves your date with me until you've all the information that you need to make a decision.
Smallprint: there's no smallprint, it's all free and easy to do this!
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