Introduction to the Unplugged Wedding

“Unplugged Weddings” it’s been a bit of a buzz word for the 2016 season, yet we regularly talk to people who are unsure of the meaning, so don't worry we are here to explain all.

So what is an unplugged wedding? This is a conscious decision from the bride and groom that they would prefer guests to not take their own pictures during the wedding day. This can be all day or just during the ceremony. It’s a bit of a hot topic amongst photographers at the moment and can be seen in two different lights…

This is the biggest day of the bride and grooms life and so they want as many photos as possible, many couples are even setting up websites or hashtags so that they can gather all the images together. ‘What happens if the photographer misses something?’ Or ’This way we’ll have the whole day covered with photos!’ As photographers we totally get it, we love photographs as much as you do but lets face it when aunt Muriel wacks out her flipping great big iPad, which she struggles to use anyway and creates a 50 photo burst of uncle Pete with his eyes closed, are you really going to treasure those images?

Don’t get us wrong, we love that people enjoy photography and us snapping someone else taking a selfie can make a great photograph, but it’s all about balance. This is why the “unplugged ceremony” works well for a lot of people. You are not banning guests photography all day, just during the ceremony. The ceremony is a pivotal part of the wedding day, and isn't made particularly easy for us photographers with dark churches and each officiant having their own rules about the photography during the service. So you can imagine our heartache when we are waiting for the wedding kissing, we’re all framed beautifully, the couple look fantastic and a then through the lens of the camera an arm with an iPhone attached to the end of it appears just as the kiss happens. (This is why you need two photographers!) Anyway, we cannot tell you how many times we’ve experienced it. You’ve most likely paid a lot for a photographer to be their on your day, give them the best opportunity to capture the most amazing images they can. Speak to your officiant, they will happily address the guests at the beginning of the ceremony about your wishes. We found this quote that an American officiant read during a ceremony, isn't it beautiful.

“Please, turn off your cell phones and put down your cameras. The photographer will capture how this moment looks — I encourage you all to capture how it feels with your hearts, without the distraction of technology.”

So unplugged weddings, we hope we’ve made things a little clearer, they are not essential but are something that more and more couples are thinking about. If you’re unsure speak to your photographer about it, we can guarantee that if you talk to your photographer about having an unplugged wedding they will probably kiss you… we’ll maybe not literally, but they’ll definitely be considering it, trust us! And on that note we’ll leave you with some final tips…

Things to consider:

-Find out how many images your photographer will deliver to you, we guarantee around 500, which is the general average. Now that is a LOT of photographs, 500 well lit, well captured, beautiful images, do you need another 1000 dark, blurry iPhone shots on top of that? 

-If you’re worried about the photographer missing certain guests that may have travelled from afar to be with you on your day, speak to them about it before, not afterwards. We have a VIP guests list which we ask our couples to fill out this ensures that we capture any distance, but important relative that we might not otherwise we aware of.

-Finally, find out whether your photographer will be providing an online gallery for you. It’s something we do, as we love sharing our images and of course we want as many people to see them as possible! Providing our couples with a password protected gallery leaves them fully in control of who see their images and where they land up and lets their guests experience the day through photographs too.

Were not saying Iphone WEdding photography is always bad...