I LOVE social media.

I love how it keeps me in touch with friends & family that in the time I’ve been living in Italy I might otherwise have lost touch with. I love how it can help me to get to know my couples a little before their wedding and I really love how it can help me to stay in touch with them in the years that follow. It’s also a wonderful way for me to share what I do and help new couples come into my ecosphere and then book their Destination Wedding with me so I’m a big fan.

But, we all know that social media can also be a hinderance sometimes and I would say the main one is that it’s distracting and can often take out attention off what’s really important – like your wedding day.

To be social on your wedding – or not ?

Over the years, and with the increase in social media, I’ve seen this done it different ways and, just like everything else regarding your wedding, there is no right or wrong way. It’s your day so you get to decide and that’s it in my book. It’s clearly important that you agree on it though so once you’ve read this article have a chat together about what you do, or maybe don’t, want.

Unplugged Wedding

Should you choose not to have social media as part of your wedding be sure to be clear about this with all of your guests and suppliers from as early as possible. Make it part of your invite, wedding website and possibly signage at the venue to remind guests. No one will do it out of spite but we are so used to taking our phones out to snap away at beautiful moments in our lives that it can be easy to forget if it’s not welcome. Have the groomsmen & bridesmaid (and wedding planner) help you with this by gently reminding guests.

If instead you’re embracing social media do it with intention.

Hashtag. Find a hashtag that may not be completely unique but isn’t widely used then, you and your guests can use that every time that you post and you will be able to follow the hashtag and see new posts as they go up. The best way to check your hashtag is to simply type it in as a hashtag on IG, as you do that it will show you how many posts, more or less, have used it. Remember hashtags can only contain letters, numbers and underscores. If you’ve thought far enough ahead you can include your hashtags in your invites or on your website. If you are having menus & name settings printed then think about including it on there as it could well be that sat at the table might be when guests find those 5 minutes to post and they have the hashtag easily to hand.

Countdown

Use social media and your hashtag to count down the days so that everyone coming on your Destination Wedding gets caught up in the excitement too.

Suppliers

Make sure all of your suppliers have a list of all the other suppliers accounts and your own accounts and hashtag so any post that they make they can tag everyone involved to make sure you don’t miss any of those.

Ceremony

Of all the parts of the day this is perhaps the one when, even if you’re embracing social media, you don’t really want your guests snapping away. If they are they aren’t really watching or listening in the same way. And there’s also the risk of a phone being held up getting right in the middle of the photographers shot. It’s perfectly acceptable to ask your guests not to take photos during the ceremony and you can get your celebrant to state this just before it starts to remind everyone. I always tell the guests that as tempting as it might be they are actually only going to get a shot of the back of your heads and if you promise them a shot of the two of you just before you walk out at the end of the ceremony then everyone is happy.

Guest photos

Think about when you want the photos to be published. I’ve has some couples ask everyone to wait till the following day so that they themselves are the first once to post photos of their wedding day, at least for the photos of the happy couple themselves. Other couples welcome all of their guests posting and tagging them so they don’t have to think about it and when they wake up the next day it can be one of the first things they look at to re-live some of those wonderful memories.

Like I said at the start, there is no right or wrong, it’s simply about what you would like.