Allowing cell phone pictures at the ceremony?

I had guests taking photos of me walking down the aisle, etc. with their own cameras and/or cell phones. I didn't mind at all, and I don't think our photographer did either because all of our pics turned out great.

Do not allow it!!

I completely forgot to do this at our wedding and although it was not bad I dispise every picture where someone is holding a phone or camera up in the air. People really should not live thier lived thru thier phones!!!

Put on your website, have a sign, on your programs if you have them and have officiant announce. All of the above I advise you

We didn't do anything. A few guests took pictures of me walking down the aisle and DH's uncle got a lot of pictures of us. I was actually really grateful for the cellphone pictures while we waited for our pro-pics to come in. A professional photographer won't be bothered by people taking cell phone pictures and know how to adjust the lighting in case of cell phone flashes interfering with their shots.

One thing I was incredibly happy for - I completely spaced on asking someone to record our ceremony. DH's uncle got short videos of our ceremony (including our vows) and sent them to us later. I was so incredibly happy that someone had captured that moment for us and it would have never happened if we had asked for some kind of unplugged ceremony.

I allowed cell phones and I didn't see any cell phones in the "raw" pictures the photographer sent me (I got all the pictures she took). In fact the pictures other people took are great (it was those pictures that are in my BAM posting and my profile picture is one taken with a cell phone). We didn't have a videographer; the videos I have seen were all taken with cell phones and I love being able to see what happened before I entered the ceremony.

We will be blocking the aisle from the seating by tulle or ribbon etc, so nobody will jump in the middle and block the pro photographer, but i'm not going to tell people not to take photos. the more the merrier. i want to be able to look at some before the pro ones come back.

We announced it on our website that it was an unplugged ceremony and our photographers thanked us for this. I didn't want to see pictures with everyone's phones up in the air and I definitely didn't want their flashes to mess up our photographers. We had a very young wedding crowd and I didn't want everything to hit social media before it was even over. Our ushers also let guests know to not use their phones or cameras. Everything went fine.

We had a sign up, a blurb about it in our program and passed it around through word of mouth requesting people not to use their cell phones/cameras/etc during the ceremony. Every single person respected it. I don't have a single ceremony photo with a cell phone/camera/etc in it. I do not regret it at all and would recommend it to everyone.

I keep teasing my mom, who just got her first iPad, to not be this lady!

It's in our contract with the photographer that is will be unplugged.

Duplicate

Honestly, we only have one professional photo where someone is holding up their cell phone - no biggie. We did ask for people to avoid flash photography, but otherwise I'm glad I have more photos/videos of the ceremony.

I'm pretty sure my priest makes an announcement about photography, but that's more because of the Catholic church aspect. He even has rules for where the professional photographer can go.

For some reason telling adults what to do just for the sake of pictures rubs me the wrong way.

Agreed Lori. we say don't dictate dress code or hair color etc just so the photos look good, they are adults. but we want to tell them they can't take photos, they aren't allowed to capture their own memories for the sake of photos? i love seeing moments through other people's view of it.

We didn't ask anyone not to, and I'm glad we didn't! Some of the photos of our ceremony were better than the pro photos (in terms of details and being "close up." Our ceremony space was outside and small, so the photographers had to get a bit creative to keep the lighting ideal and still get the shot without having all our guests in the shot. So some of my more close up guests got better pictures in that sense. There are a few pictures with people with their phones up, but all of the important pictures have only us in them. We also had friends record the ceremony (we didn't ask, they just did) and I'm thankful for that since we chose not to have a videographer and that part of the day is the biggest blur for me!

I battled with this but decided to do away with the unplugged idea basically because it didn't feel right to dictate to my friends and family. These people love us, I have faith that they will be mindful of the photographer and not get in his way.

None of my guests blocked the photographer and I appreciated having the pictures available immediately after the wedding to enjoy and share.

I'm actually assigning a 19 year old niece the job of holding onto my phone and taking photos with it.

I really wanted people to take pictures so that I could have some immediately after the wedding. I am obsessed with pics and will take them any way I can get them! Some guests got some AMAZING pictures and they were not in my photographers way at all and I don't even see anyone taking pictures in the pics that my photographer gave back to me.

It's really up to whatever you prefer though!

I'm just going to trust that no one will completely get in the way. We are only having 50-60 people anyway. Like some of you, I really want a lot of photos to hold me over until the pro pics come back!

Also @Natassia- I love how all of your posts include photos! It's fun to see them and your wedding looked gorgeous!

I've been to a couple weddings where the officiant actually paused at the beginning of the ceremony and gave everyone an opportunity to take pictures, and then nicely asked guests to be in the moment with the couple. It probably wouldn't be the way to go for an extremely religious or formal ceremony, but it was a great opportunity for people to get the shot they wanted but then to realize that they are there to witness this really special and intimate moment.

That being said, I've never seen pro pics from MANY friends' and facebook friends' weddings where a cell phone ruined a shot. I think that probably requires some skill on the photographer's part but hey, that's what you're paying them for!

We want an unplugged ceremony. This will be posted on our wedsite AND there will be a sign in the foyer.

ETA: Also, our officiant will make an announcement before the ceremony