Can you respectfully ask for a semi-unplugged reception?

That’s a great idea!

You can ask guests not to post photos of you and your new spouse on social media, but anything else is overstepping and treating guests like they are children. You are overthinking peoples’ dependency on phones because aside from confiscating them at the door(do not do this) you cannot control or stop guests from using them.

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We're totally fine with guests posting photos of us on social media - that's not the issue at all! We just don't want photos of our special moments ruined by a bunch of people holding up cellphones in the background! And I'm not sure if I'm overthinking it...I just saw a post from a bride that was so disappointed that her mother had her phone out or in her hand in every single photo she got back in her gallery!

I personally don't think that it's offensive at all. Your guest should respect your wishes. Couples pay a lot for a photographer, which is exactly why my ceremony will be unplugged. My guests are free to take as many pictures and videos as their hearts desire at the reception, but we want everyone in the moment with us at the ceremony.

View Quoted Comment At the reception, most people don’t use their phones for pictures. They might be catching up with the babysitter or a coworker if they are on call, but disrupting events is less likely than you think. As far as the ceremony, that should have been discussed beforehand with those people who were taking pictures. Largely that doesn’t happen as often as people think because they remember drama that may or may not have happened rather than what is closer to reality. Not to say that jerks don’t exist but they are less prevalent than you are led to think.

I think you worded that really well! One of my biggest pet peeves is people who have their phones out at weddings, and I'm hoping our guests are at least respectful of our wishes for an unplugged ceremony (also in a Catholic church).

We didn’t have an issue with people getting in the way of the photographer during the reception. Except the cake cutting. I feel like the people on their phones got better shots than the professional did, but the pictures still turned out fine. I wouldn’t stress about it.

I think this is worded well, but unless you are doing fully unplugged the whole night then just know people may not remember when they're allowed to take photos and when they aren't. It's going to be super hard to enforce during the reception. Also, many people won't read the FAQ on a website and so they won't know these wishes at all. If you feel so strongly about it you will need to have signage and/or announcements at the wedding as well.
Tbh if I were you I'd let most of the reception stuff go, as it definitely comes across like you're treating the guests like children.
Maybe you could get away having the DJ ask phones to be away during the section for dances? That would be the part where more people would have phones out as well as possibly be in frame of the pro photos.

I think it sounds good and it wouldn’t offend me at all! You’ll still have a few people on their phones but this will hopefully reduce the number. You may want to put something similar on a sign at the actual wedding if you know that most of the people don’t look at the wedding site.

I think people know not to get in the way of the photographer, who should be able to line up a good shot anyway. Asking people to avoid important moments I think is sending the message that they don't know how to act at events.

View Quoted Comment We don’t want our guests to avoid important moments! We’d just like to see them and their reactions in the background, not them holding up their cellphones in front of their faces trying to record everything!

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I understand what you want. I'm not sure how you can effectively communicate that politely to your guests without coming across as being overly controlling.

It’s not the most polite thing to do. I understand the ceremony but I’d be pretty off put if someone told me when I can use my own cellphone during the reception

I totally understand where you are coming from as I received my sneak peek and definitely have phones in the photos. The only thing I will say is that while I have phones in photos, their photos were the first ones I saw before receiving the sneak peek which was nice too. I think you’ve worded it perfectly on your site. Your priest may make an announcement too. I know they did at the Catholic wedding we went to last month.

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The photos other people took were the first ones I saw too - but they mostly took really unflattering photos so that was upsetting for me. If you're someone who tends not to like photos that were taken when you didn't know you were being photographed (me!!!), then I def get the impulse to avoid this!

We had a small framed sign at the same table as our guest book, card box etc. asking people to wait until after the ceremony to take photos (I think I actually added it as a note to our hashtag sign)... but there are still several phones out in our pictures, and of course I knew that was the case because I noticed right away that people were sending me photos of the ceremony. Oh well. It's really not what I notice when I look at the pro photos of the ceremony, and when I do notice it I actually feel like the people standing there taking pics with their phones make the shots feel more lifelike and genuine (since we're on our phones all the time in real life, I guess - LOL).

Either way, I think your FAQ wording is good and I would also recommend a sign at the entrance to your ceremony site that's more visible than the one I used. Some people won't check the FAQ or will do it a week before and forget by the time the day arrives, so a physical reminder is good!