Did you have a successful unplugged ceremony?

I think having it in the church will help. Our priest is going to ask people not to take pictures during most of the ceremony. However, he said there will be one point where he'll have us all stand and he will allow a few minutes for pictures. I think that will help, but also just him announcing it. Most mature adults understand that you should be respectful within a church.

Obviously I haven't had my wedding yet though so we'll see.

I am also very curious about this. I am sure that as long as it is announced, majority if not all of your guests should respect that. I can definitely imagine the odd person pulling out their camera.

Yep. I saw a total of zero pictures from our ceremony until we got our pro pics back and it was great. No one hanging out of the aisle or anything All we did was put this in our program - no announcement or anything:

"We are so honored that you have taken the time to witness the incredible sanctity of our marriage vows and the beautiful moments that unfold. We wish for you to be fully present during the ceremony, and as such, we ask that you please refrain from taking any photos or videos during the ceremony and put all digital devices away. We have amazing photographers capturing the moment and we promise to share our wedding photos with you afterward – and of course, we are all about the shutterbugs during our reception at Bakery 105!"

This is a hot topic here, always, but as an officiant, I love them. Part of how effectively it can be carried out depends on the preplanning....

First of all, most churches have not allowed flash photography in forever, so that might help, but along the way, you prepare them. (I think this is ludicrous, but it's modern life.....)

Put it on your website; have your ushers tell people, have someone make an announcement, make a cute sign. Blame the church, blame the officiant; we're okay with that.

At most of my pro-actively unplugged weddings, the guests are on board with it; yes, they might go into withdrawl in the first minutes, but they'll live, and then they'll get photos from you. There is always going to be one asshole in the aisle, but it's better than looking out at a sea of cameras and phones.

Laura Marie I might steal your wording

For the most part. DH's aunt was sitting in the front row with her phone out, and a family friend did the same thing, but it was only those two people,

I would imagine people would be better about not taking photos in a religious building.

@Faith Go for it! @MissEtoMrsB thank you!!

We did add it on our website too but I'm not sure how many people noticed that.

@Celia thank you for weighing in. I don't want to berate people, but the more I think about this, the more important it becomes to me. You are right about the one asshole, I'll just need to let it go at that point!

@Laura Marie, love your wording! I am also referencing the sanctity of the ceremony.

I not having a ceremony in a religious space, but saw an article on FB recently that brought attention to how awful it can look in pictures and how it can even ruin the groom's moment when he has to look around a sea of cameras to see his bride down the aisle. Also how the photographer has to fight a bunch of phones for decent views.

Based on that, I'd like to have an unplugged ceremony I think. Hadn't really thought about it or had an opinion before I guess, or maybe even thought it was strange before reading a photographer's opinion. Like I might have been like "oh geez, get over yourself" thinking that people just didn't want their wedding on social media even though they aren't celebs lol. But I TOTALLY see a different side of it after that article. #enlightened #educated

@Ashley I saw that same article - my photographer actually shared it! I know some people do this for social media reasons, which frankly at this point I'm really not concerned about. It's really about the fact that we are paying so much money for the photographer and I want them to be able to do their job without anyone getting in the way. I'm so glad I'm not the only one concerned about this.

I had a successful "plugged" ceremony while none of my pro photos were ruined, AND I received pictures from my ceremony before the normal 3 month wait. I have nothing to add to that besides OP PLEASE tell your mother to stop. I never understood why people think that's okay, and most importantly why nobody tells that person to knock it off. My guests all had common sense I guess, but it sounds like yours do not.

@Laura Marie I might steal your wording too. It's perfect!

We had a successful unplugged ceremony. The last ceremony we were at with MIL she was standing most of the ceremony to snap pictures and she had the shutter sound on. DH has a few aunts that did something similar at his cousin's wedding and they left the damn flash on too. Even if it didn't ruin any pictures the couple looked distracted by the constant flashing coming from the front of the church. So clearly we just weren't working with a lot of common sense. Our officiant requested that everyone keep electronics put away and they did it. Our photographer is pretty quick though and we should have our images in 6-8 weeks if not sooner.

@Emily, believe me I have tried. She gets really defensive and upset. This is an ongoing issue with my family. It's embarrassing for the rest of us. She also takes those photos out and over-shares them with anyone and everyone she knows. FH also has someone on his side of the family who seems to think she's a semi-pro photographer with her iPhone and posted over 100 photos of my shower on facebook. It made me really uncomfortable.

I am glad to hear you didn't have any of your photos disrupted!

We decided to have one at the very last minute....literally, 5 minutes before the music started, we asked our officiant to say something.

Given that our ceremony was a little off the wall, and our officiant was crazy (awesome), he made an announcement about "Keep it in your pants during the ceremony", which was funny, and was a huge hit and success.

We had one person take photos during the ceremony anyway, but I didn't even notice her, so she was very discreet.

We had an unplugged ceremony, but in our case, my FIL was the one a-hole. He verbally abused/bullied my parents and he said he was going to take any and all video he wanted, despite having hired (my parents hosted everything) a professional videographer for 8 hours. My Dad was FURIOUS!!! MY Mom had to explain the situation to the photographer and videographer.

Very few of the photographer shots had the FIL holding his camera in them (we didn't buy those, anyway), but he was jostling with pro videographer, in our small reception space. My Mom asked the videographer how much it would be to have him edited out of the videos, but ended up not paying extra for it; I don't think my parents have even watched the video, they are still so mad.

Oh, and he was supposed to walk down the aisle with my MIL and sit next to her in the front row. He did, neither. He stood half-way back in the room, to videotape the ceremony. Dozens of our guests asked why the heck someone would do something like that?

I don't have pro pics back yet, but from what I can tell, my unplugged ceremony was a success. My officiant made an announcement at the beginning which I didn't hear, but it seemed to do the trick. I didn't put it anywhere else. It was so awesome to walk down the aisle and see all of my guests faces and not cell phones.

I did some word of mouth hinting to a few of my guests (I think my mom did too) in the weeks leading up to the wedding. Normally I wouldn't care, but I have an aunt who obnoxiously whips out the iPad, a teen cousin practicing photography, and a 40-something cousin who needs reading glasses but doesn't really wear them so she holds her phone out as far a possible to take pics. It would have been a hot mess.

As an alternative, and this is super unpopular, we did a selfie with a selfie stick (gasp at the horror!!) as part of the ceremony. The officiant wrote it in with a cute little quote and we had no other rituals so I didn't find it too intrusive to the ceremony.

I did this and it worked pretty well. I only put it on the website because we didn't have programs or anything like that. It's possible that someone still took photos but not that I noticed (I had better things to focus on!) and you don't see cell phones in any pro pictures. It may have helped us that it was a fairly small wedding but I think if you make an announcement people are probably fairly likely to go along with it. I think getting people to not have their phones out during the reception would be almost impossible, though.

I won't rehash the arguments from the other day lol. But like Emily I had a successful "plugged" ceremony.

Well that's I guess my point is. Even if you ask for unplugged these people will still probably do it. Good luck :/