Unplugged Ceremony - Success or no?

This has now become something at almost every wedding, whether the venue or the couple asks me

This is what I say;

Welcome to you all tonight! Cathy and Tom would just love it if you all would turn off your phones and put away your cameras knowing that their photographers will capture the ceremony in all its glory. The best wedding gift you can give them is to be fully present and enjoy the moments. Thank you.

We're having an unplugged ceremony! Making a sign and having the officiant announce it before we begin

My church has a rule that it must be an unplugged ceremony. I expect that the general vibe of the church (gorgeous, reverent, old sanctuary) plus the priest's announcement about not taking picture will be enough.

Yes, and very successful. Hubby's uncle was complaining about it at our R.D. (it was on our website). He thought his wife should be the exception. She took over 400 shots, after the ceremony. I can't imagine how many she would have added, at a plugged ceremony.

I started singing at weddings 15 years ago. Once a photographer came up under me, while I was singing, to take a photo. I almost kicked him between the legs.

Our officiant will be going around and speaking with guests as they come in, we are doing a ring blessing and she is going to make sure everyone knows. I am so lucky I found her ! If your officiant wont do that for you I would just bite it and put up a sign, ask the wedding party too to help gently spread the word to family and friends

Yes. I go to the front, make the announcement and then re-enter with the processional.

Thank you so much for posting about this. I didn't even think about the cameras and phones during the ceremony!! Just asked FH and he likes the idea of signage telling people not to take pictures. Also thinks it's a good idea to tell our coordinator (she works at the venue and is helping to make sure we stay on time) to remind guests to but the electronics away.

I'm doing signage and having it announced. It works!

@Celia, that is wonderful! I hope I can find an officiant that is able to make this happen. @OP, so glad you posted this question!!

We had our officiant make the announcement plus we shared our thoughts on the matter to guests (we had a small wedding and we see these people regularly). Neither worked and I'm actually glad it didn't. Our photographer sucked and didn't capture a bunch so having these pictures helps. We also didn't notice the cameras during the wedding processional or ceremony. Even though we did a first look we both were fixed on each other that nothing else distracted us.

Our officiant is making an announcement and this is the sign we are making.

I love that we had an unplugged ceremony! There is only one snapshot taken by a guest that I know of (DH's great uncle - so funny!). We got to see everyone's faces the whole time and our photographers got some great photos of everyone.

We just put a note in our program. Announcements are great, but I couldn't figure out where in the ceremony it would feel appropriate (we got married in a formal church service)

We had an unplug ceremony, and it was amazing that no one took their phones out (I know my mom...so i hid her phone pre-ceremony). The officiant made the announcement before the ceremony started.

You can also get a cute sign in the entrance. We thought about doing that, but never got my act together to get it done or order it.

UO but I'm not a fan of this. The photographers are there to capture the moments sure but when are the guests likely to see those photos? Those are for the bride and groom and are sometimes not shared. If people think my wedding is special enough to them to warrent taking photos then I'm honoured and not going to stop it.

And you might be happy you chose not to go unplugged if your photographer turns out to be a dud or you're an impatient little sod like me waiting for the pro photos to come back! ;-)

We had our JP enter first, and when he got down there he welcomed everyone and asked that people let the photographers do their job. If anyone used their phone, it's not in any picture!

We had an unplugged ceremony and I was actually surprised to not see one single phone while I walked down the aisle.

It's definitely do-able just be prepared for a few rebels

We were planning to have an unplugged ceremony and I mentioned it on our website, but I ended up not enforcing it with signs or announcements because I did want people to take pictures and video. I didn't worry about it at all the few days leading up to the wedding as it was a small detail far from my mind. Not a lot of people visited the website, and I actually ended up only seeing just a few people taking photos. No one got in the way and no one interfered with the photographer. I have a really adorable video now that my SIL took of my toddler flower girl and ring bearer's shenanigans walking down the aisle. ETA: I'm all for unplugged weddings, though, and it can get out of control, although I've never seen it get like that at weddings I've been to.

I was really on the fence about whether to do unplugged or not and just ended up deciding it wasn't a big enough deal to say something or have our officiant make an announcement. I'm actually really happy our guests took photos and video bc otherwise I still wouldn't have seen pictures yet from photographers. But totally understandable why people decide unplugged!

I'm doing something like this so people know