Unplugged VS Plugged in VS Stand-By wedding.

Just a warning, you'll probably get crap from people for "telling adults what to do".

That said, my plan was to have an unplugged ceremony. Our officiant forgot to announce it, and DH's aunt ran around the entire ceremony taking pictures with her iPad. It got very distracting. She even circled all the way around DH and me!

The majority of guests will be respectful of your ceremony either way. Some guests will be a-holes with their cameras even if you ask them not to.

Stand by wedding? Do you want the officiant to do everything twice? Tell guests it's safe to take pictures now?

ETA usually pictures are of the bride and groom during the ceremony, i dont give a shit if all my guests are picking their noses since you'll probably only see the back of their heads in pictures. Maybe because my ceremony was only 30 minutes this is my thinking?

I am all over this and every time this comes up, which is about once a week.

I don't think a 'stand by' thing would work honestly, because it's too confusing and difficult to carry out. Just ban the pix at the ceremony (I agree with allowing it all at the reception) and call it quits.

We're planning on an unplugged ceremony since we'll be livestreaming it and mobile devices run the risk of interfering with the audio. We'll just be asking guests to make sure their mobile devices are off on the website, programs, and possibly a sign, no big deal. I think our most avid cellphone-filmers will be too busy being chuppah bearers anyway!

I'm not going unplugged. I'm looking forward to guest pictures.

FH and I are having an "unplugged" ceremony. We've asked the officiant to say something along the lines of "The couple invites you to be fully present in this special moment with them. Please silence your phones and devices. We have some pretty awesome and talented photographers and videographers here to capture the moment so you don't have to! If you want a photo, now is the time to take one. Okay, everybody good? Let's get married."

That last part was FH's idea - I might ask that we take it out and just keep it simpler, but he likes the idea of the request including an opportunity for people to take a photo or two before the ceremony. I think he hopes that we'll make people feel better about "being told what to do", though.

@allysia02- I can understand looking forward to the guest pictures. That's actually why we haven't made a final decision on plugged in vs unplugged. I love seeing guest pics the day after a wedding. My main concern is ruining the photographers photos or seeing a sea of cell phones in all our proffesional pics. what to do, what to do....lol

We had an unplugged ceremony and I couldn't be happier about it. Our photographers thanked us a lot for it too.

We had an unplugged ceremony and so many people thanked us. Especially bridal party members who had stood before and had walked down sometimes long aisles, with flashes and cameras clicking, in front of their faces. We only had one protester - hubby's uncle; his wife ended up taking over 400 non-ceremony shots anyway. It seems like more than one of us has a paparazzi aunt?

Our photographer's contract even had a clause about how they're supposed to be the only ones taking a photo, at a given time. They had horrible stories of inconsiderate guests. We got a bunch of proofs back, within a few days, and a clip from our video.

I know this is redundant - I've posted this photo before, but this is what you can get with a plugged ceremony.

Our photographers request that the ceremony be unplugged because they don't want phones on the church pews taking photos of me and know brides don't want people's phones in their pictures. This was actually a concept I had never heard of, but our officiant will just make an announcement at the beginning of the ceremony about it being unplugged.

I want to do an unplugged ceremony. Reception photos are fine. I am going to have to fight for this, but I don't want them getting in the way of the photographer and as a guest, I would not want to have to move around the whole time just to see over someone's iPhone.

I will be doing unplugged. Our ceremony will be short and sweet...10ish minutes. Everyone can keep their phones away for 10 minutes.

We didn't restrict picture taking during the ceremony at all. When looking through all of the photoghopher's raw images, there was not one single shot containing a guest with their phone in the air or anybody blocking a shot. I think it depends on your crowd... we knew we wouldn't have anyone clueless and rude enough to get so picture happy that they get in the way. I also think it depends on your photographer. If they've been doing it long enough they know how to position themselves to get the shot without arms, butts or phones in the way.

We're going unplugged. Like Emily, we'll have the officiant address it before the ceremony actually starts.

We're going unplugged for the ceremony only. This was for two reasons. One, as a bride I wanted guests to be present and engaged in the ceremony not just trying to get a good shot. And two, as a guest at other weddings I've had horrible experiences with paparazzi guests. At my best friends wedding last summer I missed their kiss and about every other important moment in the ceremony because her aunt kept standing up so she could get a good shot on her camera. I would never want any of my guests to have to deal with that at my ceremony.

We did not have an unplugged ceremony, Honestly there is only a few pictures you can see peoples phone or camera in, and its 1-3 people. It was nice to get sneak peaks on Facebook though. Hell even a GM took a selfie with the male photographer! LOL he is a goofball.

@Sarah and @ Susan- Thanks, while I'm still undecided, I'm now giving this unplugged thing a second thought. My sister in law just got married and it was a beautiful wedding. It was so nice seeing all the pics on facebook the next day. Not sure what we'll do yet, but your comments are helpful. Thanks

Do you have people on your guest list that do this kind of thing? If you don't have a paparazzi friend or family member, you might just be overthinking this. The overwhelming majority of weddings I've been to have made no mention of being unplugged. People took photos but were not disruptive or anything. There's nothing wrong with going unplugged, but is the fear of the sea of phones coming from a place of experience? If there is someone like that on your guest list, by all means go unplugged.

@Ktizzle- No, its not coming from a place of experience (with weddings). I keep seeing people online talking about unpluggled weddings and you see all the pics with the sea of phones and the proffessional pics that are ruined. Maybe they're just exaggerating lol. I do hate though, when I go to graduations and I cant see because people are standing up in their seats taking pictures. I'm starting to lean towards not doing unplugged. I know I would really enjoy seeing the guest pics the next day. ( I know I keep saying "I, I,I" but my fiance really doesnt care whether we do unplugged or not). I'll have a conversation with our photographer tonight and then make a decision (although he loves the idea of unplugged, but I'll see if his reasons have enough merrit).

We went unplugged and I couldn't be happier about our choice. We had been to my friend's wedding, the year before, and my then fiancé took a photo of the mother of the groom. She was glued to her camera and took photos continuously. We just shook our heads. (At least she stayed seated).