Social media is a crucial part of your lives, and for many, this means incorporating it as a critical part of your wedding day.
Currently, most individuals are including social media into their wedding ceremonies. And while it is fun, exciting and creative, you may not know how to include it with all of the other stuff on your wedding planning checklist. Luckily, we have several methods you can use social media to your advantage during your wedding. Here are the ways to use social media at your wedding:
1. Create a Wedding Hashtag
Come up with a unique hashtag to use for your wedding ceremony. From the bachelorette party to engagement pictures, and of course, the wedding day, a unique hashtag will help everybody share in the fun. You can even create special signage showing your hashtag and put it up at your ceremony and reception so guests can comfortably tag their pictures. Afterwards, you can enjoy seeing the guests’ pictures and selfies from your wedding because the photographer won’t be sending you the images for two to three months.
2. Create a Unique Snapchat Filter
Making a unique personalized Snapchat filter is a particular way to add to the fun, engage your guests, as well as promote your wedding hashtag. The filter also adds a unique element to your guest’s social media accounts and persuades them to publish much more images with the added surprise element.
3. Inform Guests about Your Expectations
While some couples want to wait for the professional pictures to be published, others would rather have the wedding photos documented on social media accounts. Generally, most couples do not like specific photos for various aspects of the day like the ceremony to be published on social media. Excellent communication between you, the guests, and the bridal party is the perfect solution. From the word go, ensure that everybody knows your expectations. For instance, you can tell them that you don’t need any photos of you or the girls getting ready published. On the other hand, if you need the entire preparation process posted on Social media, let them know. Always remember that it is your day, and you should demand what you need.
4. Using Facebook Live
If some of your closest friends and family aren’t able to make it, you can make them feel like they attended the ceremony via Facebook Live. You should hire one person to stream various parts of your celebration. You should decide before the wedding the parts you want to broadcast live. The process of streaming videos via Facebook is more straightforward than before since one can record live videos via a phone. With this, one individual can stream all videos of the best scenes.
5. Hire Social Media Professionals
If you want your wedding occasion to feel strategized and clean, you should leave it to the professionals. You can consider hiring a social media team to come to your wedding and publish pictures on your account for you. Also, don’t forget to inform guests that there is a team liable for the best photo captions so they can focus on enjoying themselves instead of photographing each moment of the day.
6. Find Concepts, Ideas and Designs on Social Media
Social media is filled with numerous concepts, ideas, designs, and themes for weddings. For example, there is Pinterest for getting trends from themes, colours, and much more. Share this info with your wedding planner as well as your friends to assist you with the task. Since there are many ideas, you will definitely find something that suits your choice and budget. You can get the best out of using social media at your wedding by inducing personal style and creativity.
7. Find Designers and Vendors Via Social Media
You unquestionably need nothing than the best from your designers and vendors. In fact, everyone wants a designer that designs you the perfect outfits and brings the latest concepts and designs used for weddings. For instance, a wedding designer previously arranged for a unique entry for the bride and bridegroom, and you got this info on social media. You too would want the same thing at your ceremony, won’t you?
Also, you want a precise match for a designer dress you came across in the monthly issue of a bridal magazine and now want a colour-coordinated trouser for your other half as well. Social media assists you to research well and even fills you with numerous stories, experiences, and blogs along with designers and vendors having their blogs and websites to your rescue.
You can use social media to find your preferred designers and vendors. Eliminate those designers that don’t match your ideas and taste. Look for vendors with excellent feedback and a high rating from their previous customers. Planning for a wedding has changed completely, thanks to the rise of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and others. You can use Pinterest to find ideas and then converse with your wedding planner via social networks. Ask any questions and concerns that you may have. Make sure that you gauge them thoroughly to find the best for your big day.
How Not to Use Social Media for Your Wedding
Nowadays, most wedding ceremonies aren’t complete without a customized geofilter on Snapchat or an original Instagram hashtag – both of which persuade wedding guests to share their experiences on various social media platforms.
And since including social media at the bride and groom’s request is a new norm for most wedding planners, there is social media custom that accompanies it. From asking a client to include a wedding hashtag to knowing the right time to publish one’s wedding design on social media, experts and planners across the world have come up with pros and cons of using social media for your wedding. Here is how not to use social media for your big occasion:
1. Do not Publish the Photos too Early
Don’t ever publish a photo of the couple in their ceremony outfits before they walk down the aisle, or in the reception area before the door open to the public. It is advisable to avoid revealing a big moment before it happens in real time.
2. Do not Post Pictures Without Approval
Generally, social media custom rules may relax after the completion of the evening celebration. However, not every couple likes this – some couples may want to publish the first wedding picture themselves, while others may want to wait for the final professional photos and others may not mind at all. It is always advisable to wait for the couple to post the first image if you are in doubt. This is a signal that you are ready to go.
3. Don’t Allow Your Guests Capture Pictures Throughout the Entire Ceremony
Professional videographers and photographers are hired for a reason; thus, you should not allow your guests to come in for the purposes of Instagram stories only. Notes in the program, an announcement from the officials, as well as the ceremony sign can remind the guests to keep their cameras, tablets, and phones tucked away throughout the entire ceremony. The result of this will be engaged guests who are really focused on feeling the beautiful moment instead of capturing it.
4. Avoid Presenting a Huge Signage at the Ceremony Banning Pictures and Phones
This is not only impolite but is also takes away beauty from the décor. Instead, you should try incorporating a small note to the daily programs.
5. Do not Obstruct the Photographer’s View
You have probably encountered this at one time or the other; perfect aisle shots destroyed because several smartphones are being stuck out by your guests, trying to capture their perfect shots as well. Remember that you have heavily invested on your photographer and have chosen them carefully too. Therefore, you should give them ample space to work out their magic!
6. Avoid Posting Many Hashtags
The hashtag thing has possibly gotten out of control. You don’t require more than two hashtags for your wedding. As a matter of fact, one hashtag is enough. You might have come across various wedding hashtags on Facebook or Twitter with a pathetic number of posts after the couple campaigned tirelessly for them. The point is that you should avoid shoving hashtags down the guest’s throats – specifically those that do not make sense.
7. Avoid Becoming a Caption Critic
While it is inevitable that you would not be critical in person, captions for images published to social media are also not the perfect place for the critique, or adverse comments and feedback.
Final Words
Most people think that social media is this magic pill that is going to magically transform your wedding ceremony and make it a remarkable event. It is not. It is a tool, and like other tools, your results are based on how you use it.
For instance, there are those users that use social media platform to drive viewers to their blog posts and podcasts, get them to register for their email list and even learn more about their followers via conversation. Because they use social media in a manner that leads viewers down the road to ultimately work with them, they get results from it, and you can get the results too.
