To social media or not to social media at your wedding?

To social media or not to social media at your wedding? – and how it can be a useful tool when harnessed properly!

Lots of our wonderful couples choose to say, ‘I do’ here at the Hythe Imperial Hotel; for some of our clients, it’s ‘all about Instagram’ and the look they are trying to achieve – both in person and their virtual worlds; for some, the thought of unvetted pics appearing online before the day is over is a cause of concern.

If you feel that putting everything online is a bit intrusive, you could perhaps adopt a ‘no-mobile’ rule, at least for the actual ceremony.  At the very least this will prevent guests wielding their devices from spoiling those important pictures.

Alternatively, you could ask your guests to refrain from posting on social media until the following day/you have posted the first picture. If you do decide this, and feel very strongly about it, then it is important that communicate this to your guests at the very beginning of the wedding or ideally before via email or social media itself, if possible, to avoid any awkwardness!

We have welcomed some couples here at the Hythe Imperial who have opted to remove social media from their celebrations entirely; this is known as a ‘blackout’ or ‘unplugged’ day. If you’d prefer to only have professional photographs of your special day, you can ask your guests to put their phones away – though you might want to make it clear that you will circulate your official wedding pictures to everyone a few weeks after your wedding day so that they don’t feel that they are missing out (and also make sure that you get plenty of the guests so that they feel included).

If you do decide that ‘plugged’ is the way forward for you, here are some tips on how to get social media at your wedding to work best for you…

• Set up a hashtag dedicated to your wedding! A wedding hashtag is a great way to collate all the photos taken on your special day. If you’re happy with your guests taking and sharing photos, you can ask them to use your personalised hashtag when posting on social media. For example, #MrandMrsS, (your wedding date) #220822, #TheSmithsWed or #MrandMrsSmith would all work well. Once you have enjoyed your wedding and are ready to leave your newlyweds ‘bubble’, you can then search for your hashtag on the various platforms and enjoy all the photos shared by your guests. Their photos will be taken from a completely different perspective and can be a fantastic way of seeing your entire celebration with fresh eyes!

• A personalised snapchat geotag filter. You can now create personalised snapchat filters using a geotag which will be available for all your guests to use at the location of your venue. Don’t worry about creating this from scratch as Snapchat provides a wide range of design templates for you to customise!

• A social media notice board. If you really want your guests to get involved, then this is a great way of communicating that there is a hashtag for your special day – and what that hashtag is! You could design it to match your other stationery and table plan, or purchase some thick card or thin MDF wood and really have some fun with it.

• Facebook group. A Facebook group or creating an event on Facebook can be a great way to communicate with your guests and give them updates when needed. It’s also a very effective way of collecting RSVPs without waiting for your guests to send their response to you via post.

Whether you opt to embrace or ban social media at your wedding, that is your prerogative. It is your wedding. Whatever your social media approach, our wedding planners will help you create your perfect Kent wedding.