If you’ve been to my website, the biggest thing about your wedding day is the fact that I want to be able to tell the story of your day.  After all, it’s one of the biggest days of your life.

In this day and age, the world of technology is quickly wrapping around us at a high rate of speed.  To be the first to post on Facebook or to have that photo of the bride and groom is what we want to be able to do.  On the other hand, you hire us (the photographer) to document your day.  You invite your guests because you want them to be there to enjoy the day, to watch you marry the love of your life.

So how are they enjoying it when they have a camera in front of their face?  Or their phone or iPad?  There was recently a status on Photographer’s Toolkit that really put it into perspective for me:

I’m not a fan of iPhones on the wedding day because they disconnect the guest from bride and groom. It used to be everyone would clap and cheer as the bride and groom enter the ballroom for the first dance. Now half the audience has a smart phone or iPad in front of their face. All the bride and groom see is a sea of electronic devices.

You can’t both participate and document at the same time. To me, the real damage caused by camera phones isn’t so much that they get in my way, but that they suck the energy right out of the room. The more people doing the documenting, the fewer people there are actually doing anything worth documenting.

It got me thinking….and it’s true.  Gone are the days that everyone stands up and cheers/claps for the bride and groom.  Here are the days that everyone has a camera/phone to their face instead of sharing that moment with the couple.

So from here on out…I’m encouraging my couples to ask their guests to unplug during the ceremony.  This will allow them time to enjoy the ceremony and be with the bride and groom.  Not consumed behind their camera.  Plus, with PASS and the way I deliver my weddings now, guests can download the photos if they’d like so that they can have those memories.

This just isn’t for the people that stay in their seats, jumping in the aisle to get the photo of the bride coming down the aisle, this is also for the guests that move around the ceremony to get photos of the couple at the alter.  Again, they’ve hired us to document their day.  This is also just a common courtesy.  Please let us do our jobs.  I’ve shot a wedding or two, so I know what I’m doing and what I need to capture.

This photo didn’t make it into the bride and groom’s gallery but if this would of been at the first kiss?  I wouldn’t of been able to share it.

This is the mother of the bride.  Instead of enjoying her daughter’s day, she’s taking pictures of it.