Washington
Jen Babbitt ~ Wedding and Event Planner
Paradox Productions
We have officially entered the age of the smartphone and social media addiction, and God knows all of your wedding guests will come phone in tow ready to snap, snap, snap and post, post, post! They’ll shoot your ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner hour, dance party, every special moment between you and your new spouse, as well as way cute pics of them with each other, and you enjoying your big day. So why not capitalize on all these novice photogs, aka your wedding guests? Thanks to the brand new meaning our generation has given the #hashtag, we can now stick this lovely symbol in front of anything and create a searchable category within Instagram and Twitter. Well finally my dear, this little trick is catching on at weddings! Here’s what you do… Simply take the # symbol, choose a personalized wedding related tag and stick that tag behind the symbol. Warning: No symbols are allowed in the tag itself, so skip the j&j wedding tag, and spell out the words girlfriend! Once you’ve done that, BAM… You now have a candid online wedding gallery!! The trick with weddings is making sure the tag is personalized enough so it doesn’t get lumped into a larger category, forcing you to sift through bazillions of random photos… Annoying! For example, I was married to my lovely husband Justin in 2012… A couple of fun and original hashtags for us might be, #jpartyof2 or #doublejwedding2012. It might not be that easy for you though considering how saturated this media source has become this past year, but it can still be done with styyyle. The best way to be sure you have a tag that’s truly personalized to you is to jump on Instagram really quick, type in your potential tags and see if they’ve already been used. After you two select the perfect hashtag for your big day, make a couple signs so guests know how to tag their pics. Maybe a large chalkboard sign at the entrance of the ceremony that can be transitioned into the reception space, as well as a few cardstock signs for the guest tables or other key tables throughout the reception area. If you’re still early on in the planning stages, you can even include your # on your save the dates, or invitations. It’s funny, once guests know they’re pics are going to be used for such a cool purpose, they almost see it as incentive to take awesome pics! Talk about amazing for you… Your wedding photos just grew from the 6 hours you booked with your professional photographer, to that plus 100’s more snapped by your wedding guests! Yes, I know there are some couples who are really not into the idea of having the professional photographs of their ceremony filled with smartphones raised to the sky, so just hold off on the sign at the ceremony site if that’s you. But let’s be honest, I don’t think any of us leave home without our electronic leash anymore, thus the likelihood of them rearing their smart lil heads at your wedding is inevitable. Now, thanks to the wonderful hashtag and ever addictive social media, they can finally serve an actual purpose at your wedding… Free photos for you!!! #snappostcheers
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