The Unplugged Wedding?

I was shooting a wedding last fall where the officiant asked those in the audience to kindly shut off their smartphones and other noise-making devices (babies notwithstanding). The message was met with some laughter and a smattering of applause. Some folks kept their phones on, apparently smug in the notion that the rules didn't apply to them as they were merely using these devices to snap photos of the bride and groom.

And yet therein lies the problem (from this vantage point).

The bride and groom have hired a professional photographer (in this case, a team of pros) to capture the memories of their special day.

Meanwhile, their guests are shooting away like there's no tomorrow. Smartphones, point-and-shoots, and an increasing number of DSLRs are commonplace not only at the reception but now during the ceremony as well. Oh, for the days of film, when every click came with a cost.

Floating around the Interwebs and other circles as of late is the concept of the "unplugged wedding." Wedding couples are sharing their experiences, having seen friends and family come from near and far, only to be absorbed in the viewfinder or LCD screen, paying more attention to their snaps and Tweets than to the bride and groom. The backlash is finally beginning to mount.

From a photographic point of view, one of our biggest pet peeves is "Uncle Fred." You know the guy: he's got a consumer or pro-sumer DSLR, and he's convinced that he can do just as good a job as a professional. At a wedding I shot recently, there were at least a few Uncle Freds, and one of them felt compelled to follow the bride and groom around (even on the formal portraits) and shoot all day and well into the evening. They get in the way of the hired photographers; their flashes and red auto-focus beams ruin some of our images; and yet we have to handle these people with kid gloves.

Rest assured, there are other options.

Some couples are now having the officiant or members of their bridal party control the crowd. If the bride or groom hasn't explicitly asked, you can have the best man or maid of honour let folks know that they'll have a window of opportunity to shoot the lovely couple, but that otherwise we need to do our jobs so that their photographs come out beautifully.

This is the kind of thing that a photographer can and should go over with the bride and groom. It's not just for the photographs, but for a quality experience overall. Cameras and phones off, please, at least during the ceremony; let the guests relax and unwind, soak in the experience just as the couple is.