You’ll see thousands of articles like “How do I have an unplugged wedding” but what about after the ceremony?
Why have an unplugged wedding?
- The professional photographers get blocked by people with their phones and ipads
- Its nice to have people be “in the moment” than on their phone
Why do you need an unplugged wedding?
Humans are about 200,000 years old, society as we know it is about 6,000 years old, industrialisation about 200 year and social media is 13 years old.
We’ve evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to be social mammals, social media shortcircuits all of our ancient way of existing.
A unplugged wedding is a way of pulling guests out of these interactions for 6-10 hours and to be present to the other people in attendance. It can be very tricky for guests to get used to it as Social Media is very pervasive and now that smart phones are so ubiquitous it means that there is ample opportunity to space out and get on social media.
Not only that, but your guests know that they will get heaps of “likes” or “hearts” from adding photos from your event, which is actually addictive. Research shows that when we see “likes” on our photos it releases serotonin. Which is GREAT when you’re at home on your couch, but it does take people away from the Present.
Unplugged weddings are really about returning everyone to the Present and listening, interacting and partying with all their friends and family.
Here are our tips on how to have a proper Unplugged wedding:
- Hire a professional Photographer and LET EVERYONE KNOW. If guests dont need to take camera phones out theyre less likely to check their apps
- Hire a professional Videographer who will do a 2 minute video, a wedding video that takes longer than 5 minutes generally wont be watched by many guests.
- Hire great entertainers. We’d love yo supply you with a wedding DJ in Adelaide or Melbourne but you can also go for a wedding band. You need to keep people entertained as our ability to concentrate has decreased markedly over the years, primarily because of social media
- Let your guests get involved in the wedding, whether its making song requests or making a speech or making a reading. Guests will feel more involved if they have something to do when its boring. Even something like handing out cards etc
- If you want to take photos with guests, then a photobooth is a great idea and will generally give you better photos than a selfie will
- Enjoy Yourself! If you’re on the dancefloor then most of the guests will be too
- Consider “cancelling” your social media accounts. Some guests will tag you in social media posts to “get more likes” because it will tag you in photos. If you dont want to be looking at your own Facebook or Instagram accounts on your wedding day, but also want to be the first people to add photos then leave it until you’re in the limo on the way home or the next day to reactivate it!