Your Social Media Guide to the Modern Wedding

I won't lie, I had big plans to create social media epicness on our big day. We had the hashtags in place, the life size photo frame, heck I even had a Snapchat geofilter lined up until I discovered they weren't available over this side of the world yet... no hint coughing here, come on Snapchat! These details are all fun and games though right, all part of the entertainment package for lack of better words! However when I think as a couple, and then with my guest hat on too there are some important things to consider.

A side note, I'm, sharing a tonne of my own opinions here - So lets start another awesome conversation and throw all of our amazing ideas around with each other!

What's the go on taking snaps at a wedding?

Though shalt not post photos of the bride and groom until they put images up.

Really, it's a no brainer, unless the couple are super cruisy and couldn't give a toss! Newlyweds often love the opportunity to be the first to post about their wedding day, and they also love putting their best foot forward after they spent however many thousands on their insanely talented photographer, so do your best to respect their decision - Whatever that may be.

If it's your big day about to go down, ensure your MC or celebrant make your wishes clear at the beginning of the ceremony. Whether you want no images of your wedding at all, or just no images of you - Be clear with whoever is communicating this. If you have the time/budget for it pop a sign somewhere around your venue space to clarify this, go ahead and make it happen.

I'm a firm believer that the ceremony is a time to be treasured. Keep your phones tucked well out of sight, immerse yourself in the moment and let the photographers work their magic. After the ceremony, feel free to go nuts as a guest but do avoid posting photos of the bride of groom - and for goodness sake do not, I repeat; DO NOT post unflattering images of the happy couple or of other guests unless it's down right freaking hilarious.

As a couple, how do you collate all of the images from your guests?

I am so glad you asked!

1. Have a wedding hashtag. Just be aware that this is a public feature so others can view the images. Get your MC to tell guests what the tag is, and also pop a couple of signs around the place.

2. Snapchat Geofilter. By now you're all probably well aware of this awesome feature on Snapchat, but it can be taken to the next level with custom filters for your event or big day - How epic right? It's not currently available in poor little NZ, but it should be making it's way here very soon!

3. Group albums on Facebook. Group albums are an awesome way to encourage guests to share photos of your wedding day, and you can lock these down so only guests have the ability to view. Just take note that if you plan on printing these images, Facebook does tend to distort quality so it might not be the best way to go about things.

4. Give your phones to trusty friends or tech savvy family members to capture your day and take photos and images. Trust me, you won't have time to pull out your phone to even look at it, let alone take photos (despite the image of my husband!) so this is an awesome way to get some memories in the bank.

5. Ask guests to email images through. Probably the most boring way to go about things, but you get quality, printable images that will last a lifetime and you can upload them right away to a file storing site like Dropbox.

Hopefully you've come away with a few ideas from this little download! This may start to sound like a broken record, but as always with these types of journals I'm signing off by saying at the end of the day it's your wedding and what you say, goes. That's what makes your day so darn unique, and what makes it yours. So if you want to break the internet like Kylie and take over the Super Bowl, or not; You do you, and you go Glen Coco.

Until next,