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Cell phone pictures during ceremony?

[Deleted User][Deleted User] member
Third Anniversary 100 Love Its 100 Comments Name Dropper
in Wedding Etiquette Forum
I was talking to one of my BMs about creating an Instagram hashtag for my wedding, and she suggested that I ban cell phone pictures from the ceremony. "Imagine 20 years from now, you're looking through your wedding album, and everyone's holding up their cell phones during your ceremony." On one hand, I see why she would suggest that. On the other hand, I think it's poor etiquette to tell a bunch of grown adults to put their cell-phones down; I think I can trust most of my guests to be appropriate and use good judgement. If people want to take their own personal photos/post them on Instagram, I guess I feel honored that they would want to do that! Furthermore, I don't really think a presence of cell phones would "ruin" my pictures.

What do you all think? Is this an etiquette faux-pas? Are you allowing cell phone pictures during your ceremony?
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Re: Cell phone pictures during ceremony?

  • WinstonsGirlWinstonsGirl member
    Knottie Warrior 2500 Comments 500 Love Its 5 Answers
    I wanted more cell photos than I got!!  My photographer took several weeks to get photos back to us.  They were amazing, but I wanted photos the next day.  Thankfully, my guests e-mailed them to us and posted them up on Facebook,so I had photos to share the next morning.  

    No cell phones will ruin photos for a good photographer.  I didn't even notice them during the ceremony (cell phones) and I don't see them in our pro wedding photos.  Our photographer took over 2000 photos (we got over 600 good ones - good lighting, focused, etc.).  They are taking so many, cell phones don't matter 

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  • southernbelle0915southernbelle0915 mod
    Moderator 10000 Comments 500 Love Its Fourth Anniversary
    I'm with you on this and I think your BM is off base. 95% of your wedding photos that will go in your album are staged pics (read: no cell phones). And who cares anyway? Some of my favorite photos were taken by guests and tagged.
    *********************************************************************************

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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] member
    Third Anniversary 100 Love Its 100 Comments Name Dropper
    indianaalum said:

    I have a ton of pics from my wedding ceremony and this is simply NOT TRUE. A good photograhper will get wonderful pics of you/DH and trust me, there won't a ton of cell phones in the pics. Brides worry about that for nothing


    some of my FAVE pics of my wedding are the ones taken by my guests with their phones/cameras. 

    don't ban them because you may miss out on great photos AND you will offend your guests
    This! Thank you so much; I was thinking about that, too! I'm sure that some of the photos taken by my friends and family will be incredibly personal, loving and wonderful. Technology is so amazing to allow us to capture these moments ourselves. You don't need to be a "professional" to create a beautiful photo anymore. :)

    Thanks for your input, ladies! Very glad I'm not alone in thinking cell phone pics are more than welcome!
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  • littlepeplittlepep member
    1000 Comments 500 Love Its First Anniversary First Answer
    I love taking pictures at people's weddings. I'm adult enough to know when it's appropriate and when it's not. Your gut is right and your BM is wrong. Let your guests hashtag away! You'll end up with some great shots.
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  • Cookie PusherCookie Pusher member
    Knottie Warrior 2500 Comments 500 Love Its 5 Answers
    Some of my favorite pics are cell phone ones. We had two photographers, but they couldn't get EVERYTHING. They were focused on us during the ceremony, but we got some great photos of the bridal party and our piper because our friends had their phones and cameras.
    ~*~*~*~*~

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  • JBee85JBee85 member
    Fourth Anniversary 100 Love Its 100 Comments Name Dropper
    edited April 2015
    You're worried about a cellphone? My MIL pulled out her huge IPAD to take pictures. A freaking tablet. I noticed it, but was I upset? No, because I was too busy getting MARRIED and being so in love to even care about her using a giant iPad. I was preoccupied with seeing the man I was going to marry wearing a tuxedo for the first time in his life, paying attention to the readings, and reflection on the OMG This Is It moment to even give a flying shit about what my guests were doing. I even had a guest bring in a video camera as a surprised to record my wedding, and it was a GREAT video!

    Unfortunately you just aren't going to be able to control everything that goes on with your wedding. They are adults, you should know and trust them by now to behave as such, or you just simply don't invite them to your wedding. If you try to do so, you are going to have a bad time.
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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] member
    Third Anniversary 100 Love Its 100 Comments Name Dropper
    edited April 2015
    JBee85 said:You're worried about a cellphone? My MIL pulled out her huge IPAD to take pictures. A freaking tablet. I noticed it, but was I upset? No, because I was too busy getting MARRIED and being so in love to even care about her using a giant iPad. I was preoccupied with seeing the man I was going to marry wearing a tuxedo for the first time in his life, paying attention to the readings, and reflection on the OMG This Is It moment to even give a flying shit about what my guests were doing. I even had a guest bring in a video camera as a surprised to record my wedding, and it was a GREAT video!

    Unfortunately you just aren't going to be able to control everything that goes on with your wedding. They are adults, you should know and trust them by now to behave as such, or you just simply don't invite them to your wedding. If you try to do so, you are going to have a bad time._________________________BOXES______________________________________[Edited because the box didn't work) To be clear, no... I'm not worried about it and I'm not trying to control my guests. I was wondering if I     should be worried about it because my BM suggested it. I hadn't even thought about it until she brought it up. Was just wondering what other brides thought about cell phones in their pictures. 
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  • indianaalumindianaalum member
    500 Love Its 500 Comments First Anniversary Name Dropper
    lolo883 said:

    Please trust your gut and your guests. It is rude to tell them what to do/not to do, and they can be trusted to use discretion. Even if your wedding photos ARE filled with the fronts of guests' phones, your wedding will not be "ruined." You will still be married. And hey, it's a sign of the times - when your grandchildren have phones embedded into their palms you can say "hey look at these!" ;-)


    Also ask @jenna8984 how she feels about guest photos during her ceremony, after her photographer's memory card got corrupted and she lost ALL of their pictures.

    Do you think this picture looks "ruined?" I sure don't. That grin on my dad's face makes me cry every time I look at it. Also, that guy on the left is my sister's BF, and he's taking the only video we have of the ceremony. The woman on the right whose phone screen you can see, that's my aunt who drove all the way from Texas (to Michigan) to be there. I hadn't seen her in years. I'm pretty glad she got a great picture for herself.

    image
    You inadvertantly brought up something I forgot to mention. Be happy you have people who love you enough to WANT to take your picture on your wedding day.

    People should view it that way. If friends/family want to take your picture, it's because they love you and want a memory of that day, too. Be grateful. ALSO, if they post them on social media, it's probably because they are excited about your day and/or thought it was so beautiful they wanted to share it. Again, be grateful

    I love that this poster can look at her aunt's pic and be happy. It's a great reminder to her that her aunt loved enough to drive across the country and take her picture. That is way better than any thing
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  • indianaalumindianaalum member
    500 Love Its 500 Comments First Anniversary Name Dropper
    rusticbride27 said:


    indianaalum said:

    I have a ton of pics from my wedding ceremony and this is simply NOT TRUE. A good photograhper will get wonderful pics of you/DH and trust me, there won't a ton of cell phones in the pics. Brides worry about that for nothing


    some of my FAVE pics of my wedding are the ones taken by my guests with their phones/cameras. 

    don't ban them because you may miss out on great photos AND you will offend your guests
    This! Thank you so much; I was thinking about that, too! I'm sure that some of the photos taken by my friends and family will be incredibly personal, loving and wonderful. Technology is so amazing to allow us to capture these moments ourselves. You don't need to be a "professional" to create a beautiful photo anymore. :)

    Thanks for your input, ladies! Very glad I'm not alone in thinking cell phone pics are more than welcome!
    Glad you are on board.

    To be more specific, I have a picture of my husband and I laughing very naturally from a funny moment that occurred at the reception. Based on where the photographer was, he couldn't have shot it. My friend did, and it is the most heartwarming pic of the day of DH and myself. It is the pic I have hanging in my house. 

     Remember, the photographer can't be with you the entire night, as he is taking pics of dance floor or of guests, etc... Friends pics make up for what he can't do.. Also, let's be honest, many of the pro pics are "staged". It is nice to have a natural pic like the one I  mentioned.

    Hope all these "no cellphone" pic brides are reading this thread
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  • jenna8984jenna8984 member
    5000 Comments Fifth Anniversary 500 Love Its First Answer
    YUP! I was busy moving this weekend and didn't see the conversation until now. But like others mentioned, my photographer lost all of my pics in a hard drive crash. The best data recovery firm in the US could not even recover them. I have about 20 pictures of my wedding, all taken by friends and family and I'm so lucky to have those. So not only allow them, encourage them!!

                                                                     

    image

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  • NowIAmSypNowIAmSyp member
    Eighth Anniversary 500 Love Its 500 Comments First Answer
    climbingwife said:

    Some of the best pictures I have are ones my friends took during the ceremony. 


    Is this a terrible picture?

    image

    Nope. I see my loved ones enjoying my wedding. 


    That is an awesome shot- everyone looks so happy.  Love it!
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  • charcoalandblushcharcoalandblush member
    Sixth Anniversary 500 Love Its 500 Comments First Answer
    JennyColada said:

    I love both the cell phone pictures as well as the pictures of people holding the cell phones. In fact, this is my favorite picture of my parents from our wedding that our photog caught:


    I've seen you post this one in other threads before and I just cannot get over how adorable it is.

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  • twitterbirdtwitterbird member
    Fourth Anniversary 100 Comments 25 Love Its
    I didn't say a thing about guests taking photos during the ceremony and reception. And I didn't notice them doing it at all! I was focused on getting married and not if people were holding phones. I didn't notice it after getting our pictures back either. I was happy to have the guest photos as I didn't get pro photos for a few months.
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  • tcnobletcnoble member
    1000 Comments 500 Love Its First Anniversary First Answer
    The only pictures we had right after the wedding were from guests' cell phones. They captured so many special moments.

    When our photographer sent us some teaser pictures, sure we could see people with cell phones, but the up-side to that? Looking at the faces of the people taking the pictures! They had huge grins and you know that the myth of "people on cell phones aren't in the moment with us!" is so not true.
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  • JennyColadaJennyColada member
    2500 Comments 500 Love Its Third Anniversary First Answer
    charcoalandblush said:

    JennyColada said:

    I love both the cell phone pictures as well as the pictures of people holding the cell phones. In fact, this is my favorite picture of my parents from our wedding that our photog caught:


    I've seen you post this one in other threads before and I just cannot get over how adorable it is.




    I just realized that my mom has her pinky up - she fancy!

    But yea, I'm biased, but I agree, it's a freaking adorable picture.

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  • augsum15augsum15 member
    Third Anniversary 100 Comments 25 Love Its First Answer
    I'm glad someone asked this, I kind of wanna make sure people DO take pics now! 

    lolo883 that's a great pic! including the people taking photos :)
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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] member
    2500 Comments Fifth Anniversary 500 Love Its 5 Answers
    Maybe wait until the reception to advertise your hastag. While guests are waiting for dinner, or afterwards while drinking, that will be a great time for them to upload photos they took. This way they can take photos whenever. I don't think it's improper to ask for no flash photography or a reminder to turn ringers off on phones.
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