Welcome back to your course, Wedding Planning 101: The Road to “I Do”! This monthly series will provide you with a whole lot of clarity, destroy myths about how you’re “supposed to” plan a wedding and all the things you should know before your wedding day. I’m so glad you’re back. If this is the first lesson of the course you’ve read, I’ve linked parts 1 & 2 below so you can access those & get caught up!

part i: all things coordination

part ii: what to expect pre-ceremony

Today, we’ll be diving into planning out the ceremony & talking about some wedding industry lingo that you may not know that can make or break the most important part of your wedding day – you know the part where you get married!!

Having an Unplugged Ceremony

You may or may not have heard of an unplugged ceremony. It’s a term coined by wedding planners, but has now been adopted by couples everywhere! Essentially what does it mean to have an unplugged ceremony? It’s a kind & gentle way to ask your guests to refrain from using their phones during there ceremony – for texts, calls, but especially for photos & videos.

As a wedding guest, it’s super tempting to think about how great a pretty wedding would look on your instagram story — however, in reality, you’re disrupting the clean look of your friend’s professional wedding photos. See — people taking phone pics & videos (and iPad ones – ugh, the worst!), even using their own digital cameras, aren’t paying any attention to anything besides what their eye sees on their screen. That means, they lean into the aisle, stand up in their seats and end up blocking the professional photographer’s beautiful image of whomever is walking down the aisle.

Another bummer about guests using their devices during the ceremony is that they are not fully participating as your witnesses of your marriage … which is kinda the point! Am I right? If you want your guests to be present and your professional photos to come out spectacular, I highly recommend opting for an unplugged ceremony & having your officiant announce it before it begins.

The First Kiss

Now, we all know what the first kiss is at a wedding ceremony. However, one little fact about this tradition is not widely known or practiced. It involves your officiant, the person marrying you – no, I promise this is not about to get weird! Bear with me.

When I have the time to, I speak with the officiant before the ceremony and direct them to take one step to the side during the first kiss (left or right, either works). Otherwise, the photo of the moment you’re about to kiss and even the moment your lips touch, can look pretty weird if there’s another person’s face right at the same height! By stepping to the side, this allows for a clean backdrop for the kiss shot!

Next Time at Wedding Planning 101

Next month we’ll be chatting about what to expect and look out for at your reception and what happens when the big shebang is all over. Stay tuned!