Navigating social media at weddings is all about being in tune with the values and priorities of the couple and how they mesh with your style as a wedding photographer.
While some couples are embracing social media, employing hashtags, and sharing the details of their day, other couples prefer a more private affair.
As wedding photographers, this can impact our work in both positive and negative ways.
The good thing is that by thinking about it ahead of time and preparing for the different outcomes, we can help direct how the prevalence of social media at weddings will impact our businesses.
As a wedding photographer for over a decade, I’ve seen a gradual rise in the presence of social media at weddings, but I’ve also noticed a decline as some of my couples choose to embrace more private and intimate wedding days.
Like with all things weddings, the rules and traditions are shape-shifting as couples choose to embrace and reject trends depending on their own values, style, and priorities.
In this article, I’ll walk through the two sides of social media at weddings, exploring how to embrace social media or reject it.
Then, after looking at the challenges and benefits, I’ll share some tips for wedding photographers on navigating this specific trend.
Social Media vs. No Social Media at Weddings
Do you use social media at your wedding? To post and to share for all to see the joy of your wedding celebrations?
Or do you take a more private affair, rejecting the trend of sharing the intimacy of your wedding day with guests who simply weren’t invited?
There are dual trends in the wedding world when it comes to social media.
As we all became more glued to our devices and social media became the new definition of our social lives, the presence of social media grew.
Eventually, some people started to realize they didn’t actually like the connection that social media provides and wanted to phase it out.
Meanwhile, other people continue to embrace social media and other technologies as they enhance their lives, making them more efficient and connected.
The two paths diverge requiring wedding professionals such as photographers to learn to navigate the two opposing trends.
In the next section, we’ll take the angle of embracing social media at weddings.
Then, we’ll look at it from the anti-social media side of things.
From there, I’ll share some tips for wedding photographers either way.
You might find yourself firmly on one side of the argument or the other, in which case the main tip you’ll need is my first one – to make sure you attract the right kinds of clients that share your values.
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Embracing Social Media at Weddings
In this section, we’ll talk about embracing social media at weddings.
We’ll talk about some of the challenges and benefits for both the couple and the guests.
While I don’t personally love social media and would probably fall in the alternate camp for my purposes, many of my wedding photography couples love and embrace social media.
The main challenge of a heavy social media presence at weddings is that many of the guests will be constantly on their phones.
While this used to annoy me because people were taking pictures rather than letting me take pictures of them, now I just embrace it.
The phones are now part of the wedding day story.
I can get creative with photographing the joy and giddiness of wedding guests as they take selfies, and embrace that as what I see through my lens.
Let’s take the positive outlook and walk through how we can see social media as a benefit at weddings.
Benefits of Embracing Social Media at Weddings
Some of the benefits of social media at weddings include creating a digital album of memories, involving guests who couldn’t attend physically, and enhancing the overall experience with real-time updates and interactions.
Each of these possible reasons for embracing social media will appeal to different couples.
As photographers, we can sometimes see other cameras as a threat – as stepping on our turf and what we were hired to do.
As I mentioned above, I no longer take that approach.
Instead, if my couple is into it, I embrace it and make it part of the story while also capitalizing on how social media can benefit my business, as I’ll discuss in a later section.
When you think about it from the point of view of the couple, they hired you because they want to see their wedding day through your lens.
However, they may want to see their wedding day through a variety of other angles as well.
And more often than not, a variety of photos and perspectives on the day actually makes my professional photos really shine.
After all, they’re based on over a decade of wedding photography experience.
Rejecting Social Media in Favor of a Private Affair
On the other side of the social-media-at-weddings aisle, some couples prefer a more private wedding.
They might have a desire for intimacy and focus on the moment.
In my recent article on unplugged wedding ceremonies, I discussed the many benefits of device-free weddings.
Many couples want their guests to look directly at them, not see them through a phone.
Other couples might have privacy concerns or a desire to control the wedding content that is shared publicly.
For some guests, this can be hard because they’re used to documenting their lives and the couple will have their work cut out for them explaining and enforcing any rules.
But let’s say everyone is on board. What are some of the benefits of a more private wedding?
Benefits of a More Private Wedding
I already alluded to one of the main reasons for a more private wedding: intimacy.
Many couples want to share their wedding day with their closest friends and family.
They want to be surrounded by unconditional and judgment-free love.
Keeping the wedding day private and off social media allows them to experience it without comment, criticism, or input from anyone who wasn’t invited into that space.
The couple can always decide what and how to share later on.
Sometimes the bride or groom has a professional job where sharing their private life isn’t appropriate.
Another benefit of a private wedding is that everyone is present in the moment.
From a photography perspective, I love photographing real and genuine emotions that happen with in-person connection.
When no one is worried about who is watching or sharing or judging, they can immerse themselves in how they are feeling.
And they can feel free to express themselves.
Tips for Photographers
As a photographer, if you have a strong opinion one way or the other in regard to social media at weddings, my main advice is to make sure you communicate that on your website and through your branding.
The best way to set yourself up for success is to attract the right kind of clients.
That goes for your style of wedding photography and your personality as well; the whole day goes smoother if the right fit is found.
Branding is often one of the first steps in marketing and it’s an important one.
It’s all about figuring out who you are as a photographer and what types of clients you want to serve.
To have social media at a wedding or not is only one of the wedding day controversies you’ll come across.
Some couples want big weddings, and others want to elope.
Many couples do a first look, while some can’t imagine seeing each other until they’re walking down that aisle.
Deciding where you stand on each of these topics will help you figure out how to serve your clients in the wedding years to come.
If the involvement of social media doesn’t bother you one way or the other, there are still some helpful things to know when navigating each side of the social media wedding aisle.
Let’s talk through tips for social media-heavy weddings, followed by tips that are more private affairs.
Handling Weddings with Social Media Emphasis
One of the easiest ways to determine if a couple is interested in a social media-heavy wedding is to find out if they already have a wedding website, hashtag, or QR code for sharing images.
These are the types of questions you can add to your client intake questionnaire or getting-to-know-you form.
I usually have my couples fill out a questionnaire before our pre-wedding consultation meeting and the form helps give me an idea of my couples’ style.
I also ask them about their priorities and what they’re most excited about.
Getting in tune with our couples’ needs helps us know what to expect on the wedding day and how to use it to our advantage.
For example, if you can tell the couple loves sharing their life on social media, you can use that as a marketing opportunity.
Delivering your images with a quick turnaround time will help ensure that your professional photos get shared and seen by friends, family, and potential future clients.
Our best clients come from our best clients, and if yours seem to love spreading the word on social media, why not make it easy to do so?
You can even have your own hashtags and ask your couples to tag your social media pages when sharing.
Most couples love giving a shout-out to their photographers and will happily share the love.
Navigating Private Affairs without Social Media
Some couples, on the other hand, don’t want a lot of public sharing of their wedding images.
We’ve even had a few couples hesitant about signing the model release that’s a part of our standard agreement and allows us to use their photos for our own marketing purposes.
While I don’t love being unable to share photos that I’ve worked hard on and am proud of creating, some couples have legitimate reasons for concern.
The most important thing to do here is to understand the couple’s wishes for privacy and discretion and communicate your own wishes.
Sometimes, a couple will be okay with you sharing a select few portfolio-worthy images with your audience or scene-setting and detail images with vendors.
If that’s all you usually do anyway, then it doesn’t hurt to find a win-win solution that works for everyone.
Alternatively, you could decide that there is a cost of removing the model release from your agreement and pass that cost along to your client.
Over the years, it has become more important to me to respect my clients’ wishes than to share their images.
I have plenty of other weddings to use in my marketing.
And most of the time, the couple is willing to let me share the images I want to share once they’ve seen them anyway.
You may disagree, in which case I refer you to what I said at the beginning of this section: Make sure you book clients who are the right fit for you.
It helps to focus on the benefits of a social media-free wedding, such as the amazing opportunity it provides for documentary-style wedding photography.
When people aren’t distracted by their devices or sharing things on social media, they can be present in the moment, whether it’s the intimate first look or more celebratory wedding reception.
Conclusion of Social Media at Weddings
By now, you’ve probably formed an opinion about these opposing wedding trends.
Maybe you’ve even been witness to both social-media-heavy wedding ceremonies and more private, unplugged weddings.
If so, then you’ve noticed the joy of sharing socially and how it contrasts with the intimacy that comes with keeping things private.
You might still be wondering how to respect couples’ preferences when it comes to navigating social media presence.
The good news is that, like with everything in business, we can learn how to pivot and adapt.
We can learn how to shift our perspective and use things to our advantage whether that means finding clients that are the right fit or finding compassion for differing views of different clients.
One thing we can count on is that wedding trends will shift and change; learning how to be flexible or to stand firm in our values will help us as we approach future changes.
