On your big day at the altar, you want to see your loved ones smiling back at you — not their phone cameras.
That’s just one reason why so many couples are saying “I do” to an unplugged wedding and enforcing a no-phone mandate — typically by way of the officiant requesting attendees to live “in the moment,” rather than through a screen.
“For the couple, it focuses the entire energy of the whole ceremony onto what’s actually happening and that sacred moment of the actual wedding,” photographer Jennifer van Son, who is based in Toronto, told Brides.
“The couple can look out at their guests and see smiling faces and their grandmother tearing up and their parents holding hands.”
According to a recent report from Zola, a wedding planner and registry platform, 75% of love birds are planning to have an “unplugged” wedding in 2024.
But contrary to popular belief, it isn’t the screen-obsessed Zoomers ruining the fun by holding their phones up like they’re at a concert. In fact, it’s the “boomers” who are snapping grainy pictures to likely boast on Facebook after the reception, even at the cost of ruining the professional photographs — which cost a pretty penny.
Younger generations “get phone etiquette in a way that older generations don’t always,” even when amateur photography isn’t prohibited, Willa, a recent bride who did not disclose her last name, told The Guardian.
Baby boomers — especially family — want to make sure everything is documented,” said her now-husband, Ethan.
Wedding photographers, like NYC-based Sylvie Rosokoff, have worked dozens of “unplugged” weddings in recent years.
Meghan LaRosa, a wedding photographer from New Jersey, told The Guardian that she sees it “more often than not,” which makes her job that much easier on the momentous occasion.
Where the mugs of guests might have been obscured by their smartphones, her photos are now undisrupted by the technology that would otherwise stick out like a sore thumb.
“I’ll be seeing their actual faces and not their phones,” LaRosa said.
“The couple would rather have their memories captured by me with my camera than by their mom’s neighbor with her iPhone 7.”
