How to Use Social Media For Your Wedding

Friday, June 30, 2017

Disclosure: This post contains paid placement. All thoughts and opinions are my own!

How to Use Social Media For Your Wedding
photo credit: Jenn Haskins of Hello Rigby

When do you share about your engagement on Facebook? Should you have a Wedding #hashtag for your big day? Do you want guests sharing your Ceremony live on Instagram? These are just a few of the many questions I've pondered while preparing for our big day and considering how social media may play apart in our wedding festivities.

I've discovered quite a few great tools related to social media that have come in handy during wedding planning, from website builders to hashtag generators to Snapchat geofilters by WeddingWire. These tools have and continue to make planning easier, while also customizing our wedding festivities and keeping our guests informed. However, there's also some wedding etiquette I've had to consider in regards to social media, such as do we allow phones during our ceremony and when to announce the engagement on social media.

Today I'm sharing 10 tips on how to use social media for your wedding, including a few of the things we are planning to do for our wedding in only 64 days!

Share Your Engagement ~ Congrats!

I so appreciate the evening, night and morning S and I shared together before sharing the news of our engagement with friends and family. After S proposed, we stayed on the beach well past sunset, finishing our bottle of wine and enjoying the moment over a glowing beach bonfire. Hours later, we wandered back to our campsite and ate S'mores for dinner before crawling in our tent. The next morning we enjoyed our first morning coffee together as an engaged couple, packed up our site, picked up a few souvenirs at the gift shop and FINALLY shared the news on the drive home to Seattle.

We chose to share with close friends and family first before posting to social media, something I also encourage you to consider, because once it's on social that news will spread fast! We waited a few weeks before sharing the news and relationship change on Facebook, making sure all important family members and friends had heard first before it hit the internet. Tears of joy greeted each call as we shared the news of our engagement and I'm so glad to not have missed out on the opportunity to share the news personally with our loved ones.

It can be super tempting to post a pic immediately to Instagram or Facebook right after the proposal and share news of the engagement. But maybe consider at least calling Mom, Dad, Siblings, Grandparents, Best Friends, etc...first, savor the moment and than share the news to the world, 'cause CONGRATS! you're engaged!!!

How to Use Social Media For Your Wedding

Create a Wedding Website

A wedding website is an easy way for guests to find all the wedding info they need in one place. Soon after S & I got engaged we knew we would need to put together a wedding website. With friends and family spread near and far, we wanted to make sure we had all the important details in one place to help our guests be able to focus on the celebration and not stress about the details.

Check out my recent post with all the details on creating your own wedding website and keeping your guests informed for your Big Day!



How to Use Social Media For Your Wedding

All the Pinspiration

I have found Pinterest to be a fabulous resource for wedding planning, seriously so much pinspiration! I created a secret board, so that I could only share it with a select few (think moms, bridesmaids, maid of honor, wedding planner/coordinator, etc . . .), where I save all my favorite ideas for the big day! I also have a public Pinterest wedding board ~ Wedding of Dreams ~ I've been saving pins to since the moment I knew S was the One!

However it's super easy to get lost in Pinterest land down the Pinterest rabbit hole. And it's super easy to get overwhelmed with all the Pinterest perfected wedding images out there. I often have to gently remind myself that just one of these ideas could have taken hours, if not days, to put together and that it is okay to not have a "Pinterest Perfect" wedding.

What matters is that loved ones from near and far will be gathered to share and celebrate the love of S and I, and to witness our commitment to each other and to marriage. OMG I am seriously teary eyed writing that. Only 64 days 'til S and I say I Do, I seriously can't wait to marry this amazing man!

How to Use Social Media For Your Wedding

Make Your Own SnapChat Geofilter

Lover of SnapChat? Want a unique way to personalize your wedding and/or share a Wedding event with friends/family near and far unable to attend? You can make your own Snapchat geofilters for all your events on Wedding Wire! Think engagement party, bridal shower, bachelor/bachelorette parties, and of course the wedding itself!

Create artfully designed, custom wedding Snapchat Geofilters for all wedding and wedding-event related needs directly on WeddingWire. WeddingWire joined forces with Snapchat and is the only site to allow couples to personalize their Snapchat wedding filters, schedule start and end time, set your geofence and pay conveniently all in one place!


How to Use Social Media For Your Wedding

Snapchat Geofilter templates on WeddingWire are super simple to design. Each filter design includes customizable text fields and fonts that allow you to make the filter your own,  for your engagement party, shower, reception and more. Geofilters are available in a select location, for a limited time, based on the your specific event details. Wedding Wire has also partnered with some amazing brands like Lily Pulitzer, Bow & Drape, UrbanStems and more to create customizable designs for your wedding. The perfect way to enhance your wedding festivities!

How to Use Social Media For Your Wedding

Check Your Privacy Settings

Shortly before the wedding (and possible even sooner), I am planning on switching all my social media platforms tagging settings to where I have to approve a post of me tagged before it goes live. This way I make sure only the best photos from the big day are truly available for all to see and also choose when they go live on my platforms. I might even decide to hold off on sharing some of the tagged photos until after we receive our professional photos back. By keeping the settings private I can maintain (some) control over what gets shared in the digital space.

How to Use Social Media For Your Wedding

Create a Hashtag

A Wedding #hashtag is the perfect way to keep track of all the photos being shared of your Wedding. With guest eager to share in your big day, it's also a great way for guests to feel included in the celebration and share their own unique experience at the festivities. 

The Wedding Wire Hashtag Generator can help you find a perfect and memorable hashtag to celebrate your Big Day. Just enter you and your partner's names and nicknames and Wedding date, location and setting; WeddingWire handles the rest by creating a unique #hashtag that's as unique as your relationship!

Add the #hashtag to your save-the-dates, invitations, wedding website and more. There are tons of ideas for displaying your #hashtag at your Wedding on Pinterest!

Let Guests Know Your Expectations

Want everything posted from the wedding? Prefer the ceremony is kept intimate until the official photographer's photos are received? Decide on what you want and be sure to let your guests know your expectations.

The program, signs throughout the venue, the wedding website and even invitations are all possible opportunities to share with guests if you'd like to share your big day on social media or if you'd prefer phones kept away until the reception. The Officiant can also give a gentle reminder or share expectations with guests at the beginning of the ceremony and the DJ can make announcements during the reception. Remember it's your big day and up to you what you want!

Politely Ask Guests to Turn Off Their Phones for the Ceremony (or the entire wedding!)

Yes, it is totally okay to do this and likely something S and I will do. Many photographers prefer cell phone free ceremonies so they can capture the big moments without being obstructed by 100 phones. I'm totally fine with phones coming out during the cocktail hour and reception, but the idea of a phone ringing mid-ceremony, a beeping text during our vows or our photographer missing a moment because someone's phone is blocking might just bring out that Bridezilla in me.

How to Use Social Media For Your Wedding
photo credit: Jenn Haskins of Hello Rigby

Delegate Your Social Media (and phone) Manager

Assign someone else to manage your social media coverage, so you don't have to be tied to your phone at wedding festivities. This could even begin as early as your engagement party, shower or bachelorette party, but absolutely for the rehearsal dinner, ceremony and reception. This is a great responsibility for someone you weren't able to include in the bridal party or perhaps your photographer friend/sister who will have a camera and phone with them anyways.

Stay Offline on your Big Day and Enjoy the Moment!
 
The morning of our wedding I am planning on turning off my phone first thing and handing it to one of my bridesmaids. As a bride the last thing I want to be doing is checking Facebook, responding to texts or worrying about an email showing up in my inbox!

~

What are your tips for using social media for wedding festivities?
Please leave them in the comments!

xoxo

How to Use Social Media For Your Wedding


2 comments :

  1. Appreciate the social media tips and love the photos. So excited for you and Steve and the Big Day! All my love, Mom

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hahaha a grand social media wedding.. it's sassy how you've used all the social sites to plan a royal wedding. The phones are usually annoying specially when people are hovering you to click pictures.

    ReplyDelete