Create a chic and modern wedding full of tech elements, without breaking the bank.
The trend towards banning technology, or ‘unplugged weddings’ is becoming increasingly popular among tech frazzled couples. However, there are still many of us who are keen to embrace the prospect of a tech-savvy wedding. And with so many new and different apps and websites constantly becoming available, it does seem a shame to ban tech entirely. Plus, with technology ever-changing, there’s now so many new and fun ways to incorporate it into your big day, most of which will not harm your budget. And could in fact save you money!
How to Have a Tech Savvy Wedding on a Budget
To get you inspired, here’s a run down of some of our favourite tech-based wedding ideas.
Create a Personalised Wedding Day Hashtag
This idea is fairly common, but can be a simple way to incorporate social media into your wedding day. If you're unaware of what hashtags are, they're mostly used on social media to easily find posts from users on a particular topic. For example, #weddingdress. If you search for that, you'll find all the millions of posts about wedding dresses.
By creating your own unique hashtag for the day, and asking wedding guests to use it when sharing their photos of your big day. You’ll be crating a personalised gallery of memories from loved ones to revisit long after the day is done. These hashtags can be as simple or creative as you and your future spouse would like! The most important thing is that it’s easy to spell and remember, so your guests can accurately use it, and you can find their posts later.
Here are some common ways of creating a wedding day hashtag: — Simple: Last Name + “Wedding” + Year = #AndersonWedding2013 — Celebrity Couple Name: Find a clever combination of your and your spouse’s names like celebrity couples such as “Brangelina” (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) — Puns: If one of your last names, venue, or theme is made for punny material, use it to your advantage and give guests a chuckle. — If you’re really stumped, try using a Wedding Hashtag Generator.
Once you’ve decided on your hashtag of choice, make sure your guests know about it! Include it in the wedding program, on table cards, napkins and on menus. It might also be nice to add a little note expressing how you’d like the hashtag to be used, just to make sure it's clear.
Create an Instagram Account just for your Wedding Day
Another fun idea would be to make an actual Instagram account dedicated to your wedding. You can document the hen and stags, getting ready, the big day and even the honeymoon. Nominate one of your bridesmaids to be in charge on the day and get them posting not only to your profile, but on Instagram stories too – you could even take advantage of Instagram Live if you fancy! Which would be a wonderful way to involve loved ones who can't be there.
Invite via Paperless Post
Set the tech tone by sending out your invites via Paperless Post, a website that enables you to easily send stylised online invitations. Choose from an endless number of gorgeous designs, including exclusives from the likes of Rifle Paper and Oscar de la Renta.
Not only is this a lovely and different way to do things, it will also make your wedding admin super easy too, with guests typically being a lot better at RSVP-ing to emails rather than post. Worried about guests who aren’t quite as well-versed with the internet? You have the option to send hard copies in the post too!
Stream your Wedding Day Live
With so many apps taking on the functionality of going ‘live’, why not think about live-streaming elements of your wedding? This could be to a select number of people on a private Instagram account (as mentioned), or alternatively, you could proudly share the day with all your Facebook friends.
This is something you can set up and just press go on or if you’d rather, why not ask a friend or family member to look after it. There are also numerous companies who'll look after live-streaming for you, but it won't come cheap.
Create Your Own Charging Station
If you’re going to be encouraging wedding guests to share Stories, and create funny TikTok videos. You will need to make sure their phones are charged through the evening. Thankfully, the clever people of the Pinterest community have come up with the wonderful idea of 'prettifying' power charging banks. Creating discrete stations of plugs where guests can leave their phones to charge.
One of our favourites is this DIY creation where they hide a charging station is a trough of flowers, with a cute sign explaining what to do.
Collaborate on a Spotify Playlist
All your guests are going to have at least one or two songs that will, without fail, get them dancing and singing their hearts out on the dance floor. So why not get them to all contribute to your wedding playlist?
Create a collaborative Spotify playlist and invite guests to add their picks to the list, anyone with a Spotify account (which is free!) can do it. Then pump those tunes out of the speakers once the band has gone, or pass the list/phone onto your designated DJ.
Host a Wedding Day Social Media Scavenger Hunt
To add an extra layer of entertainment to your post-ceremony drinks and reception, host a wedding day social media scavenger hunt for your guests! Provide a list of tasks for guests to complete related to your love story or act as icebreakers among your guests. These lists can be placed on the cocktail tables, by the bar(s), or in the wedding programs.
Some ideas for the wedding day social media scavenger hunt could include: — Find a wedding guest you’ve never met from the same city/county/town as you and take a selfie with them. — Make a short video expressing your favourite memories of the bride and groom. — What’s your top tip for marriage? — Whether you’re #TeamBride or #TeamGroom, meet 5 people who are friends with the opposite side and take a big group selfie. — Make a video showing off your best dance floor move!
Whoever completes all the tasks, or completes them first, could receive drink tickets or a special prize!
Create a Wedding Website
To regularly keep your guests in the loop, and keep all your various plans in one place, a wedding website is such a great idea. You can pop on there all the information and directions for the ceremony and the reception, get your guests to RSVP online and recommend places for your guests to stay, with the ability to book too.
Your guests will love you for it, and you can also use it to share the images of your big day with them afterwards.
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