Hate it or love it (or hate to love it), social media is now part of our everyday lives. And at special events, people are especially likely to share a ton online. When it comes to your wedding, then, you should be prepared to deal with some social media and sharing questions. The best thing to do is think about what you want beforehand and have a plan. Are you ok with all of the moments of your wedding being shared publicly? Do you want to encourage guests to share photos and stories in one place? Do you even want to allow guests to use their phones during the ceremony at all? As social media expands and becomes more complex, there will likely be more questions you’ll have to think of beforehand. Here are our tips for navigating these questions and coming up with your own wedding social media plan.

Before the wedding

First off, make sure you’ve figured out a guest communication plan. Knowing how you will contact guests and how they should get in contact with you will help you keep things off of social media (if that’s what you want). If guests know they can find answers to most of their questions on your wedding website, you won’t have to post the info in other places.

Though you may be used to using social media to share what’s going on in your daily life, think twice before sharing a lot about your wedding planning adventures. Unless you know that only people who you’re inviting to your wedding will be able to see your posts, sharing could lead to hurt feelings. It’s also just a good idea in general to keep certain things private, such as the times and locations of the events of your wedding and your guest list. Your wedding website should be the place to share info about your wedding, especially if you are able to make some sections private and only viewable to invited guests, as you can with a Joy wedding site.

Wedding social media options

If you want to embrace social media sharing at your wedding, there are plenty of ways to make it work marvelously. You can create a wedding hashtag for all of your guests’ photos and stories. It can be fun to come up with something original yet easy to remember. Check out our guide to wedding hashtags for more tips! Just remember to post your hashtag on your wedding website. You may also want to post it on signs at your venue or leave cards with the hashtag at tables. Another option for sharing is handing over your own Instagram account to your photographer or a friend so that they can capture and share moments while you’re busy enjoying the day.

Opting out of sharing your wedding

If you want guests to avoid sharing photos of your wedding on social media, first make that clear on your wedding website. At your wedding venue, put up signs to remind guests that you’d like to keep your wedding private. It can also be a good idea to send an email to your guests shortly before the wedding to remind them of your no-sharing policy. Of course, even with the best laid plans, it’s possible someone might forget. You can always ask politely for photos to be taken down or make the call that one or two photos don’t violate your privacy enough for you to worry about.

You may want to ask your guests not to use their phones at all during the ceremony. Many couples decide on a device-free ceremony as a way to make sure everyone is focused on the moment. And it also has the added benefit of cutting down on social media sharing. Make sure to explain this on your wedding website and put up signs in the venue asking guests to put away their phones for the ceremony. You can even use Joy to remind guests to put their devices away 15 minutes before an event starts. Remember, though, that you can’t really control all of your guests. Some may have a technology addiction that is stronger than their fear of your disapproval. It’s best to accept that this might be the case for a few guests and not let it get in the way of your enjoyment of the moment.

Share with the people that matter most to you

Whether you’re allowing devices at the ceremony or not, you can take control of what is shared and how. Your Joy wedding site allows you to privately share photos and information with guests and create an online community for the people invited to your wedding. Joy also gives your guests a place to share photos and messages without making them visible to the whole world. And with the Joy wedding app, guests can share the special moments of your wedding as they happen. There are so many ways to share moments with your loved ones, we created this handy guide!

Your guests want to capture your wedding in images because they care about you and they love the beautiful event that you’ve planned. Clearly communicating your feelings about social media can help them make decisions about when and where to take photos and how to share them. And it certainly doesn’t hurt to provide your guests a private place to share those images. They’ll be happier, and you’ll have tons more beautiful pictures to remember your wedding day by!