Modern technology has found it’s way into weddings, especially with the rise of social media over the past few years. Hashtagging is a common trend, although not a new one in the wedding industry. The question is, why create a wedding hashtag?

Social media is a major part of almost everyone’s life, whether you use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or any other platform. For those who do not know what a hashtag is, it is a word or phrase, often accompanied by a photo, preceded by a hash or pound sign (#) used to identify messages on a specific topic.

Generating a wedding hashtag is a fun way to have behind-the-scenes and candid photos from your wedding day. Hashtags allow all pictures to be in one central location that people can visit after the wedding to look back on treasured moments. Every picture that was posted with the typed out hashtag will be able to be viewed under the hashtag.

To advertise their wedding hashtag, couples place the catchphrase on their save-the-dates, invitations, and their wedding website (if they have one) to give family and friends a heads up. Implementing a hashtag early on allows those with you to use it while wedding planning as well the bachelor and bachelorette parties. For those couples who have not thought of a hashtag early on, placing the social media wedding slogan on ceremony programs, wedding favors, and thank you letters is a helpful reminder on the day of the wedding to use the hashtag while posting a few pics. The most common way to display the hashtag is to have specific signs placed around the wedding venue to notify guests.

Future brides and grooms should always check first before deciding to share their hashtag to make sure it is not widely used already. You will not want the pictures taken at your wedding to be mixed in with hundreds of others.

Believe it or not, not everyone has jumped on the wedding hashtag bandwagon. Instead of promoting the use of social media and mobile devices, couples are requesting guests to turn off their phones and be “unplugged” for the evening.  With the takeover of social media, the idea of an unplugged wedding ceremony as well as an entire unplugged wedding is becoming more common.

Are you planning on creating a hashtag for your wedding or will you be requesting guests be unplugged? If you already had your wedding and used either of these ideas, how did they work out for you? Would you have done anything differently?