In all walks of life technology is having an increasing impact on our lives and weddings are no different. We’re gradually seeing an increase in the use of technology in both the planning and execution of weddings but is it making things better or worse? Let’s take a look at how technology is impacting on different parts of the day…
The Planning:
Technology can certainly be extremely helpful during the planning stages – firstly you can now look anywhere in the world for your perfect suppliers by looking online, you can easily see samples of their work and you can arrange appointments quickly and easily via email.
Seating Plan App from Wedding Wire
There are now table planning apps that can help you to work out how your table layout should work and who should sit where which can definitely be a life saver, although it’s often a lot more fun to try to create your own system together and spend an evening technology free. If you actually physically make something to represent all the tables and write down everyone’s name it can actually be a really enjoyable bonding experience and that’s perhaps taken away by using the apps… seating plan darts anyone?
It’s now also nice and easy to send invites to people online and much easier to get a rapid response rather than waiting for people to RSVP via mail. You can also set up online gift sites where rather than people buy random presents they can either contribute towards something like the honeymoon costs or select from pre-chosen gifts that are actually useful to you – very helpful. On the flip side of course there’s something really special about receiving your wedding invite in the mail and opening up the envelope to find something nice inside – we don’t often use physical mail anymore and somehow it makes it all the more special when we do. As for the present registration sites they can be great but again perhaps a little impersonal. When someone buys you a gift it’s a very personal thing and they might want to give you something that means a lot to the two of you. Contributing towards the honeymoon for some people might feel a bit like they’re having to pay to come to your wedding which isn’t the idea at all!
The Wedding Morning:
Mobile phones and Sat Navs… seriously how did we all get to far flung wedding destinations before they came along?
The Ceremony:
The ceremony remains the most traditional part of the day but that doesn’t mean technology isn’t making its mark here. For example churches are being increasingly being fitted with sound systems to amplify the words of the priests and amplify the readings. If a good system is in place and it’s been setup well this does mean those at the back aren’t struggling so much to hear what’s going on and draws more people into the ceremony, but when set up badly or when there is interference in the room affecting cheap radio mics it can equally be hugely distracting from the proceedings and spoil the atmosphere in the room, where simple voice techniques would allow the sound to spread naturally.
Cameras everywhere! Photo by York Place Studios
Some couples even broadcast their wedding ceremonies via the internet for those that can’t be there to watch from afar. This can be extremely effective with there being many examples where critically ill relatives have been able to watch such an important day in their family’s lives when it would otherwise be impossible. On the other hand though sometimes this may require lots of additional equipment which can be an eyesore and get in the way for those actually inside the wedding venue.
It’s also now a fact that pretty much everyone walks around with a camera on them at all times in the form of their phones. This can be a great thing in terms of again being able to share the wedding ceremony with the rest of the world almost instantly, but at the same time all those cameras (and even huge tablet computers!) can massively get in the way and leave people so busy taking and sharing pictures that they don’t actually concentrate on the ceremony itself.
The Speeches:
My iPad delivered wedding speech! Photo by Ed Peers
Having a PA system to amplify the speeches is definitely helpful in a big room and particularly with speakers who aren’t very confident. On the other hand people do tend to mumble when they have a radio mic assuming the microphone will amplify them anyway which isn’t really the case. Really it does just depend on the room size as to how helpful they really are.
Lots of people are now reading their speeches off digital devices like iPads which can be a really helpful presentation aid as you can make them scroll through your prompts in big letters very easily. On the other hand technology does have a tendency to go wrong and devices crashing or running out of battery can leave you with no speech at all (on my own wedding speech I forgot to lock the orientation on my iPad so when I accidentally moved it a little it kept flipping the screen and making me repeatedly lose my place!) Pieces of paper rarely have such problems!!
Some people are now using digital imagery in their speeches; best men projecting embarrassing pictures of the groom, sometimes making videos as part of their speech and, on occasion, even creating mini gameshows about the happy couple. These can be really cool ideas, but when you start putting powerpoint presentations into a wedding you’ve got to be very careful to do it well as whilst wedding speeches are eagerly anticipated and thought of as entertaining, powerpoint presentations do psychologically have an unfortunate link with boring work-related presentations and it can harder to win the crowd over. They also face the same old potential technology problems that can bring your speech to a halt in a flash. If you deliver a truly great speech people will be engaged anyway and you can do without any technical gadgetry.
The Entertainment:
Technological advances now mean it’s relatively simple to sort out your own playlist on your computer or iPod and have it play through the evening to get everyone up on the dance floor and save money on a band or DJ. It’s certainly a money saver but definitely comes at a cost regardless – there’s nothing like the sound of a live band playing to create a real atmosphere, and similarly a good DJ will sense the mood in the room, adapt to what’s getting people dancing, will probably have a much broader range of music, can create smooth mixes and is there to just get the place absolutely buzzing. You just don’t get that with an iPod, and there’s often the tendency for inebriated guests to take control of the music themselves and just play the tracks they want, killing the atmosphere for everyone else.
So is technology changing weddings for the better or worse? I guess it depends on the individual couple and their wedding. Used well it can really enhance things and make the whole process much smoother and even more fun. Used badly it can be seriously detrimental to the day. We’d love to hear your opinions on the use of technology in weddings though so if you have an opinion on this one then leave your comments below!
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