Going Digital in the New Decade: 9 Ways to Utilize Tech For Your Wedding!
It’s a new decade and it’s time to go digital! We have entered an age where technology is second hand to everyone both young and old. I’m getting married in a few months, and I can promise you at the reception my grandma-in-law will be on her iPhone just as often (if not more) than my teenage nephews will be. The only difference is my nephews will be uploading videos of them dancing to Tik Tok while Grandma keeps her friends in the loop with pictures posted to Facebook.
So why fight it when you can embrace it? Have some fun and use tech to your advantage at your 21st century wedding! Keep your guests informed, engaged, and delighted from the time you send out your save the dates to the last dance of the night. Just simply incorporate any of these 9 easy to use technologies in your big day!
P.S. Going digital doesn’t mean you can’t still keep things private with a request for a no-device wedding ceremony, if you so choose.
1. Collaborative Playlist
My personal favorite new wedding trend of the decade comes to us via Spotify and a little button labeled “make collaborative”. You may have heard of a bride & groom (or two or three) who asked their wedding guests to help create their party playlist by responding with a song name & artist on the RSVP card. That idea has always been a crowd favorite and it’s now gone digital with Spotify collaborative playlists. All you have to do is login or sign up for Spotify, create your playlist, select “make collaborative”, and hit share! You can put the link right on your invites or share it on social media. The best part is you can keep it a secret until the big day so you’ll all be surprised on the dance floor together (just have a friend review for duplicates & reorder if needed)! Bonus: this keeps your friends & family dancing all night as everyone wants to see who’s song is gonna play next!
Psstt… this is a real collaborative playlist! Click here to go to Spotify add your favorite wedding song!
2. Facebook Live
Weddings have been recorded since camcorders were first invented. But we now live in a day and age where you can Facebook Live your wedding to your Grandma in Germany and your cousin in Sweden at the same time. Or, if all your family is in town, keep Facebook Live in mind for emergency scenarios because life happens (like if, God forbid, someone gets stuck in the hospital). It can be heartbreaking to not have a loved one at your wedding, but lucky for us we live in a time where the internet can connect us in a way that, almost feels like the real thing.
3. Shared Album
It seems like everyone and their brother has an iPhone at this point, but people are just now starting to use the “shared album” feature to its full advantage. Long story short, shared albums allow multiple people to upload photos to one album in the iPhone photos app. This allows everyone to take joy in each others photos and celebrate the moments that happened during your once and a lifetime party! This is a more private way to guarantee all the best photos make it around your circle - especially the ones that you would never let see the light of day on social media. ;)
4. Hashtag
The easiest (albeit more public) way of asking your guests to share their best shots from your wedding is by giving them a hashtag to use on social media! This way you get all the best angles of everyone’s bad dance moves. There are about a million websites that will create a cutesy hashtag for you and a billion etsy pages where you can buy a sign to let people know what your hashtag is. This printable from KarmaKWeddings on Etsy is the perfect physical cue to let your people know to feel free to post away - as long as they don’t forget to # it.
Etsy: KaramKWeddings
5. Geolocation aka GPS aka Google Maps
The number one way to use technology to your advantage is to encourage your guests to use it to find your venue(s)! Sending along a map in the invite is a good start, but in 2020 it is more effective and convenient to shoot the location straight to everyone’s phones via Google Maps and the handy dandy “share” button. I cannot tell you how many brides I’ve seen who spent precious moments on their phone with their family hopelessly trying to guide them to the right parking lot. Communication is key so send whatever addresses they might need and for venues that are a little tucked away you might want to make it super technical send the exact “plus code” for your location(s). For example, The Vow Exchange Chapel’s plus code is 3CVC+43 Kansas City, Missouri.
6. Digital Save The Dates
It’s 2020 which means in addition to going digital, it’s time to go green! In today’s busy world it’s pretty essential to give everyone a major heads up if you want to help ensure they will be able to attend your wedding, especially if travel is involved. But when sending save the dates you can still save the trees! Just go digital instead. There’s truly no sacrificing beauty or formality with the wide array of “save the date” digital invite templates on platforms such as paperlesspost.com. Additionally, paperlesspost gives you the option to request mailing addresses from your invitees, so when it’s time to mail out the formal invitations you can guarantee you have the right addresses! Here’s just one of the dozens of adorable ones we found there in less than a minute. We love when something is convenient and adorable AND saves the planet!
7. Digital Invites
Go all in on going green by creating and sending all your wedding invitations digitally! The incredible thing is you can still order paper prints to give to your moms and grandmas with Paperless Post and our favorite craft store - Paper Source. Plus you can stay on point with the same design suite as your save the dates! Like these adorable save the dates & invites for Isabel & Gilbert who are getting married in - holy crap - Rome!
8. Alternative Digital Registry
If you’re like me and my fiance, you have no desire to go to some retail chain store and pick out overpriced dinner plates for your friends to buy for you. Instead, consider turning to the web for a whole new world of digital wedding registries. While Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond went online ages ago, the beauty of the internet is that your possibilities are endless and it’s insanely convenient for you and your guests. Check out our blog highlighting 7 Alternative Registries including Thirstynest the “only place on the interweb where you can select bottles and barware for your first home together all in one gift registry.” Or better yet, Honeyfund where you can ask your friends and family to pitch in on your honeymoon so you can thoroughly enjoy your first adventure together as a married couple.
9. Book Your Wedding Online
Last but quite the opposite of least, we are proud to say we help offer our couples a 21st century experience of shopping, booking, and planning their wedding entirely online (if they so choose). Kathryn Hogan has created two solutions - The Vow Exchange and Altar & Aisle. Made specifically for couples in the Midwest who want to get married without the stress of planning and decorating, couples can get it all with the click of one button online! Couples can search the online calendar to find their date, manage their booking with online payments, personalize elements with the planning portal, and communicate directly with their planner all on their own time from wherever they wish. We are big believers in innovation and as such all of our ventures cater to those who ride the wave of the new technological era instead of shying away from it.
As we said, It’s 2020 which means in addition to going digital, it’s time to go green!
Plan your wedding at one of our intimate wedding venues!
