Ok, so the thought of getting married might terrify you at the moment. You may be young, free and single, you’ve only just gotten into a long term relationship, or you might feel that you aren’t marriage material. This doesn’t mean that you won’t be heavily involved in planning a wedding day at some point in your life. It might be yours, or it could be your best pal’s. More and more imminent brides are relying on their maids of honour to take on more responsibilities when it comes to planning the big day. While you won’t make the final decision when it comes to the cake, the venue or the wedding photographer, your insight and opinion will be valued by your close friend.
If nothing else, you can be the individual that will always express an honest opinion. You will be there to offer advice when the bride and groom can’t decide between the lamb or the beef, you will be a support when your best friend is stressing over the bridesmaid dresses, and you will always be there to encourage your best buddy to hit the gym in preparation for the ceremony. Forget the cufflinks for the best man and page boys, and locket necklaces for the bridesmaids. You can be the person to mix it up a bit and offer up a more original wedding favours idea. Most importantly, you can be the eyes and ears of the planning operation.
When the happy couple is blissfully getting bogged down in the detail, you can be there to ensure that their wedding is Instagram ready!
Venue
When looking at venues in the twenty-first century, pretty much anything goes. Gone are the days of a church wedding, or registry office followed by a reception buffet or sit down meal in a pub or hotel. Couples all over the country are choosing to say ‘I do’ on beaches, in marquees and in zoos. If you know that the bride and groom are movie buffs, what better venue than an arthouse cinema? The pictures will look stunning with a readymade aisle in the form of a cinema screen layout. You could even suggest that they utilize the screen to show some of their happiest, soppiest and most meaningful memories for the congregation to blub over.
Popcorn can be eaten as the ceremony progresses, movie theme tunes can be utilized for the bride walking down the aisle and cinema ushers can direct people to their seats. The happy couple can experience real red carpet five-star luxury.
Most couples strive to be original, and those who pride themselves on their fashionista credentials want to stand out from the crowd. A wedding at a theme park can set them apart, with hair raising and heart-pumping activities for all post-vows. If these venues seem a little out of reach financially, you can always find out how to get a guarantor so that your buddy won’t have to miss out on a wonderful big day. While it’s important not to overstretch, a short term managed repayment plan can be a solution to funding the zoo, the park or the five-star hotel venue.
Photographs
The key aspect of ensuring that any wedding is Instagram ready is making sure that there are a ridiculous amount of opportunities to take photographs. You want every single guest to have either a smartphone or a tablet or a digital camera in their hand.
Some couples want to have complete control over the online presence of their big day, and as such, want to collate the photos before choosing which wants to upload to their Instagram feed. However, other couples are more than happy to let their friends and family have free reign over their online content. Set up a hashtag and make sure that all the guests know to use this when uploading photos. A hashtag should be something short and sweet such as #MrandMrsJonesBigDay, #TheThomasWedding or #BenandJoAreHitched. Ensure that every upload has this hashtag, and then when the newlyweds are enjoying some downtime in their honeymoon suite, they can search the hashtag and see a readymade album of their big day. This is effective because the bride and groom cannot be everywhere at once. Remember when the best man spilled his glass of champagne all over his creme brulee? Someone may have captured the hilarious moment even though the happy couple didn’t spot it.
Instagram is a marvel in that it has numerous filters and effects to make a scene, vista or portrait just that little bit more perfect. While filters can get a bad press, there’s no harm in adding a vignette or a touch of Amaro to change the ambience of an image.
Just because the guests are taking part in the memory making for the big day doesn’t mean that the bride and groom shouldn’t have a professional photographer. They absolutely should! If they are umming and ahhing over the added expense, encourage them that this will be money well spent. Investigate the different styles of the photographer on offer and visit wedding fairs with your pal to study their work. The bride may want a documentary style photographer to capture those candid and off the cuff moments. Or a more traditional photographer complete with posed family portraits may be more the order of the day.
Finding the perfect photographer can be tricky. There’s nothing worse than opting for an individual only for the bride and groom to be greeted with a totally different set of photos to the ones expected on their return from their honeymoon. Even worse, fuzzy out of focus shots and random compositions can ruin a keepsake of memories. Ask family and friends for their recommendations and head online to check out impartial reviews. Don’t opt for the cheapest, as the quality may not be top quality. The chances are you have perused a friend’s album only to be impressed by the style and quality of photography. Grab the professional’s phone number and get him or her booked before it’s too late.
They are only planning on this celebration once, so it’s vital that they have an official memory of it. Digital copies are fantastic but so is a hard copy old school album that they can refer to time and time again. If and when kids come along, these albums are wonderful keepsakes to be passed down and to have a giggle at twenty years later when outfits and hairstyles can seem obscenely old fashioned and passe.
Photobooths
The new on-trend addition to any wedding reception is the photo booth. These little capsules of fancy dress items, silly outfits and props are perfect ways to encourage your nearest and dearest to have a laugh, let loose and have their photograph taken when they are most relaxed. Yes, the alcohol may also be flowing, but it can bring a smile to many a happy couple’s faces to see great aunt Joan and granny Mavis dressed up as rock stars. Having records of these hilarious and happy moments can be priceless.
Dress Code
Many couples choose not to have a dress code as there is an unwritten set of laws when it comes to attending a wedding. Guys tend to wear ties and ladies opt for a classy outfit that isn’t white. However, if your friends are more eccentric or fancy opting for a different style of big day, a more informal set of dress rules might apply. Perhaps Hawaiian shirts would be perfect for a summer beach wedding. Or maybe a fancy dress affair with guests attending in the attire of their musical icon could be fun for those couples who are getting hitched in their favourite music venue. Different outfits can make for some amazing photographs and can give your friend’s wedding the originality that she craves.
Food
Gastronomic cuisine, street food and home cooked grub is the most posted visual content to Instagram. Everyone has that annoying friend who posts every single meal that they have complete with an array of hashtags. If your pals are foodies and adore checking out the latest funky vegan trends, are keen on a specific regional cuisine or simply ache to see their wedding feast online, encourage the guests to take shots of their wedding breakfast and upload them using the same hashtag mentioned earlier.
The whole day can be documented and time-stamped using an online social media platform. The twentieth century has made it easier than ever to get noticed, be visible and share memories. If people are unable to attend the wedding, they can follow the action live by following the hashtag that you create. Guests and those who sadly can’t attend can even converse beneath the shots, making the big day more inclusive than the happy couple ever thought possible.
While you might not be planning on walking down the aisle anytime soon, or even if you are listening out for the sound of wedding bells in the distance, you want the big day to be the most special occasion ever. By following this guide, you can ensure that any ceremony and reception that you plan will be Instagram ready.
