One tip that might be useful, if you use social media.
Are you familiar with using hashtags # ?
A recent trend is for the bride and groom at many weddings to adopt a wedding hashtag to help them (and their guests) collect and share pictures and updates, about their bash.
There’s no formal registration process for creating a hashtag—anyone can just, well…pick one. For that reason, you want to make sure that your hashtag is totally unique to your celebration; so when you or your guests click your hashtag on Instagram, for example, your only seeing shots from your wedding. It should also be easy to remember, so guests can quickly type it in from memory after they snap a great shot at your ceremony.
Creating an easy and unique hashtag is not as tough as it sounds, I promise. A great strategy is to combine your names (first or last) or the date together. A couple with unusual first names might just use those (#<CristaandHoratio; using “and” not “&”—there are no spaces or punctuation in hashtags), while others opt to combine their new last name with the year (#Bradshaw2014). You can also try to get creative with other words related to your wedding. Such as an alliterative phrase, #theWellsWonderWedding, which could be used on both hashtag and wedsite domain to keep things consistent. Try adding words like “wed,” “wedding,” “bash,” “union” or “hitched” (or anything else a thesaurus can come up with). Or opt for something memorable that’s unique to your nuptials (like #RogersandBakerelope or #BrownsBeachBash).
How do you know if your hashtag is unique? Search for it on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or any other network your friends and family might share to. One couple chose #willifordwedding before they discovered that another couple had used it for their wedding a few years back. Tacking “the” to the beginning ensured it was all theirs (assuming everyone types it correctly—another potential snag you should consider).
Now that you have a hashtag, let people know about it! Many decide to share their hashtag right away through their wedding website and save the dates so the guests could tag their social excitement immediately. Your save-the-date suite could include stickers for your guests to mark their calendars, and make sure one of those stickers features your hashtag.
If you’re sharing on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, use hashtag #thewillifordwedding. It lets us collect everyone’s well wishes and photos all in one spot on different social networks. Consider it a 21st-century guestbook.
It worked, since a few friends shared their excitement over receiving our save the dates right away via Instagram and Facebook.
As guests walk into the ceremony, remind them to tag their photos and updates with your hashtag by posting some pretty DIY signage outside. Or decide to include the hashtag on your ceremony programs or inside gift bags for the out-of-towners. Maybe you could use this for inspiration for your chalkboard sign?
On Twitter, the pound sign (or hash) turns any word or group of words that directly follow it into a searchable link. This allows you to organize content and track discussion topics based on those keywords. So, if you wanted to post about Downton Abbey, you would include #DowntonAbbey in your tweet to join the conversation.
Never use a space. Even if your hashtag contains multiple words, group them all together. If you want to differentiate between words, use capitals instead (#AnthonyWinyardEntertainment). Uppercase letters will not alter your search results, so searching for #Anthonywinyardentertainment will yield the same results as #anthonywinyardentertainment.
Numbers are supported, so tweet about #<first_name>4<organization> to your heart’s content. However, punctuation marks are not, so commas, periods, exclamation points, question marks and apostrophes should never be used. Forget about asterisks, ampersands or any other special characters.
Keep in mind that the @ symbol does something completely different. Using @ before a person’s Twitter handle will tweet at him directly, letting him know you have written to him via the @Connect tab. A hashtag will not. Sometimes users will hashtag a celebrity’s name instead of using her Twitter handle — it is acceptable to tweet #Prince or @PrinceMusic. But if you are trying to reach someone directly, don’t use a hashtag.
There are some brides who ask guests to unplug at their wedding, and some who ask guests to go all out with the photo snapping and sharing. If you’re the second type of bride, you’re probably already brainstorming your wedding hashtag — you know, the one phrase that guests will use on Instagram and Twitter to round up pictures of your big day. Instead of the more standard conventions you’ve probably seen all over the place (something like, say, KardashianWestWedding or KimandKanye2014), we bring you 21 unique, creative ideas you haven’t thought of. Of course, replace them with your own names, initials, wedding locations, and such to make them special to your big day.
*Maybe better for a bachelor/bachelorette party than a wedding?