Are you sufficiently confused by the title of this post and have come here to figure out what the bloody hell it all means?! Read on, lovers…

You’ve all been to weddings where there’s a cute lil sign at the front, politely asking you to keep your phones in your pockets for the duration of the ceremony… right?

If you’ve ever even slightly scoffed at the meaning behind it all, listen up whilst we explain the good intention behind it all and also why it may not be as necessary as you think…

UNPLUGGED CEREMONY

This is the fancy-pants term for telling you to put your flippy iPad case back in your bag, Uncle Peter, because no one wants to see your Medicare & credit cards hanging out of the case whilst you block people’s view taking a shit photo from the back row. A photo that you’ll legit never do anything with. #truthbombs

But jokes aside – the purpose of an unplugged ceremony is entirely based around improving the experience for the couple. No couple wants to look out at this really vulnerable, important moment in time and see thirty phones instead of thirty smiling faces. They want your ATTENTION and your engagement for just twenty minutes and a phone can easily steal this from you. This is the main reason why most weddings will ask you to keep your phones down – which about 95% of people typically follow.

AU CONTRAIRE… YEAHNAH IT CAN BE A GOOD THING

To the contrary, it CAN be a solid ‘fuck yes’ to phones in some instances.

Perhaps you’ve got family that live overseas and you’d like them to livestream proceedings so they feel included from afar? (Rita and Nick below had family in Ireland watching on)

Perhaps you’ve got family that couldn’t be there in person and you’d like to send a few quick photos to ease their disappointment that they couldn’t be there? Or livestream it to them using a phone on a tripod?

Perhaps your family just take lots of photos and you’re not fussed if they want to have their phones out capturing things? If it doesn’t bother you, then why stop them? Gladys and Francis below didn’t mind, and I can guarantee you everyone there still had massive grins on their faces whilst firing off a few photos every now and then.

There’s plenty of reasons why you might not give a shit if people have their phones out. And hey, if it doesn’t impact your experience negatively, then go for it! Your elopement/wedding experience is all about YOU, so if you’re cool with it then don’t feel pressured to search Etsy to find one of those Unplugged Ceremony signs.

As always, you do you!

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