Technology is taking over our lives. It’s developing so fast that its influence is everywhere, and scarcely are we without a piece of technology and access to the world wide web in our every day lives. Even weddings, that most traditional of activities is starting to be affected by technology, but should weddings become more modernised and embrace technology or should they remain routed in tradition with not a pc in sight? I reckon it’s about time we found out!
In the Red Corner, fighting for a tech-free (well, apart from the odd digital camera tech-free) celebration, she spends half her day screaming at her computer and the other half glued to an iPad, it’s Dom “The Tog” Bride
In the Blue Corner, busy googling arguments on his iPhone whilst composing a tweetable wedding vow, he loves technology but believes it will only truly meet its potential if they start trying to build more things into Delorean’s and get those floating skateboards released at last, it’s Matt “The Gormless”Groom
Technology Vs Tradition
Let cyber warfare commence!
Matt: Technology is spreading so rapidly precisely because it opens up new options that were previously impossible. What about inviting those friends and family members that couldn’t make it to watch the ceremony via Skype? If, for example, an elderly relative can’t make the trip they don’t have to miss out and that’s amazing thing that never used to be possible!
Dom: But it’s not the same as them actually being there! If your wedding is being broadcast around the world it doesn’t feel as personal and could lead to fewer people actually making the trip and just watching online instead. Having your loved ones around you is far more important on the day than people watching it on a pixelated screen somewhere!
Matt: Technology doesn’t need to take over proceedings but can be used to enhance things. I’ve seen lots of speeches use projections to illustrate a point or flash up funny pictures which can be very effective and take some of the pressure off the best man to get laughs through the speech itself!
Dom: It can be effective but more often than not it proves a distraction with people not looking at or properly listening to the one giving the speech. If you need visual aids then get some big photos printed out or posters made up and hold them up in your own hands or with the aid of an assistant! It’s far more personal than a Powerpoint presentation and has a lot more character which your guests will love!
Matt: Some photographers and videographers do a same-day edit which can be shown to the guests as part of the celebrations! This can be a great form of entertainment in the evening and without modern technology this wouldn’t be possible!
Dom: But is a same day edit a good idea? Part of the excitement of wedding photos and videos is that you don’t get them immediately, that the excitement rises and you get to relive the day later on. Your wedding day is exciting enough without seeing the photos there and then, and they’re never going to look as good as they can if the time hasn’t been spent on them.
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Matt: Tablet computers can be a really useful aid in delivering a speech. Rather than having scrawled out notes on a piece of paper that can be hard to read with small writing in a dark room, you can have them on a nice illuminated screen and even download apps to make it scroll the text for you like a teleprompter!
Dom: True, but pieces of paper never crash, run out of battery, apply a screensaver, “hibernate”, flip the image, try to update themselves or beep at you mid-speech! Technology can easily (and frequently) go wrong and you don’t want to be left standing in front of hundreds of people with nothing to say! Half of delivering a good speech is eye contact and body language, you need to rehearse well enough that you don’t need to have your head down staring at a computer! Having a series of cards with notes on should be enough to help jog your memory!
Matt: What about new technology for playing music? With modern software and MP3 players you can easily pre-prepare a playlist of hours of music and leave it playing to entertain the guests without the absolute need for a DJ. It’s a cheaper option and software can even do a pretty good job of mixing tracks seamlessly. You can even create your playlist pre-wedding and share it online with services like Spotify and ask your guests to add in some of their own tracks to ensure there’s truly something for everyone!
Dom: But it’s never as good as live music! DJ’s interact with the crowd, take requests and change the direction of the musical selection depending on what’s getting people up on the dance floor. A live band is even more effective at getting people dancing because people like to feel a part of the music, that someone is playing it to them, not that a piece of tech is just spitting out tunes relentlessly!
Final Remarks:
Matt: Technology exists to help us and it can assist in all kinds of ways for a wedding. We live in a computerised age and perhaps it’s time weddings did catch up with the modern world and become more integrated without losing that sense of tradition. Vintage styles can be really cool but so can very modern styles and there’s nothing wrong with mixing the two if it enhances the results.
Dom: Wedding ceremonies are highly traditional and all the better for it! There’s nothing wrong with wedding fashions changing, but technology just isn’t necessary and could be highly disruptive. Tech frequently fails and can cause more problems than it’s worth. There’s something about the old ways of doing things that seems more fitting to a wedding… signing an old-fashioned looking register, and experiencing the smell of the parchment rather than just typing something into a computer, that kind of thing. At our wedding we left out old film cameras and a polaroid camera for the guests and people had so much more fun with them than using modern digital cameras! Let’s keep it traditional!
We’d love to hear your thoughts on this debate so please do join the fight! Let us know where you stand via our comments section, or catch us on Twitter or Facebook. Alternatively you could drop us a telegram, write us a letter or have a carrier pigeon carry a note to us! I’m sorry to announce that our morse code interpreter has sadly finally retired though!
