Love and Lobster Coastal New England Weddings

Over the past few weeks I have been helping a lot of my newly engaged friends begin the sometimes daunting process of starting to plan their wedding. To be more accurate, first they need to learn how to plan a wedding and start to plan their planning process. Figuring out what needs to be done and when, is important to not going crazy or becoming overwhelmed.

The team at French’s Point know the ins and outs of when things need to get done and where to start. Even though they completely plan the weddings that are hosted on their property (we are talking full-service, soup-to-nuts, you don’t have to lift a finger planning) they just published a fantastic and detailed timeline based on their years of experience to help other couples who are new to the wedding planning game.

clockwise from top left: Heather Wiley, Amelia Lyon, Erin + Courtney DeJauregui, Annie McElwain, Gia Canali,  Linda Chaja, Flickr-The Cutting Garden,

Sarah & Bob

Mashpee, MA

Sarah and Bob were married in a church wedding ceremony at the Christ the King Parish in Mashpee, MA.  Their beach wedding reception was held at the Hyannis Yacht Club in Hyannis, Cape Cod, MA.  The Cape is very lovely this time of year, and not yet too crowded. It was a nice relaxed wedding and perfectly reflected Sarah and Bob’s love of the ocean, the beach and boating.  Sarah got ready at her family’s Duxbury home where both she and her mother grew up.  Her own mother got ready for her wedding there as well. 

In our world of instant gratification it can be difficult to wait weeks (or months) to see the results of your professional wedding pictures. With all the excitement during your big day, it can be a nice addition to your pro images to also have your friends and family sharing photos in real time. With a wedding of 50+ attendees who are likely to have their cell phones, Instagram is a quick and easy way to get multiple perspectives on your big day, and it lets your guest be involved.

Not only does it give you better perspective on your day and capture unique moments that only your friends and family can photograph, it can also be a great way to connect with the guests who were unable to make it to the ceremony.

Here are a few ways to use Instagram on your wedding day.

Source: Etsy- LoveBird Press, Etsy – Princess Snap, Parastou Bartley, Great Heights Wedding,

#GetAHashtag

This will help you and your guests keep track of everyone’s photos from the wedding on Instagram.  Type your hashtag into Google to make sure its not already in use; you want it to be original and easy to remember (short is best). Something like #sallywaltersayido

Make a Sign

Have a sign on display that reads “If you Instagram, use hashtag #yourhashtag.” It should be something simple and you don’t need to invest in a professionally designed sign, something as simple as a chalkboard sign is perfect.

Ceremony program

Include the hashtag in your wedding program, or give out cards with the hashtag.

Slideshow

For the digitally savvy, you can set up a slideshow of the Instagram photos  at your wedding reception with your hashtag by using the Evenstagram app.

Remember the good times

Share all the photos with your guests and friends online post-wedding by creating a slideshow with Statigram.

Print your images

If you still love the way a photo feels you might want to print your Instagram photos using Printsagram. You can have your photos turned into mini books, calenders or posters. And in case you don’t want to limit the images to just the images you took,  have guests email you the original files of the photos that you want to print. Instagram has copyright restrictions, that won’t allow you   to print your guests’ photos directly from the platform.

Clockwise from top middle: Sesame Letterpress, Kelly Sweet, OnceWed DIY, ozzy garcia, tessa kim, emilie inc., Sarah K Chen, junebug weddings.

We have so much love for all our readers who own wedding businesses and put their heart and soul into making couples dream weddings come to life. We know a lot of our readers are photographers, caterers, florists and venue owners, and we wanted to say thank you for everything you do!

Also, we think it’s so important to help you grow your business, since most of you work from your kitchen table or a small office and don’t get to hear about, and learn from the successes of other wedding pros. We recently supported Tide Creative in collecting data on the wedding industry in Maine and what exactly people are doing to grow their businesses. We hope this helps lead your business decisions so we can all grow as an industry!

Thanks to Tide Creative’s other partners: Greater Portland Visitors + Conventions Bureau, Love and Lobster,Maine Wedding Association and Real Maine Weddings.

You can read the full report and analysis at Tide Creative’s blog.