Smartphones Ruin Weddings: Photographer Begs Clients To Ban The Devices, Guests Too Engrossed In Phones


One wedding photographer has had enough when it comes to guests “ruining” weddings with their smartphones. To drive the point home, photographer Thomas Stewart posted an image to show exactly how serious the issue can be on the bride and groom’s big day. Stewart posted an image that showed a line of women standing in the aisle as the bride approached her groom. The women were quickly snapping photos of the beaming bride to their own delight; however, there was one big problem. The women were so engrossed in the their photos that they didn’t notice they were blocking the groom’s view. Therefore, the groom had to lean out past the aisle to catch a glimpse of his approaching bride. Now the photographer is begging clients to have a completely unplugged wedding ceremony and for the guests at the wedding to do what they came to do, witness the wedding with their eyes and minds instead of from behind their phone screens.

The Daily Mail reports that photographer Thomas Stewart is fed up with smartphone-toting guests at weddings. Stewart says that these guests “make our photos worse” as the images show people with their heads buried in smartphones and other devices. It was also noted that “these people don’t know how to stay out of the way” and that they end up ruining many of the photographs taken on the couple’s big day. Therefore, the angry photographer says he is encouraging all of his clients to have a completely unplugged wedding.

The photographer’s rant was posted to his Facebook page and quickly went viral with many agreeing with his sentiments.

[fb link=”https://www.facebook.com/thomass.stewart.wedding.photographer/posts/1089793941039695:0?] Thomas Stewart Facebook Post[/fb]

Thomas backs up his sentiments with a very telling photograph. The photo, which can be viewed in the embedded Facebook post above or on this link, shows a groom as he sees his bride approaching down the aisle. Photographers love to capture the moment the groom’s eyes meet his bride in her dress for the first time; however, it seems that guests were unaware that the groom may want to see his bride and that the couple may want the moment memorialized. The unaware guests were standing in the center of the aisle with their smartphones out and aimed at the bride. As they snapped their photos of the bride, they didn’t stop to think that they may be ruining the big moment not only for the photographer, but for the bride and groom as well. The groom can be seen leaning to the side in an attempt to peer around the aisle to see his bride.

Wedding rant

Thomas points out that the bride and groom did not invite guests to the wedding to snap photographs. Instead, they hired a professional photographer to do that. Unless the couple has specifically asked you to take photographs, you should assume that they are not expecting you to capture the moments for them. In fact, they are likely expecting you to stay in your seat and be a witness to their wedding. As Stewart so eloquently put it, the couple wants “you there with them in heart and soul, and they want to see your tear-filled eyes as you form part of their wedding ceremony.”

“You are witnesses to their marriage, so for goodness sake, watch them with your eyes and your minds, not your phones.”

The epic rant must have hit home for many newlyweds and wedding guests as it almost immediately went viral. In just two days the rant and photograph has been shared over 56,000 times and received over 82,000 likes.

Do you agree with the photographer that weddings should be unplugged? Did smartphones ruin your wedding or wedding photographs?

[Image by pimpic / Shutterstock]

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