The bride & groom reception slide show
(familiar set up?)
Today I had a conversation with another wedding professional about the standard wedding reception slide show. We were both in agreement that they can, sometimes, be a bit much.
I have a love/loathe relationship with them.
LOVE: Personally, I enjoy watching these. I am a photo lover, even with people I do not know! I like to see baby photos through courtship photos. (And I LOVE professional wedding photos) It's always fun to see the the couple growing up. And when I attend a friend's wedding, it's fun to look for myself & all those silly high school pictures we took at Steak 'n' Shake at 2am after the Sweetheart Swirl. You know what I'm talking about.
LOATHE: Professionally, I do not enjoy watching guests getting antsy while being forced to watch. Most brides & grooms have someone in their family who want to take on the responsibility of putting these together--a mom who wants to show off her beautiful boy, or a father who is tech-savvy and wants to spend a lot of time working on this huge project. If you are going to have one, just keep it short & sweet. One song for the groom, one song for the bride & one song for the couple together. That's around 9 minutes total. Max. I suppose I also loathe how non-attractive the screen & projector can be (see above photo...)
If you are having a slide show, when are you going to play it? Are you going to make it an event and play it for everyone right before your first dance? Or just put it on a laptop off to the side and have it on repeat all evening for guests to watch if they want to? Maybe you'll have it playing as guests enter the reception venue so they can watch it during the cocktail hour, informally.
Will there be a cost? Does your venue have a screen for this, or are you going to have to rent one? Maybe they just use the a large wall? What about a projector--do you own one? Maybe you can borrow one from work.
Just remember that it takes a lot of time and energy to put one together, you may need to rent some equipment to watch it, and keep is short & sweet--for your guest's sake!
7 lovely comment(s):
This is so true. I love seeing my friends photos, but I can only take so many of them! Another thing that can seem to take forever is the first dance. My hubby and I took lessons, and our instructor edited down our music for us so we wouldn't have to dance longer than 2.5 minutes. Or maybe he just didn't want our guests to suffer for longer than 2.5 minutes! :)
I agree as well! I have seen some stretch into 20 minutes or longer-and guests get SO antsy!!!
Great tip!!
Jessica
So true! We're going to create a "short and sweet" video, but only show it at the rehearsal. I figure that our families and the wedding party are really the only people who want to sit through it!
Darci--that's a great idea I didn't mention: Show it at the rehearsal! LOVE IT!
i have the honor of putting these together for some of our clients - and yes - i agree - a long photo montage can kill the vibe... i try to shoot for 3-6 minutes... i'd rather leave the guests wanting to see more than having them so tired of seeing pics of these special people.
got any ideas on how to make the presentation pieces (projector/screen) more appealing?
ryan koral
epicmotion.com
Ryan--good to know you, as a professional, try to shoot for 3-6 minutes. I thought 9 was enough, still long, but it's not my specialty!
Personally, I'm not sure how to make the screen look any better. I don't enjoy screens for any decorating purposes--even my husband's pride-and-joy flat tv is not attractive (to me!) in our living room.
As for the projector, the best I've seen has been a ordinary catering cart skirted in standard white linens, like a buffet table would be. This made it a bit more attractive, albeit still a caterering cart.
Bottom line is technical equipqment just doesn't "go" with a lot of beautiful reception rooms. If you've booked a place that has all that stuff built into the room already, that would be ideal!
I personally love the slideshow as I love seeing pictures of my clients growing up, falling in love, etc. However, I agree with many of the previous posters that it can really really kill a vibe at a reception.
A few ideas that I've witnessed that seem to work well is:
-Having the slideshow play on a rotation during dinner or during the cocktail hour
-Watching the slideshow at the end of the ceremony. I was surprised when I first saw this but I've seen a few times now this year and the audience is much more captive!
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