The Pros and Cons of Using Instagram to Capture Your Wedding Photos

 

 

Using Instagram (and a particular Instagram hashtag) to help keep track of all the photos your guests take at your wedding is a fairly simple and increasingly popular way to keep tabs on your wedding photos after the big day is over. However, how do you know if an Instagram wedding is right for you? It varies from couple to couple, and there are a few pros and cons that each bride and groom need to weigh before sharing a designated hashtag with guests.

PROS:

1. Everyone already Instagrams. It's fairly simple to explain to your guests that you're using an Instagram hashtag for your wedding, since most of them are already on Instagram religiously.

2. You get to make one of those cute chalkboard signs telling your friends about your own special hashtag.

3. Filters. Always filters. Plus your guests will have other magical photo-editing powers right at their fingertips, so if you trust their sense of aesthetic you may end up with lots of gorgeous photos.

4. There are lots of cool ways to print Instagram Photos. Services like CanvasPop, Printstagr.am, and Artifact Uprising can turn your Instagram photos into pieces of art to treasure forever.

5. Let's get it straight, everyone loves Instagram. We're totally insta-ddicted to it.

CONS:

1. You might not have ownership of your photos. If you're worried about Instagram (or their parent company Facebook) taking your photos and claiming ownership over them, then think twice about asking guests to post them and read the Privacy Policy. This isn't an issue for every couple -- only for those who feel strongly about owning exclusive rights to their photos.

2. It's public. While only your guests will be searching for your photos with the hashtag, when your friends post their photos that means their friends on Instagram can see the photos too. And anyone who's a jerk and feels like crashing the party can start Instagramming with your hashtag.

3. The photos are actually really small. Downloading photos from Instagram yields photos that are only about 600 pixels wide, which means they'll be too small for you or guests to print large copies at home in high quality. You'll have to get them professionally printed by a service that specializes in high-quality Instagram prints (see above).

4. Filters. Yes, this is a con too. You might be flipping through your wedding photos on Instagram the next day and realize that none of your photos are actually just plain photos of the way the day actually looked. And that might be annoying.

5. Older guests without smartphones or who aren't Instagram savvy can't participate. This means if they're taking photos on their SLR, you'll have to get photos from them separately after the wedding day.

6. It's really hard to download your photos. You have to find the photos online and then save them one by one.

7. People might not upload all the photos they capture. If you're an Instagram lover/user, you know not to flood your stream with a lot of the same photos because that might be annoying for your followers. Your guests might upload a few photos here and there for your wedding, but chances are they'll take a lot more photos that will never end up on Instagram.

So what do you think? Writing from the perspective of someone who works at a wedding app company, some of you are going to think I missed some pros and/or cons and I'd love to hear your thoughts! Did you go for an Instagram wedding, or did you opt for something different? If you did end up Instagramming your wedding, what helped you make that decision?