A phone-free wedding reception keeps phones away past the vows. Through dinner, speeches and the first dance.
Couples usually stop at the ceremony. Aisle, vows, recessional. Phones come back out when the drinks start. That is the short window. The two meanings, ceremony or the whole day, are in a note on what is an unplugged wedding.
A no phone wedding reception is the longer one. You name dinner, the speeches, and the dancing. If you are still deciding whether the ask is the vows or the whole wedding, there is a note on no phones at the wedding.
An unplugged wedding reception, past the aisle
Ceremony-only and a reception with phones away are different plans. One ends when you walk back down the aisle. The other holds through the meal and the first song.
Say which. If the invite only says unplugged, some guests hear vows and some hear all night. The reception version only works if you name the room and the hours.
What changes at the reception
Speeches without a wall of screens. People watch the person standing up. The phone stays on the table.
The first dance without phones held up in a ring. The dance floor stays a dance floor. Late, the song gets to finish, with no phone held up to post it.
The trade is honest. The reception is where most of the guest-eye photos happen. The tables. The dance floor. The late part of the night. Phones away means those pictures wait, instead of landing on a camera roll in the moment.
How couples ask, without policing the room
A sign. A line from the host or the MC before dinner. A short note on the table. Same window, said once, then left alone.
The wording for a door or a table lives in a note on an unplugged wedding sign. What a guest may still do with a phone, and when, lives in a note on unplugged wedding etiquette.
The hired photographer still covers the big moments
Keep the person you booked. They still shoot the entrance, the speeches, the first dance, the portraits you asked for.
The gap is the rest of the room. The other tables. The late dance floor, once they have moved on to one moment. A guest at those tables sees what one photographer cannot be standing in front of.
The photographers we have written up still cover that reception. They live on the directory, including London, Bristol, Manchester, and Edinburgh.
A sealed guest camera, instead of the phone
The tables and the late floor still need a camera. A phone people can scroll and post from is a poor fit for the speeches. That job is a guest camera. There is a note on an unplugged wedding guest camera.
Polajoy is that camera. A sealed guest camera, instead of the phone camera roll.
Guests join with an event code and an account, so after the wedding the whole set can be sent.
Each guest shoots on a 30-shot roll. Ordinary guests hard-stop at 0. If you gift a photographer, the friend with the good eye, they can start another free roll. Ordinary guests do not.
After each shot, ten seconds to Accept or Void. Timeout or a screenshot voids it. A void does not spend a frame. Nothing to scroll or post. A short handwritten note is optional, up to 34 characters. Initials always go on the frame. It seals until the reveal time you chose. Not even you see it first.
When the reveal arrives, the shop is there if you want paper. Nothing auto-ships. Free downloads carry a small wordmark. £2.99 takes it off. Prints never have it.
Setup is free. Pay only if you want prints afterwards. The complete guide walks through looks, table cards, and the reveal. These notes are written by Richard Lovatt, with Kitty. The rest live with the other articles.
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