At one of our recent wedding ceremonies, the church requested that guests refrain from photography during the service. I was pleased to comply with this request. The ushers mentioned this quietly to guests on arrival.
The bride and grooom spend thousands of dollars on hiring a professional wedding photographer. Someone who is experienced in capturing this special moment and will know how to deal with lighting and positioning. It makes me sad when wedding photographers are prevented from creating their best work when guests pull out their iphones, androids, blackberries, point and shoot cameras and start snapping away. This is not a moment that can be recreated. Isn't the wedding photographer with their fancy slr equipment going to take much better pictures than a smartphone? Facebook can wait. I have seen pictures of the bride walking down the aisle and almost every person sitting next to the aisle pointing a camera at her. They get in the way of the photographer's frame and all you see is a sea of cameras. I am sure the bride and groom would prefer a sea of smiling faces of their loved ones on their special day.
A wedding ceremony is often a sacred and spiritual event. Live in the moment, put the camera phones away and leave the pictures to the wedding photographer.