When you got engaged, did you post your happy news on Facebook? Do you share the highs and lows of your private life on twitter? As so many of us share the intimate details of our lives online, there are bound to be times that somebody oversteps the line.

More and more often recently, I’ve been adding a new line to my ‘pre-ceremony warm-up routine’. Along with checking people can hear me at the back of the room, and asking them to switch off their phones, I usually go on to explain ‘today’s rules on photography’.

Some couples rule it out completely. They want their guests to be present during the ceremony in every sense, and that’s fine. Others are relaxed about guests taking pictures, but don’t want them to use flash in case it interferes with the official photographer’s pictures. Others still are happy for everyone to take pictures, or shoot video anytime anywhere. But now we have Facebook and twitter, and they’ve changed the game completely.

So I think it’s well worth taking a moment to talk to your partner about your own Facebook Privacy Policy. If you’re happy for the world to see someone’s iPhone snap of your first blissful embrace on Facebook two seconds after I’ve said, ‘you may kiss’, it’s your call.

But if you want a modicum of privacy, just ask me to say this. “Please feel free to take pictures by all means, but please don’t post them to social media sites until Janet and John give you the OK”.

Thanks to professional wedding photographer Ian Johnson whose snap I’ve used above.
I think he’s right when he says, ‘please tell your guests to enjoy your wedding instead of taking photos!’