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What is a Wedding Hashtag?
If you haven’t been to a wedding in a while or if the last few you went to were the unplugged type, you may not be familiar with the wedding hashtag. This new trend is huge, following the bride and her bridal party from the first steps of engagement all through the wedding and sometimes even throughout the honeymoon. A wedding hashtag is a phrase that you and your wedding guests will use on social media to tag shared comments and photos on Instagram, Twitter, etc. This is a way to round up all of the images of your wedding, plus the pre- and post-wedding events. While your photographer’s capturing the big moments of the day, your pals will be snapping the small moments that you’d otherwise miss.
Start Early
From the moment you get engaged, exciting and fun wedding prep events and moments will take place. You don’t have to wait until your wedding day to create and hand out your hashtag. Start as early as possible and tell your pals what it is. Your hashtag will be used to tag pictures from your engagement party and cake tastings through your wedding day and possibly even after! In the end, you’ll have a completely documented journey to the best day of your life.
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Make Sure It’s Unique
First and foremost, you want to make sure that the wedding hashtag you pick is completely unique. If you end up with the same hashtag as another bride, you’ll pull up photos from a stranger’s wedding when you search for your hashtag on Instagram! If your hubby-to-be has a unique last name, this won’t be difficult. If your married name is about to be Smith, though, #SmithWedding won’t cut it – you’ll need something that separates your wedding from the rest.
Before settling on a hashtag and giving it out to every single wedding guest, do some homework – make sure nobody’s using that hashtag on social media, especially Instagram (which is where most of your pals will be posting their photos from your special day). If someone did use the hashtag but only posted a few non-wedding photos to go along with it, you’re probably safe. If there are 500 wedding photos using that same hashtag, though, you should rethink it.
Start With Your Names
Your wedding hashtag should have your names in it, whether its your first names, soon-to-be last name, initials or even pet names. Have your friends given you a celebrity-esque mashup name? That’s perfect! If people already have nicknames for you, it’ll be easy for them to remember the hashtag.
Now, Include More Than Just Your Name
A realistic place to start when crafting your wedding hashtag is with your name, but you don’t have to stop there. Your initials, wedding date or reception location can also be used to further customize it. You can also include cute phrases that relate to your theme or your lovey dovey emotions. Put some thought into personalizing your wedding hashtag. A note about using a date: if you’re going to start giving out your wedding hashtag this year, but you’re not planning on getting married for another year or so, this can get confusing and difficult to remember. You also may want to create your hashtag before you have a wedding date secure, which is totally fine!
Make It Easy to Remember
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Use your creative brain to come up with a cute and clever pun. Something that rhymes is ideal, because your guests will have an easy
time remembering it. If you use just your last name and date, it’s not going to be as memorable. You’ll end up with people misspelling the hashtag on social media or, worse yet, not tagging you at all! Play around with synonyms, puns, alliteration and rhymes to create a relevant and memorable wedding hashtag. Need help coming up with something genius? Browse other brides’ wedding hashtags to get your own wheels spinning.
Make It Easy to Spell
A memorable hashtag isn’t necessarily a simple one to type out. Before cementing your wedding hashtag, take a good look at it. Is there something that can be easily misspelled? Do you have a particularly difficult-to-spell last name? Consider shortening it for the hashtag. Do you have two of the same letters next to each other? Flip the phrase around to make it easier on the eyes (and keypad).
Consider Capitalizing the First Letter of Each Word
While most people use all lower case when writing hashtags on social media, your wedding hashtag will be a lot easier to read and remember if you capitalize the first letter of each word. It’ll also make it easier for people to get the pun or joke you’ve cleverly included! Remember that hashtags aren’t case sensitive – they’ll work whether your guests capitalize them or keep them all lower case.
Tell Everyone About Your Hashtag!
Now that you’ve put in the time and effort to create a relevant, interesting, memorable and unique hashtag, it’s time to do the most important part – give it out! Tell your main squeeze, your bridal party and your closest family members. Include it on the Save the Date, invitation and wedding website. At the wedding, put a framed sign with the wedding hashtag on the table with the place cards. You can even include the hashtag on the program and menu!
