If it's not on Facebook, it never happened
So you planned the perfect wedding, the perfect dress, the absolute best venue, and guess what, you did not go over your budget on anything. Then, your trendy wedding planner or Gen Z cousin (a barely eighteen minnow if you will) pops the prospect of a wedding hashtag. And there you go pouring over the right hashtag of #XwedsY or #TheNewMrsB2018! You did not even spend this much time colour co-ordinating gaye holud costumes and dance routines, and all this for a digital imprint, that may or may not get lost in the infinite cyber sphere, along with all the others from this season.
The 'art' (and in cases madness) that is digital photography in a wedding is not complete until it gets an Album on Facebook, or Instagram. It is a strange phenomenon, where your sixty-year-old uncle, who couldn't rotate a pdf, even if his life depended on it, is snapping away with his fruit/cosmic branded smartphone with filters. Can't blame him though, he's probably making up for all the photos he missed of his own wedding!
Yet, this is the reality; if your wedding photos and videos are not on the social networks, it kind of never happened. And what's more, this 'odd' trend is not budging one bit, but snowballing into something of a nuisance.
On one hand, you have guests taking and posting photos left, right and centre, and on the other hand, you have wedding planners and other family members forcibly 'requesting' to use the right hashtag before posting anything.
Odds are you may even have seen invitation cards specifically mentioning to not share or post anything until a specific date. The worst part of it is if you have not been photographed in the group photos at least seven to eight times, you were not even there!
Your thoughtful gift, the great menu that you can recall months later, even the time you spent selecting an outfit in the 'requested colour' are irrelevant, only because you chose to stay a bit away from the flashlights.
Time and again, you have to wonder, was there a meeting, an announcement or an e-mail lost in your spam folder that contained all the instructions of how to use your social networking platform for every occasion?
And who draws the line for what is rude and what is proper? There may be events where you can wave your ten-foot selfie stick and get applauded for it. And there will be weddings when just even peeking at your phone will be frowned upon.
As for the soon-to-be Mr and Mrs, what's one more stress, right? Why not go all out and compete with your friend who got married last month for the number of 'shares' and 'likes' you get — finally, you have numbers to speak for all your efforts! Maybe this is what Lorde foresaw when she sang 'Everyone's competing for a love they won't receive.'
Everything that continues for an overwhelming amount of time, in the end, either gets buried as a never to be resurrected style, or an immortal statement. Chances are this is the proverbial crux where everyone is trying to discover what to do with the unlimited possibilities that the digital sphere uncovers every alternate hour. Till we can pass this crux, brace yourself once more for waves upon waves of photos and check-ins for the next few months!
But remember, don't cheapen your memories doing what EVERYONE is doing.
Photo: Prito Reza, Wedding Diary Bangladesh