It’s no secret, Instagram is a social media powerhouse! Add to that a cool iPhone app called Wedding Party and what do you have? An indescribably awesome way to view your big day through the eyes of your guests. Throw Twitter into the equation and what’s the result? A digital guestbook full of well wishes! In a world full of Apple iPhone addicts, we think it’s safe to say these ideas will be the “apple” of your eye! For the dish on how to use these social media apps at your wedding, read on! 

Instagram ::People LOVE this popular app, so much so, it’s almost a religion! With cool filters that allow you to edit and post your pictures, Instagram is definitely the #1 photo app. That’s how you know on your big day, people are going to be uploading pics to IG (IG = Instagram) like crazy. And since that’s 99.9% more than likely to happen, do this nifty little trick to view all your wedding photos IN ONE PLACE! Create a hashtag, unique to you and yours (example: #wedo!jackandjillswedding), then let your guests know about it through your invites and signage. When your guests put this hashtag on their photo, you’ll be able to search your hashtag and see all the photos in one place! Plant the IG seed pre-wedding by including an insert with your wedding invites (as local bride, Kim Moriguchi has done)! Then, for signage, create a sign at the reception table and/or place cards. Bride Courtney and Groom Jared did just that on their big day, the photos below are what resulted! *Swoon* PS: Check out a cool iPhone + INSTAGRAM ONLY wedding, all the way down below! 

Twitter ::You could have one little birdy wish you well on your wedding day, but wouldn’t it be better to have hundreds of  birdies giving you well wishes instead? We think so! Something to think about on your wedding day is setting up a “Tweeting” station for your guests! Have the station consist of a projector, a projection screen and something (like a laptop or iPad) for your guests to tweet with. As your guests tweet, they’ll show up on the feed on your projection screen for everyone to see. Then, making use of those unique hashtags, simply have your peeps insert the hashtag somewhere into their loving tweet. Once the day’s come to a close, search your hashtag and read each love note! HELLO, easy peasy digital guest book!  TWC Tip? Use the same hashtag for Twitter and Instagram, so it’s easy for your guests to remember.

Wedding Party ::So you love the idea of Instagram AND you love the idea of the digital guestbook via Twitter. Well, we’ve caught wind of a hidden gem that can be found in the Apple App Store and we’re spilling the beans! Specific to the iPhone crowd, this app called Wedding Party is simply to die for! What does it do? More like what DOESN’T it do?! We’re giving you the scoops on all the benefits of this TOTALLY AWESOME APP! 

1. It’s FREE! (We love free!)

2. Have a wedding website with My Wedding? You can connect this app to it! Which means: Every note and every photo that’s captured will be posted LIVE to your site! TWC Tip? Share the link to your site so that friends and fam who can’t make it to your big day, will still be able to bear witness via photos. :) 

3. Batch Uploads! Let’s say  your guests take 100 photos... instead of uploading them one by one (snore!) they can upload them ALL AT ONCE! Say whattt? Wedding Party allows guests to upload more than one photo at once. We love the efficiency of that!  

4. Timeline? Yes please! Wedding Party organizes your photos by chronological order! That means, you’ll view your photos IN ORDER of how they were taken. Now that’s a cool way to watch how your big day unfold!  

5. Similar to beloved IG, your guests will be able to comment and interact on each other’s photos. 

6. Guests have to sign up to use the app. The plus? For quick and easy access, guests can login/signup through their Facebook! 

7. You’ll want to let your guests know to download and use this app, but how? Easy! Like IG, you’ll want to have place/table cards and signage. The awesome part about it? Weddingpartyapp.com provides FREE and CUSTOMIZED place cards that you can download and print as you wish. 

8. The app ALSO allows for users to write notes and share toasts! Which equals a digital guestbook, just like Twitter.  

9. To customize this app for your guests, YOU can choose a “cover photo” of you and your fiance to welcome your friends & fam to Wedding Party.

10. Once your big day comes to a close, as is customary in today’s world, you’ll be wanting to share all the wedding goodness with your Facebook friends! And you can easily do so! Wedding Party will create an album for you with just one click. Hooray, that leaves enough time for you to actually enjoy being newlyweds!

We know, we know... this Wedding Party app is like a dream come true! With oodles of features that are oh-so-loveable, we can already hear  you asking, “Where can I sign up?” We’ll tell you where... right here! weddingpartyapp.com 

On the topic of Instagram photos, we thought we’d share with you this set of awesome photos! Couple Jonathan and Brandi requested their wedding be shot with an iPhone ONLY! Now that’s some major iPhone love! Professional photographer Kim A. Thomas, who was up for the task, got gorgeous photos, you’d never think were taken from an iPhone! To read more about it and for a full set of photos, click here.

Whatever you decide to do, whether it be having your guests (or a professional photographer!) take photos or #hashtagging your wedding away, there’s one thing you can be certain of! Using social media on your big day will result in truly beautiful memories!