It’s a fun custom at modern weddings to put a disposable camera on every table at the reception and allow the guests to snap away.
The disposable cameras are then collected at the end of the reception and sent off to have the photos developed.
As I said, it’s great fun, and many, many couples have acquired a wonderful and utterly unique record of the wedding reception from this approach.
However, using disposable anything is a terrible idea, and I hope that this is a custom that will die out.
Did you know that the United States, all by itself, uses over 24 million disposable cameras?
That’s enough to create a small mountain of non-biodegradable waste.
So, banish all thoughts of using disposable cameras and instead, go digital.
Because of the expense of digital cameras it may not be practical or even possible to put a digital camera on every table at the reception.
But who says you need a camera on every table.
Why not borrow a nice selection of digital cameras, say half a dozen or so, and leave them at strategic locations throughout your reception venue?
That way, you can still have a variety of people taking photos throughout the reception and you’ll probably wind up with a great sampling of wedding pictures of your nearest and dearest partying and carrying on at the reception.
Another plus about using digital cameras is that you’re spared the expense of developing every photo, even the ones you might not want, like the ones drunken cousin Ernie took of his own butt after he’d had one too many wedding toasts.
With digital photos it’s easy to delete the inappropriate images, the bad ones, and anything that’s blurry, out-of-focus or looks too dark.
And let’s face it; the photos you get from disposable cameras are frequently pretty lousy.
They’re grainy, they’re out of focus and the colors are garish.
Plus, you have to consider the environmental cost of developing photos.
The chemicals used to develop conventional film aren’t exactly good for the environment.
When you go digital, you’re bypassing a lot of the garbage that gets pumped into the environment from conventional photo developing.
If you have the right kind of inkjet printer, you can buy photo paper and print your own photos at home, which costs a whole lot less than sending pictures out to be developed and is a whole lot better for the environment as well.
So go digital and make your wedding photos as green as your menu, your venue, and your trousseau.
