Pound sign, number, hash, octothorpe... the little # symbol has had quite an interesting life, which you can hear more about on an episode of 99% Invisible we first heard a few years ago (for those of us info nerds). These days it is mostly known as the hashtag (although technically # is a hash and using it to 'tag' a word is then a hashtag #themoreyouknow) and is a permanent fixture of social media, continuously evolving new ways to make itself useful.
Enter: the wedding hashtag. We're not sure if any of you remember the days when disposable cameras were a staple of centerpieces, but that's how people used to capture all those candid moments and invite their guests to be in on creating memories. Boy have things changed a lot since then #octothorpe.
A wedding hashtag isn't only #adorable it also helps you collect all those pictures people take and post on social media. Your photographer will be getting most of the key shots, but you never know what special moment friends will capture - either of themselves having fun or of you! (A here: one of my absolute favorite pictures from my own wedding was one a friend took during the father-daughter dance from further away, they were nice enough to email it to us later #oldschool) So how do you pick one? Well we've rounded up some resources to help get you started.
Disclaimer: some couples prefer to have a note asking people to not take photos during the ceremony, for example, or at least a reminder to silence digital devices. The ceremony in particular is full of many romantic, beautiful and often quiet moments where a cell phone might feel intrusive or disruptive. Phones have managed to work their way into every aspect of our lives #truth so if you would rather keep social media out of it, we think that's cool too.
Disclaimer #2 (ooh, now spotting the # references is like finding Waldo): we just had to share this from the hash/pound/number Wikipedia page "Not to be confused with the Chinese character 井, the sharp sign (♯), the viewdata square (⌗), the numero sign (№), the equal and parallel to symbol (⋕) or the game Tic-tac-toe's grid."
Happy hashtagging!