When I'm chosen to document an important moment as a wedding, I don't care about the time, don't care about the money, don't care if they take more or less time to respond to emails!

The responsibility I feel for being present and documenting such a unique and unrepeatable moment in the lives of those two people always speaks louder than anything else.

I often say when my back hurts, when I have a cold or fever that if I had to go photograph a wedding, everything would go by faster! Indeed!

But photographing a wedding increasingly raises news challenges that today's life add to the task. Everyone has a cell phone, everyone has a tablet or a camera that takes incredible photos and it is increasingly demanding to put myself in the position of the person responsible for documenting that moment and putting the others in the position of the people responsible for enjoying the moment, just that, without worrying about taking pictures, posting them on social networks and tag some friends.

The topic of "unplugged weddings" has become more and more brought to the table, especially in meetings with brides and grooms who, wandering through the galleries of some of the works I did, realize that there is always someone in between us, who are "just" the photographers, and the bride and groom. There is always another camera, a cell phone, a tablet... and if we often manage to keep them from getting in our way, other times the requests are not always accepted in the best way!

But what is an "unplugged wedding"? In fact, it is just a wedding in which your guests, family, and friends gently turn off their phones and cameras and are only present, living and enjoying the moment, after all, they were invited for that, right?

Watching a bride walking down the aisle without being able to see the groom because there are so many cell phones in between, watching a bride entering the church and instead of looking in the eyes of those who were invited to her day, looking at the backs of the their phones, watching a groom in tiptoes trying to peek over phones, cameras and tablets to get to see the bride walking arm in arm with her father... this is a sad reality for many couples, but also for me as a photographer. But what to do? How to manage this situation without upsetting the guests and not defrauding their expectations?

How to plan an "unplugged wedding"?

Here are some ideas:

- Mention your intention in your invitations!

- Tell your will to your family, friends, godparents, and godmothers. Ask them to aware people around and intercede if anyone decides to break your request.

- Inform through who presides to the ceremony or placing an announcement at the entrance of the church/space, asking for mobile phones and other devices to be switched off, for people to feel and enjoy the moment because there is someone responsible for documenting it forever, mention they will have access to all the pictures after and, above all, remind them that they are there because they were chosen to live such a special moment! To share tears and emotions and not pictures on instagram!

Being present seems so simple, but with today's distractions, with the ease of connecting to the world in a blink of an eye, it seems that we no longer know how to live every moment fully!

Be whole in your wedding! And do it in your friend's weddings too!

This moment is unrepeatable!

Moments like these are unrepeatable: