Wedding Technology Trends to Enhance Your Big Day

Wedding technology has never been so exciting! 2024 promises some seriously life-changing, time-saving wedding trends.  

From the ceremony to the reception, there are several apps, devices, secrets, and services that can make things easier. Whether you want to turn things up a notch, reduce costs, or just get help with organization, there's something on this list for you.

These are some of our favorite tech wedding ideas that you don't have to be a computer scientist to use:

A blend of tradition and technology in modern weddings

When you first came across this post, you may have wondered, 'What technology is used for a wedding?' After all, the wedding industry, while it does have its trends, isn't exactly known for its innovative changes.

Across all cultures, weddings are steeped in traditions that have been repeated for generations. Today's wedding technology is not meant to subtract from those time-honored ways but to enhance them. 

Here's how to incorporate wedding tech into your big day:

Modern wedding technology for planning and inviting

Whether it's keeping track of your RSVPs in one place or projecting your flower budget with a free tool online, there are plenty of ways to use tech in your wedding planning journey.  These are our top tools online for wedding planning: 

RSVP systems

With online RSVP services, you can do more than just send invites.

Imagine collecting all your spreadsheets, responses, budgeting details, seating charts, vendor contact info, and everything else you'd need in one place you can share and access anytime. There are several different websites dedicated to being your virtual RSVP assistant, such as Paperless Post or Event Create.

Chatbots and virtual assistants for answering queries

Chatbots and online virtual assistants like Hybrid. Chat are some of the fastest-growing tech trends in the wedding industry.

Think about the last time you 'texted' back and forth with customer service, but actually, it was a robot that provided the basic information you needed. A wedding virtual assistant does the same thing with the same technology.

These are a few tasks a wedding chatbot might help with:

• Answer the most basic questions about your wedding, such as time and location
• Send out invites and reminders
• Collect RSVPs
  

Online Wedding Flower Budget Calculator

Did you know you can quickly and easily estimate your wedding flower budget, including bridal and bridesmaid bouquets, garlands, centerpieces, etc?  

Figure out how much you need and how much you can spend with Ling's free wedding flower budget calculator. We created this tool and made it completely free to use, hoping to make your wedding planning process a little bit smoother.

Online wedding registries with QR codes

A QR (quick-response) code is a type of barcode that shares information or URLs when scanned by a digital device such as your phone.

You've seen them before. Have you ever been in a restaurant where you had to 'scan' the menu? You most likely used a QR code.

You can create QR codes to be printed on your wedding invites or send an email or group text. When scanned, the code instantly takes your guests to your chosen wedding registry, website, or social media page.

Canva and Flowcode are easy options for making your QR wedding code.

Working smart with intelligent lighting

Lighting is a budget-happy way to convert the atmosphere of any venue into the exact mood you want.

Intelligent lighting is a wedding tech term used for a type of stage light. An automated mechanism moves the lights to create complex and beautiful visual effects. Sometimes, this type of lighting is used to follow the couple like a floating, beaming stage.

Tech and Gadgets to enhance your wedding and reception

Gadgets make the modern world go ‘round’. Check out these wedding gadgets and items to make your special day extra high-tech:

High-tech wedding rings

Sometimes called a smart ring, high-tech wedding rings are a tech-savvy wedding idea that keeps its usefulness long after the bells of marital bliss stop ringing.

A smart ring is an electronic ring that combines mobile technology with jewelry, similar to a smartwatch. Besides proclaiming your love to the world, tech wedding rings often have cool functions like steps and making contactless payments. 

Get modern with a 3D wedding cake

One sweet culinary trend coming right up! 3D printing is simply having the baker add 3D shapes to your cake. This is a truly modern and fun look that's growing more popular. You could also go for a 3-D cake topper on a more traditional cake.

Project beautiful designs onto your cake

Imagine the cost of hiring a highly skilled pastry chef to hand paint your first photo as a couple together onto your wedding cake... Did you imagine it to be inexpensive? We didn't think so.

Now, we have a more budget-friendly way. To get complex, tech-savvy wedding designs on your cake without breaking the bank, simply project the desired images with lights. Add pictures, lyrics, or maps with (monetary) ease.

Keep your guests charged up

Regardless of our beliefs or backgrounds, what do nearly all of us have in common in 2024? The need to charge our devices.

Charging stations for phones, cameras, and other handheld devices are essential. To this, round up multiple charging (for iPhones and Androids) and position them near an outlet. Dress up your charging station by placing it near a floral centerpiece.

Modern and customized wedding decor with Ling's faux florals

Being modern isn't just about layering up on the latest wedding tech trends. It's about infusing your style into tried and true traditions.

With faux flowers, the possibilities for customization are endless. Sure, there are things like color, size, and flower type. But with faux flowers, you can also accommodate things like GoPros (more on that below) and other modern wedding trends.

Another major reason couples love Ling's artificial flowers is because they have to worry less about protecting their bouquets from things like light wind or sun. Plus, the bouquets and centerpieces will look as fresh at the end of the livestream as they did in the beginning!

Going online: websites and social media

Social media and the online world have opened up all sorts of new wedding tech ideas and possibilities. 

From paperless wedding guest books to wedding websites and Snapchat Geofilters, these are our tips for making the Internet work for your wedding:

Wedding websites

A wedding website is a digital tool dedicated to your event that shares information and allows communication between you and your guests. Most wedding websites are simple, usually based on a template personalized according to your preferences. You can create a wedding website with Squarespace or sites like Zola.

Digital Wedding guest books

This is one wedding tech idea that guests absolutely love!

Digital or virtual wedding guest book allows your loved ones to leave lasting good wishes in a shared, virtual space. Since most people will have their phone charged up (thanks to your handy charging station) and ready for pictures, even your most technologically- challenged guests will be prepared for this one.

‍There are a few key benefits to digital wedding guest books:

• On replay, forever. Similar to faux flowers, your digital wedding guest book will be around for years to come without degrading or damaging.
• Show it off. Easily make compilation videos of notes for everyone to watch.
• Budget. Setting up a virtual guest book is easy and often less expensive than a premium, physical book.
  

Typically, with a virtual wedding book, guests can scan a QR code (which can also be distributed to those not present) and send their congratulations, favorite quotes, jokes, and other love. One of the most popular wedding sites is My Digital Guestbook, but there are plenty of others to choose from.

Social media

Whether it's Facebook for sending out event invites, Pinterest for mood boards, or Instagram for finding local vendors and venues, social media is changing how weddings are projected onto the world.

Here are just a few ways to use social media to enhance your wedding:

• Send out invites. You can use websites like Evite or Paperless Post to send free, customized invitations to your guests. Not only are these easy to customize and edit, but you also get to skip the post office.
• Finding vendors and venues. Use Facebook, Instagram, and Google reviews to choose your wedding vendors and venues.
• Gathering inspiration. Create a Pinterest board of your favorite wedding everything- decor, flowers, dresses, venues, music, you name it. Instagram's 'saved' feature can work similarly.
  

• Wedding hashtags. Inventing your very own wedding hashtag creates an easy way to find and share photos on Instagram. Note: If you're more on the Facebook side of Meta, consider a Facebook group as an alternative. 

• Share photos and videos. Allow guests to use social media or a wedding website to share photos and videos as they take them. Doing so will also keep them involved in the festivities throughout the day!
• Livestreaming. Technically, live streaming is a form of broadcasting, with media intended for reception by the general public.' Unless you're social media famous, the 'general public' will be your beloved friends and family members who couldn't attend the wedding.
  
• Snapchat Geofilters. For those who don't know, a Snapchat Geofilter is a location-restricted feature where users can add photos or videos they take through the app. Essentially, the Geofilters ensure that your media can only be seen by those within a certain radius of a given location.
  

Capturing and storing wedding day memories

Another beautiful thing that wedding technology can do is help us capture and store the most precious moments of our big day. These are just tech wedding ideas for pictures and videos- comment below if you have any others:

Drones for videos and photos

One of the most beautiful aspects of modern technology is how it allows us to see things from new perspectives. In this case, we mean that literally.

Drone photography and videography can capture incredible overhead and panoramic shots of your wedding venue, ceremony, or anything outdoors. Also, a drone video just has major cinematic vibes.

Walk down the aisle: GoPro edition

Also known as a GoPro bouquet, this is another cool piece of wedding tech that creates a unique perspective. 

You can capture the bride's unique POV by placing a GoPro (or any other brand of mini camera) directly into the bridal bouquet. This immortalizes the moment they walk down the aisle in the form of a video forever.

Without this camera size, getting this angle would be nearly impossible without placing the videograph directly in front of the bride (imagine the logistical nightmare).

Tip: Faux flowers work best for GoPro bouquets because organic blooms are easily crushed or destroyed by the camera, even with the careful help of a florist.

Cloud storage for digital assets

If you've been searching for the best way to store wedding photos, this one is for you.

A Cloud is an online service that saves data, like files, pictures, and videos, in an off-site location accessible via the Internet. Ling's recommends keeping the images in a Cloud service and an external hard drive. That way, if one source fails, you'll have the images on a backup. Two storage spots are better than one, especially when it comes to the biggest day of your life! Popular Clouds include Amazon Photos, Dropbox, and Google Photos.

The next big thing: You X Ling's

Feeling up to date on the latest wedding tech trends? If you learned something or think we're missing something innovative, comment below or tag us at @lingsmoment!