You are probably already using social media regularly - Dallas brides are smart and savvy. And it’s nearly impossible to find someone who isn’t using it. Everyone from the local small business owner, a Fortune 500 CEO, and your grandmother has a web presence. But have you thought about using it to make the most of your wedding preparation, planning, and the actual ceremony? Here are some tips for taking your wedding experience – and that of your guests – to the next level.

1.  First stop: Pinterest. You probably already created wedding boards on your Pinterest account showing your favorite Dallas area bridal shops and your wish list items, but consider adding friends and family as board contributors. This allows everyone to share their photos of your special day. You can also use Pinterest to pin your bridesmaids dress choices and allow your bridesmaids to vote. Result: no dressing room drama!

2.  Use your social media presence to Introduce friends and family online before the wedding day. When out of town guests travel to Dallas for your wedding, it makes their experience more enjoyable to know that they’ll already know most of the other guests. People can break the ice before the big day and creates coziness when they meet in person.

3.  A Facebook page dedicated to your experience from proposal to nuptials allows everyone to follow you throughout your journey.

4.  If you want more privacy than a Facebook page will allow, consider a Facebook group. It has a lot of similarity to pages but with more privacy controls and the ability to share large files.

5.  Create an Instagram hashtag. As you, your friends and family, and your guests take photos throughout the entire process, from dress shopping in the Dallas area to driving away in the limo after the reception, having that hashtag will help you to find and identify the photos that have been taken and shared. Make it fun and easy to remember. Be sure to put up a chalkboard sign at every event so that your guests will know what to do. Examples of good hashtags: #JennaAndRob or #MrsRobertson

6.  Do the same thing with Twitter. Twitter, of course, is more for the conversation that you’ll be having for weeks. As you check into venues and shops, Tweeting keeps everyone abreast of your joyful happenings. Using the same hashtag on Twitter than you chose for Instagram makes it simple for everyone to remember.

7.  Use Twitter as a helpdesk. Assign a couple of trusted individuals who aren’t involved in the ceremony the task of answering questions via Twitter. Using your hashtag, guests can ask for directions, gift ideas, etc…

8.  Add all of your hashtags to save-the-date cards, wedding invitations, table tents, and place holders at tables.

9.  Consider asking friends and family who can’t be present to put a special message on Facebook or Twitter. Have someone read them aloud during the reception.

10.  Consider a service like Ustream, which allows you to live stream your ceremony and any other part of your wedding.

11.  Don’t forget videos. You can use YouTube or Vimeo to upload videos that will live forever in the minds of you and your guests.

Lastly, make your ceremony an official social media dead-zone. Let people know in advance – via your social networks – to turn off all devices during the ceremony. As we said, Dallas brides are smart and savvy, but they at the end of the wedding journey, they’re brides and they deserve to have all of the attention focused on them on their very special day.

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