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SOCIAL MEDIA HAS MADE ITS MARK ON WEDDINGS
Shortly after her fiance’s romantic marriage proposal, Tessa Meeks tried to come up with a clever, fun wedding hashtag.
She eventually came up with a phrase that accurately described her July 2016 wedding to Austin McKanna.
#MeeksMcKannaMerger.
A week or two after her nuptials, the newlywed searched for the hashtag on Instagram and found a slew of photos taken by wedding guests. She said there was so much happening at the wedding reception that it was good to see it from the perspective of her and her new husband’s family and friends.
“I thought it was great to go back and see who was there and what types of pictures they took,” Meeks-McKanna said. “It’s kind of like a social media guest book.”
Wedding hashtags are a result of social media finding its way into one of the most important days in a couple’s life.
It’s a union made in digital heaven.
Meeks-McKanna, who lives in Guthrie with her husband, said she loved the professional photographs taken by the couple’s wedding photographer.
The photos taken by guests simply added another dimension to the celebration. And the hashtag helped her find them.
“It kind of groups all the pictures together,” she said.
Hall and Folkes
That’s what Blaire Hall, of Edmond, had in mind when she decided to create a hashtag for her wedding to Zach Folkes, planned for October.
Hall said she and her fiance had friends who had wedding hashtags but they didn’t think they would have one. The couple eventually decided that a hashtag would be useful.
“I wanted one for people on the wedding day to use so I could look back and see who was there and to see the wedding from a different perspective,” Hall said.
Still, she admitted that when she asked friends and family for help coming up with a hashtag she and her fiance did so almost as a joke — until someone came up with a good one that was a combination of a mashup of their last names and a twist on a catchphrase.
“I posted a picture of us on Instagram and asked for people’s ideas. One of my good friends from college came up with one that we thought was really good: #ThatsHallFolkes.”
Hall said another hashtag they thought was funny was “#Hitdemfolkes,” apparently inspired by the name of a dance. This suggestion also was made by a friend, but they liked the other better.
Hall said she plans to put the chosen hashtag on a sign at her wedding in the hopes that her guests will use it when their post their pictures on social media.
“It’s kind of like an instant album that you can search on Instagram,” she said.
Keeping up
Meanwhile, Charity Fowler Kilinc said she initially was stumped for a hashtag using her married name when she wed Blaine Kilinc in May 2016.
“I just wanted something fun, but I couldn’t think of something to go with Kilinc. I had been watching “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” and I kind of came up with it,” she said.
The E! cable channel reality TV show inspired her to create the hashtag “#KeepingUpWithTheKilincs.”
Blaine Kilinc said he approved of the hashtag.
“We wanted something clever and catchy,” he said.
Friends and family approved, too. “They loved it. They thought it was hilarious, and they thought it was clever,” he said.
Blaine Kilinc said they have used the hashtag well after their wedding to update people about their life as a couple.
The Harrah pair said the hashtag did exactly what they hoped it would. It helped them see how their wedding was captured in photos by others.
“It’s kind of blur when you’re at your wedding, but I could see the types of photos that were taken,” Charity Kilinc said.
Her husband had a recommendation for couples looking to say “I do” in the future.
“I just think it’s fun — everybody should do it. It helps you think outside the box.”
Making the connection
A Durant newlywed said she was lucky enough to have her good friend come up with a great wedding hashtag for her while they were both still in high school.
That’s because the former Madalyn Curran was dating her high school sweetheart Alan Lockhart at the time and she had a feeling they would wed someday.
The hashtag was “#Lockingharts.” “She came up with it and I wrote it down because I knew I would forget it,” said Curran, whose last name became Lockhart after she said “I do” at her June 16 wedding in Cameron.
She said she placed hashtag reminders on tables at the wedding reception to encourage wedding guests to use the hashtag. In a search of social media after the wedding, she knew her guests used the hashtag because she found pictures of her and her new husband’s first dance, pictures of the wedding venue — Barn with Southern Charm in Cameron — pictures of her and her groom with wedding guests and pictures guests took at the wedding photo booth.
“I didn’t know if people were going to use it but it actually went over really well,” she said.
Hashtag help
Here’s some tips for creating a hashtag for a wedding.
• Ask family and friends for ideas.
• Go for something simple. A memorable hashtag may be as simple as pairing the first or last names of the bride and groom together along with the wedding year. Keeping things basic may make the hashtag easier for guest to remember and use.
• Use a wedding generator on the internet.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Getting married? Tell us your love story to be considered for a future edition of the ongoing series “With This Ring.” Send your name, city, wedding date and other pertinent information to Carla Hinton, c/o The Oklahoman, PO Box 25125, Oklahoma City, OK 73125 or email chinton@oklahoman.com.