When Brooklynite Jenna Cardone got engaged last August, the 25-year-old nurse started mapping her wedding content strategy the very next day — naturally.
“Content has always been a priority for me,” said Cardone, who is planning a wedding ceremony where phones and cameras will be off-limits. “You can never be too careful with family members dying to be the first to post about something on Facebook to show off for people they haven’t seen in two decades,” she told The Post.
Instead of the usual free-for-all, Cardone will take a tightly curated approach. The social-savvy bride-to-be has already treated her bridesmaids to a PowerPoint presentation, detailing their roles as official creators on Cardone’s special day, next October. One bridesmaid will be charged with revealing the bride in hair and makeup on Instagram on the morning of the “NYC warehouse modern-chic” affair. Another will post a “first look” TikTok of the bride-to-be, set to the tune of Beyoncé’s “Freakum Dress.” And, after tying the knot, her maids have been tasked with making sure to capture a mix of photo and video from Cardone’s “first dance.”
Control-freaking over wedding content has long been associated with image-conscious celebs like Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, who asked guests at their Georgia wedding last week to sign nondisclosure agreements (and fumed when footage from the elegant ceremony was leaked online). Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kate Bock banned phones from her recent nuptials, later gushing over her guests “being present, engaged, and in it.” Peloton powerhouse Ally Love raised eyebrows over the strict social-posting schedule handed down at her wedding last year, a five-day affair at the Rosewood Mayakoba in Mexico. But, increasingly, less-famous brides and grooms are obsessing over how images from their nuptials trickle out to social media followers, uninvited quasi-friends and great aunts who don’t travel.
“Couples typically now are very conscious of what people are [putting] on social media,” said Raymond Bechard, a New York City-based wedding officiant, who told The Post he has recently been asked by some image-conscious brides to include a line in his speech asking guests to refrain from any photo taking or sharing during the ceremony. Bechard said he understands why.
“Perhaps someone has 100 guests at a wedding — that’s 100 chances for bad photos and videos to be posted at their wedding. This lasts forever, and they don’t want it out,” he said.
The content chokeholds are having an impact on the way businesses that rely on weddings conduct themselves. New York City-based luxury wedding planner Kate Edmonds, of Kate Edmonds Events, is finding it increasingly difficult to share her elegant work with prospective clients — because she can’t unless the bride does first. And Bridezillas are getting things in writing.
“I sign NDAs for my clients 40 to 50% of the time,” she told The Post.
Brides, many of them with considerable followings on TikTok and Instagram, say that control is crucial.
For Manhattan-based lifestyle content curator Kate Turner, 28, photos of her May wedding doubled as potentially lucrative content for her following of nearly 20,000 on Instagram. A wedding photo wasn’t just a wedding snap, but a way to help make the micro-influencer more attractive to brands.
“I provided my photographer with a vision board. I was very strategic,” said Turner, who had her makeup artist double as a reel-maker breaking down her “first look” to share on Instagram.
When 39-year-old Manhattan-based content creator Bridget Bahl, co-founder of clothing brand The Bar, gets married in early 2023, she’ll have a professional TikToker on staff for the entire wedding weekend.
“I’m a Bridg-zilla,” Bahl quipped to The Post, noting that she had created a TikTok account in order to detail her wedding journey.
Bahl plans to hold a Q&A session for her followers post-nuptials, and has seven episodes planned for her YouTube channel, giving behind-the-scenes details from the planning process, at the venue and her journey to finding the ultimate designer dress. Getting a wedding planner that understands her content vision was no easy feat.
“It sounds horrible, but I’m on my third wedding planner,” she said. “I didn’t settle for a husband — I’m not gonna settle for a planner.”
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