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With winter nearly here and wedding season winding down, it was time for us to thrown open the doors to the Wedding Collective in Carrington for another stunning and successful open night! With a sumptuous grazing table by caterers Fennel & Co, cocktails by The Roaming Eagle mobile caravan bar, wine tastings by special guests Dirt Candy Wine, and Sam from Silent Shout Entertainment spinning tunes, it was a great way to kick off a Friday night out, while getting plenty of advice from Newcastle’s best wedding vendors, including Collective members Jade Mcintosh Flowers, Laura Cavallaro Milliner, Atelier Rose, Wedding Honey, Newcastle Photobooths, Hunter Valley Video, Life is Peachy — and us, of course! We were also joined by Make-up by Bonnie Lee who was keen to chat about all the latest beauty trends.

The Wedding Collective is a hand-picked collaboration between a group of like-minded wedding vendors, all dedicated to making your big day as special and amazing as possible. We love being a member and working with the other businesses involved. We hold open nights every season — they always feature all our regular members as well as a selection of special guests and industry insiders to inspire you and help you plan your perfect wedding — as well as being open by appointment. Check out our website for more info!

Avengers: Infinity War has officially had the biggest opening weekend of any movie, and we were there at the Downer and Revitalising Newcastle red carpet event, held at Tower Cinemas last weekend. There was live music, face-painting, our Live Instagram Printer, as well as an official event photographer and GIF booth, plus goodie bags for the first 200 tickets sold. The weather wasn’t super but that didn’t stop heroes of all sizes coming out and getting among the action. Avengers: Assemble!

The beauty of our Live Instagram Printer is that it takes something your guests would do anyway – document your event, in their own way, their own style and in their own time, and then sharing with friends and family – and turns that into beautiful keepsakes they will cherish forever. Our printer captures any images uploaded to Instagram and prints them automatically, on the spot and in real time. There’s no extra apps for anyone to download, no tricky instructions, no learning curve.

The trick is the hashtag! When it’s switched on, our printer gets to work automatically scanning Instagram for any posts tagged with your specially-selected hashtag, just like you would if you were searching for photos, and prints a copy of anything it finds, ready for display and collection when your guests are ready.

It’s that simple, and it means creating the perfect hashtag is critical! With that in mind, here are some tips from our crack team of hashtag experts:

Keep it Simple
We’ll advertise your hashtag on signage and, if you choose, a bespoke lightboard, but word-of-mouth is by far our most powerful weapon. You want your guests raving about our printer – and that means sharing the hashtag verbally. Keep it easy to explain and, if possible, easy to spell. We love puns – and we love hashtags that use puns – but they lose their appeal when they need to explained!

Keep it Clean
This goes without saying. Your guests might not feel comfortable using anything not-quite-g-rated hashtags on their public instagram accounts, so keep the dirty jokes for the wedding favours. Plus, there are probably grandparents around!

Keep it Unique
Instagram is a wild, sprawling universe and our Live Instagram Printer is very clever, but not good at distinguishing between your #bestweddingever and the #bestweddingever of Kevin and Kate in Alberquerque, New Mexico, USA. Including your names, venue or something else specific to your wedding will mean our printer prints your snaps, and only your snaps!

Keep it Fun
Simple, clean, unique. Sounds dull, right? It can be, but there’s no reason not to have a play around to make something that sounds good. And if you’re stuck for ideas, that’s where we can help you out. Once you’re booked, we’ll chat with you about the design of your prints and the hashtag, and are always happy to play around with words to find a few that will suit your wedding perfectly!

So, you’ve booked our Live Instagram Printer, you’ve come up with a hashtag and we’ve designed you some gorgeous artwork for your prints, but what are you going to do with them once they’re printed? We offer a couple of different album options, and our fully-trained staff will be on-hand to affix your prints and gather well-wishes from your guests — but let’s face it, these prints are so cute you might want to show them off instead. Or do both — our double print option means you can put one copy in an album and hang one on a display wall until your guests collect them, either during the night or get them to hold off until farewells for a living, growing photo-album. Clever!

This display board from Chris and Christie’s recent wedding had plenty of space for prints and the accompanying sign meant that people knew exactly what they were looking at – and were keen to get in on the act!

This DIY board shows just how easy it is to craft something unique. Board, timber cut-out letters, some string and buttons and you’re all set. The bold colour choice make your photos pop and gets the attention these snaps deserve.This is a more understated option, but we love how pretty it is. Your guests can find their prints, take one copy home with them and add the other to the box below with a message of love to you on the back!

These two we set up for various open days, and show that you can re-purpose just about anything to create a photo display. The room divider is part of our collection and we get requests for it regularly!

This isn’t one of ours – it’s a Pinterest find – but it shows just how easy it is to create something that not only displays your Click Tag Print snaps, but becomes a stunning focal point at your wedding. Mini-pegs, fairy lights and some ivy vine, and all you need are the selfies. Bonus if you can convince your guests to keep them to black and white! 

In short, the only limit is your imagination. Most of these display ideas are pretty simple to put together with just the barest bit of craftiness, but if you don’t even have that, have a chat with us – we’ve got a selection of boards, frames and mirrors you can hire, and our fully-trained attendant will be there on the day to make sure your photos look stunning, no matter which option you choose!

A standard inclusion in all of our ClickTagPrint packages is a fully-trained attendant, who also acts as a roving photographer during your event. We’re always being asked what the roving photographer does, and this is one where it might be better to show, not tell! The above shots from Olivia and Lyle’s wedding at Wallalong House earlier this year were all taken by our roving photographer. We captured everything from the cake, flowers, cars and venue to arrivals of the guests and bride, as well as some lovely posed shots of the happy couple, trying to get everything that your guests might miss, so your album of polaroid-style prints is a true reflection of every aspect of your day.

Our roving photographer is also vital to getting your guests involved. Because Click Tag Print and our Live Instagram Printer is a relatively new concept, we’re leading by example: snapping, tagging, uploading, and making sure that whatever you’ve chosen to display your CTP prints during the day is always full of photos. We’re also there to get shots of groups too big to fit into a selfie, answer any questions about the Live Instagram Printer, and offer tips to your guests for getting the best results – all while staying as unobtrusive as possible!

Does our roving photographer replace a professional wedding photographer? We don’t think so! We like to think we complement them. Your professional wedding photographer has only one focus on the day: to capture all the important parts of your wedding. They’re working with high-grade equipment and they’ll process and edit the images before you get them. We’re more about the smaller moments – details, candid shots of your guests and wedding party, unexpected moments. We’re shooting on phones so we can upload our photos directly to Instagram. The final result is warm and intimate with a different feel to what your professional photographer will offer you.

Want to find out more? Give us a call or send us an email. Or if you’ve got any other questions you’d like answered about how it all works, leave a comment and we’ll get to them in a future post!

Forget the fillies, the real stars of the Spring Racing Carnival are the frocks and fascinators – or at least that was the case at last weekend’s Hit106.9 Ladies Day at Newcastle Racecourse. There was plenty of action on the track but in the marques is was all bling and brilliance, and our Live Instagram Printer was going non-stop.

Crowds were treated to goodie bags thanks to Hit 106.9, wowed by Former Miss World Australia Erin Holland and social influencer extraordinaire Brittney Lee Saunders, and dazzled by the roar of the horses storming home. And, of course, the competition for best-dressed was fierce. With everyone glammed up and dressed to impress, it was a perfect opportunity for a selfie or three and we loved seeing the results flowing out of our little printer and delighting the waiting crowds.

Next stop: Melbourne Cup.

(From top: our ClickTagPrint display, Stephanie Baynie from Steph Baynie Illustration, Erin Holland, our customised hashtag display, goodie bags, Sarah and Eliza from The Body Shop at Home)

Winter is a quiet time for weddings, which means it’s the perfect time to get out and show off our Live Instagram Printer. Last weekend’s Hunter Newcastle Wedding Expo at Caves Beachside Hotel was a great opportunity to meet prospective brides and show them just how clever our little box is. And it wasn’t just the brides and vendors that came out to play – the weather was absolutely stunning too!