Slide Shows at Your Reception

Are you considering a photo presentation at your reception -- photographs tracing the lives of the bride and groom, compiled into a slideshow or montage on DVD or PowerPoint?

You can have the slideshow running on a continuous loop somewhere off to the side, for guests to view at their leisure. Or you can present it as a “show” front-and-center at a particular time while guests are seated.

Presenting it as a show gives you the emotional impact of an audience sighing or smiling as they view the photos on the big screen. And you're sure all the guests see them.

But there are disadvantages. It adds yet another scheduled event to your reception, taking away guests’ time for simply enjoying themselves. And you risk the inconvenience and disruption of something going wrong. I don’t mean to give you something to worry about -- but I have seen all sorts of technical glitches impact these presentations! (The computer reboots, the program freezes, the DVD doesn't play, the monitor isn't set up properly, the projector isn't functioning ... )

Also, there are logistic issues.

--Where do you place the screen or jumbo monitor in the ballroom so that all the tables have a good view?

-- Will the room need to be darkened?

-- Who will set up and operate the computer, DVD player, monitor, and/or projector? Will that person be there come "showtime" to troubleshoot?

-- Will you need to run the audio through the DJ’s sound system?

On the other hand, if you simply have the slideshow running off to the side somewhere on a monitor in a continuous loop, guests can view it at their leisure, and they can view it multiple times if they wish. And if there is a glitch, it doesn’t disrupt the main program.