For better, for worse: Technology is part of the wedding industry

February is in full swing, and Valentine’s Day is on the horizon – a popular date for wedding proposals.

Following this most romantic of days, wedding planning will begin in earnest for many loved-up couples.

Planning a wedding is stressful enough, and as with every aspect of 21^st-century life, technology plays an ever-increasing role. But in a ceremony that is supposed to represent the love between two people, does technology spoil the magic? Or is it just another way to make the big day that bit more special?

AI wedding speechwriters

A big cause of wedding panic is the speeches, be they delivered by the groom, bride, best man, maid of honour, or parent. As with anything in 2025, AI is here to help.

Countless AI tools and websites that offer to write your speech for you are just a simple Google search away. These tools promise to streamline the process, with most of them guaranteeing “funny” and “heartfelt” results—just enter the recipient’s name and a few choice memories, and you will nail your moment in the spotlight. However, is this really the best idea? After all, the pain of writing a speech is the point.

Writing a speech is difficult, and it should be. The actual process of putting pen to paper to create something both heartfelt and entertaining can be daunting. But when the people closest to you ask you to speak from the heart on the biggest day of their lives, it should be considered an honour. And this sort of thing cannot be rushed; care must be taken. An AI tool might be able to put things into a usable structure—and it might serve as a useful jumping-off point for your writing—but it could never speak from the heart in a human sense, no matter what data you input.

Wedding apps

One useful way in which technology has streamlined the wedding planning process is through dedicated wedding apps. The key word when planning a wedding is ‘organisation’, and these apps go a long way toward coordinating the big day—though some traditionalists may balk at automating some of these tasks.

One of the big apps in this space is Joy. This app lets users invite and manage guests, sort through RSVPs, and organise food and dietary preferences, among other things. You can use the app to set up a gift registry and send thank you cards after the big day. These features are only the surface level of Joy and similar apps, but even these massively help to lift the burden.

However, there is still a big market for physical invitations, and many prefer to do all this without the help of an app. But for those with enough on their plates, this is one welcome use of technology.

Guest technology

Another area that technology promises to revolutionise is entertaining guests on the big day. Often, weddings can involve a lot of waiting around as room layouts are shuffled around or food is prepared. Luckily, technology has you covered. The only limit is your budget and sense of good taste.

Apps make another appearance here, with interactive guest apps becoming increasingly popular. One app, named Betting on the Wedding, encourages guests to take bets on the day. These include things like predicting the first dance, the number of flower girls, or how long the best man’s speech will last. The website highlights that bets should be “friendly,” but depending on the guest list, these bets might drift in a different direction by night’s end.

Photo booths and selfie stations have become commonplace at weddings, allowing guests to express themselves (or acting as sobering reminders of the night’s events the following morning). But technology is revolutionising this area, too, with 360° photo and video booths spinning guests around during the evening and cocktail hour. Virtual and augmented reality technology is being implemented elsewhere but has yet to take off.