An unplugged wedding sign asks guests to put their phones away during the ceremony, so the photographer gets a clear view and people look at you, not a screen. Below are ten ready-to-use lines, each sized for an 11 by 14 inch print. Pick one in the maker above, add your names and print.
Wording table: ten unplugged lines by tone and print size
Each row is one complete line you can copy as written. The size columns come from our own layout rules, explained under the table.
| Tone | Line for the sign | Words | At 11 x 14 | At Letter scale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warm | Today we are celebrating. Please put your phones away and be here with us. | 14 | 60 pt, 4 lines | 46 pt |
| Plain | This ceremony is unplugged. Please turn off your phones and cameras. | 11 | 60 pt, 4 lines | 46 pt |
| Photographer first | Our photographer is working. Please keep your phones down and your aisle clear. | 13 | 60 pt, 4 lines | 46 pt |
| Playful | Be present, not on Instagram. We will share the photos soon. | 11 | 60 pt, 4 lines | 46 pt |
| Cheeky | Phones away until the kiss. Our photographer has the rest covered. | 11 | 60 pt, 4 lines | 46 pt |
| Short | Unplugged ceremony. Phones off, please. | 5 | 60 pt, 2 lines | 46 pt |
| Gentle | We would love to see your faces. Please keep phones put away during the ceremony. | 15 | 60 pt, 4 lines | 46 pt |
| Formal | Dani and Chris kindly request an unplugged ceremony. Photographs will follow. | 11 | 60 pt, 4 lines | 46 pt |
| With a photo window | After we kiss, the officiant will invite one photo. Until then, phones away. | 13 | 60 pt, 4 lines | 46 pt |
| Sentimental | Please look up. We want you to remember this moment, not film it. | 13 | 60 pt, 4 lines | 46 pt |
Table: ten unplugged sign lines with word count and print size (our estimate, assumptions below).
How we sized it, as an estimate. The sign is 11 by 14 inches, portrait, with 1 inch margins, so the text area is 9 inches wide. We assume an average character is half the font size wide, which gives about 21 characters per line at 60 pt. We cap the wording at 4 lines, which leaves room above for a heading and below for names.
The Letter column shrinks every size by 8.5 / 11, about 0.77. A 14 inch sign scaled that way is 10.8 inches tall, so it still fits a Letter sheet. Ten lines, one rule, no judgment calls.
Pick the tone by who is in the room
Your guests set the tone more than the venue does. Here is how the ten lines pair with different crowds.
- Mixed ages, many relatives: Warm, Gentle or Sentimental. They explain the reason without sounding like a rule.
- Friends who live on their phones: Playful or Cheeky. A joke gets a nod where a rule gets a shrug.
- A hired photographer who has asked for a clear aisle: Photographer first. It gives guests a job they can do.
- A traditional or religious ceremony: Formal or Plain. Swap “Dani and Chris” for your names.
- A tiny elopement-style crowd: Short. Fewer words fit better on a small sign.
If your ceremony will pause for one photo, use the With a photo window line. Guests relax when they know a camera moment is coming.
Where the request needs to appear
A sign is one of several touches. Etiquette advice from one author suggests four: leave the request off the formal invitation, put it on your wedding website, post a sign where guests enter and have the officiant or a wedding party member give a short, friendly reminder just before the ceremony.
Follow that order. The website tells guests early, the sign catches them at the door and the officiant has the last word with everyone seated. The ceremony script with officiant lines has a natural spot for the reminder, right after the welcome.
Worked example: Dani and Chris, 4:00 PM, 80 guests
They marry outdoors at 4:00 PM. Guests are told to arrive at 3:30 PM. A friend carries the sign out and sets it on an easel at the start of the aisle path.
Example, our own calculation with assumed numbers.
- Line chosen: With a photo window, 13 words, 4 lines at 60 pt.
- Reading distance: guests walk up and read from about 4 feet.
- Rule of thumb gives 4 / 10 = 0.4 inch of capital height at minimum.
- A capital is about 0.7 of the font size, so 0.4 / 0.7 x 72 = about 41 pt minimum.
- At 60 pt the sign has capitals of about 0.58 inch. It passes.
- At Letter scale the type is 46 pt, capitals of about 0.44 inch. It passes, with little to spare.
- Sign out at 3:15 PM, 15 minutes before arrival. Officiant reminder at 3:58 PM.
- Paper: 1 large sign, plus 2 small copies for the first row, so 3 sheets.
The 41 pt minimum comes from a rule written for road and storefront signs, so treat it as a ceiling that is stricter than a ceremony needs. If your guests will read from farther away, say 8 feet, the same math asks for about 82 pt, which fits only the Short line.
For the rest of the morning, the 4 PM ceremony timeline shows where a 3:15 PM sign setup falls.
Mistakes that make the sign backfire
- Putting it at the guest book table. People cluster there and block it. Set it on its own stand before the seats.
- Sounding stern. “NO PHONES” in capitals reads as a warning. Give a reason, as in the Photographer first line.
- Ignoring guests who need a phone. A parent on call for a sitter may need it on. Add a line to your website: “If you need your phone, keep it on silent and step out.”
- Never telling the photographer. If the sign promises photos “soon”, confirm the timing first. Send them the line before you print.
- Printing at the wrong size. Choose actual size in the print dialog, not fit to page, or the type will shrink below what reads from a few feet.
A short script for the officiant
The spoken reminder should take about ten seconds. The officiant can say: “A quick note before we begin. This ceremony is unplugged, so please put your phones away. Dani and Chris want you here with them, and the photos will come to you soon.”
Match the sign’s tone. If your sign is the Cheeky line, the officiant can be playful too. If it is Formal, keep the reminder plain.
Print it in five steps
- Pick one line from the table in the maker above.
- Add your names if the line uses them, or leave them off.
- Choose 11 by 14 for a print shop, or Letter for home.
- Set scale to 100 percent and turn off headers and footers.
- Print one copy and check it from 4 feet before printing more.
Pair it with other signs
An unplugged sign works best as part of a small set. The wedding signs overview helps you decide which ones you need and how big each should be. Add a guest book sign wording page for the table by the door, and a welcome sign for the entrance to greet people first. If you are unsure about legibility, the size guide for viewing distance works through the math for larger frames. A line in your ceremony program template repeats the request for guests who sit down and read.
Save for later
Pin it now and find it when you are ready to plan.
Questions people ask
What should an unplugged wedding sign say?
Say what you want and why, in under 15 words. Name the action ("phones away"), give a reason or a time limit ("until the kiss"), and keep the tone of your wedding. A sign that explains itself gets less eye-rolling than a bare rule. Pick one of the ten lines in the table above, then add your names if you like.
Do guests respect unplugged signs?
Most will, but a sign alone does not guarantee it. We found no survey with a reliable rate, so we will not quote one. What helps is repeating the request in three places. Use a sign at the entrance, a line on your wedding website and a spoken reminder from the officiant. Guests who see it more than once rarely claim they missed it.
Where should the sign go?
Put it where guests see it before they sit, which means the ceremony entrance or the path leading to it. Etiquette advice points to the same spot. Use an easel or a stand at about eye level, and avoid the guest book table, because people cluster there and the sign gets blocked. A second small copy on the first row is a good backup.
Can I print an 11 by 14 sign at home?
Not on a standard printer, which stops at Letter or A4. You have two choices. Send the file to a print shop and ask for 11 by 14 inches at actual size. Or print at Letter and set the scale as shown in the table above, which shrinks every size by the same amount. Check the type still reads from a few feet away.
Sources
- dianegottsman.com/2016/05/16/unplugged-wedding-etiquette-7-tips (opens in a new tab) : Advice to keep the request off the formal invitation, put it on the wedding website, post a sign where guests enter and have the officiant or a wedding party member give a brief friendly reminder before the ceremony. Also that guests blocking the photographer's view is a common problem. One etiquette author, so it is convention, not a rule.
- www.signs.com/blog/?p=16381 (opens in a new tab) : Rule of thumb of about 1 inch of letter height per 10 feet of viewing distance. A commercial sign vendor writing about road and storefront signs, so we treat it as an upper bound and label our sizes as estimates.
Updated by bigdaydesk editorial
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