When cameras are placed on the tables at a wedding reception, who do they belong to ? the guests, or do you have to give them back to the Bride & Groom ?
My understanding was that they were there for the guests to take photos with that the bride and groom could then get developed. This way they get lots of photos of the wedding that an official photographer probably wouldn't capture.
My wife and I did the same at our wedding; left out 10 disposable cameras for the guests to snap away with on the premise that we got them back at the end to develop the pictures.
I always understood it was for the happy couple. When some friends of mine got married most of their guests made off with the cameras and they were really upset at missing all the photos.
Some other friends had a lovely idea, rather than cameras on the tables they got a special book and drew in spaces on each page for an A4 photo and then passed it round all the guests with a camera so that they could take a picture of themselves and write a personal message in the book for the photo to be inserted once they had been developed.
They are definitely for the bride and groom as guests may see photo opportunities that the official photographer may not, also the pictures will obviously be less formal and staged. There are poems on the internet that you can print out to ask the guests to take photos, but then leave them behind at the end
At my sisters wedding we gave all the kids cameras and told them to take pictures of the grown ups. It kept the kids out of trouble and the photos were stunning because people tend to ignore kids so they were really natural.
Manealca, you may laugh, I went to a friends wedding 6 years ago, after seeing their wedding photos my eyes were opened, a few of the guests had run off with the cameras and taken a few x rates shots in their hotel rooms. It was really funny trying to work out who was who from the pictures.
I'd only recommend doing this is the bride and groom are pretty easy going and would see the funny side.