My number one piece of wedding advice: Do your toasts BEFORE guests have any food in front of them. That might mean doing them at the rehearsal, that might mean doing them at the tail end of cocktail hour, or that might mean doing them right after you are introduced and have completed your first dance and parent dances.
Those times all allow for a level of focus that simply doesn’t happen when people have food in front of them. Capturing photos during dinner where people are actively eating and not listening (the couple, included) or waiting to eat and ended up with cold food, just isn't ideal or necessary. You can opt to do it different and IMHO, BETTER! When everyone is attentive, you can get truly emotional and engaged photos that you simply cannot when food/a distraction, is present.
Some examples of couples who embraced having their speeches before food!
