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Ultimate Virtual Wedding Guide: 10 Tips For Streaming Your Wedding

Virtual Wedding Guide: 10 Tips For Streaming Your Wedding

While current events have got everyone scurrying back and forth with their indefinitely postponed wedding plans, there is a third, albeit elusive option. Can you stream your wedding like a critically acclaimed Netflix show? Sure you can!

Can’t Wait Don’t Wait

For crazy-in-love folks, postponement simply isn’t an option so the virtual wedding is a good happy medium. A top tip would be to use a popular service like Zoom (user-friendly and special wedding option for technologically challenged people) instead of going for Facebook live etc that is less reliable. Make sure you have upgraded to premium so that there isn’t any unpleasant zap 40 minutes in.

Check Local Laws 

All aspects of virtual weddings aren’t virtual but you can get witnesses to be present on zoom or any live call. Check the laws and requirements in your state so that you know which paperwork needs to be taken care of even if you choose to sign and register it later. Local marriage offices in many areas are simply officiating over a video call or letting couples forego the option altogether!

Make It A Real Wedding With All the Traditional Stuff

A virtual wedding is still a wedding! Make sure you still have the décor, the dress, the food, the vows, everything! You want to remember the day as it was planned and not as some tragic remnant of what it could have been. A great tip is setting up multiple laptops so you can engage with friends and family and make sure at least one bridesmaid is there with her phone so the audience isn’t like just watching you with webcam quality.

Virtual Wedding Guests

The number of people that are invited virtually to your wedding will actually be the deciding factor regarding the platform you opt for. Some people are going for smaller gatherings so Google hangout and conference calls generally work well. Read the comments and engage!

Gateway Pre-celebration Self-Love

Self-love is not just for glamorous but ultimately shallow Instagram posts. Make the whole wedding prep a ritual. Take a long soak, spend time doing your makeup properly (make sure you’ve ordered products in advance) and get all the trimmings just right. Even with a mask, your spouse will always remember how you looked, especially if you borrow the mask from a Halloween costume. Just kidding!

Virtual Wedding Invites

A bust would be if you didn’t inform your family and friends properly or did it too late. You don’t want just a few people joining in, right? Even with a smaller gathering everyone you care about needs to be ‘there’, well in spirit and visual image. Use social media, text, Whatsapp, email, and everything else available to you to inform people sometimes more than twice, and encourage them to RSVP.

And it’s still totally acceptable for you to mail out real wedding invitations. After all, this is still your wedding and your family and friends will want to enjoy it with you!

Get Mic’d Up

Microphones, tripods, etc are important ancillary equipment so people can hear; consider shotgun microphone types if you’re having the event outside. They may cost a little bit more but have better quality especially if you have video recording simultaneously.

Small Touches

Many couples have made their virtual weddings a step closer to bliss by creating wedding playlists and sending links to friends and family or sending a well-sanitized token gift basket (even if it’s a small one).

An IT Guy or Gal

Streaming and broadcasting an event may be completely alien to some of us. If that is the case and you’re one of those people that probably can’t even fill an excel sheet, get an IT guy (freelancers are great for this) to set up the event on all the required devices and monitor their running and feedback. The connection getting severed in between will not make for a good bedtime story for the kids.

Know that the current situation of lockdown and restrictions on gatherings will pass, eventually. A great idea is to plan a renewal of vows or a proper ceremony later. This will tackle those tears and/ or panic attacks that may come because all your loved ones can’t physically be there.