For those that can’t attend your wedding in person, you can live stream your ceremony so that they can be there virtually.

DIY Live Streaming

Live streaming isn’t always as easy as just setting up a phone and using Zoom or Facebook Live.

  • If cellphone coverage is not strong, you may not get a reliable, good-quality video stream for the entire duration. Even if you do a test at the venue beforehand and it works OK, that may not be the case on the day once 100 people with cellphones turn up. Even if they're not using their phones during your ceremony, all the phones will be regularly checking in with the cellphone tower(s) you're all sharing so data speed may be compromised.
  • You certainly won’t be able to set this up yourself as you'll be very busy getting married! You would need to ask a tech-savvy guest to do it for you. Asking a guest to take over some responsibilities can be OK depending on the task but bear in mind that it can detract from their enjoyment of your wedding. This is especially the case when the inevitable technology issues arise.
  • Modern cellphone cameras are great but the microphones are not so it may be difficult for people watching the stream to hear everything well. This is especially so if the phone is set back a bit so as not to spoil the view of the attending guests. If your ceremony is outside, note that the phone may not pick up the voices of the celebrant and the marrying couple very well and also, it doesn’t take much more than the slightest breeze to spoil the sound with rumbling wind noise.

Leave it to the professionals

Some tasks you can delegate to guests if they're capable and willing but live streaming video can have its technical challenges so it’s a bit more responsibility than say, corralling the other guests for family group photos. This may detract from their enjoyment of your wedding especially if there are issues. Also, do they have a good phone and a tripod? What if they can’t make it to the wedding at short notice? A last-minute backup for this role is a bit more tricky. So, just like not asking your Uncle to take the photos and then regretting it for the rest of your life, maybe this task should be left to the professionals.

  • Some venues have on-site live streaming so if you haven’t already chosen your venue, maybe on-site live streaming could be part of your venue selection criteria. If you have already booked a venue or have your heart set on a particular venue, maybe check with them to see if they offer live streaming from their ceremony location(s).
  • Some videographers offer live streaming as part of their service too so maybe live streaming could be part of your videographer selection criteria.
  • If none of the above options is possible then there are companies that specialise in live streaming.