Live streaming the wedding?

We are considering this, for the same reason. Our officiant has never done this before, so she didn't have any experience to share. I hadn't planned on mentioning those watching online. But I am curious to see what you ither ladies say!

We have no intention of live streaming our wedding, but even if we wanted to, it didn't seem feasible. It really depends on how you want to go about doing this. Your venue will have a large impact on the options you'll have (based on the WiFi capacity they have). Essentially if you are exclusively offering the stream for specifically your grandmother, it's probably easiest to just have someone in the front row man a phone and FaceTime. It will thwart your data without WiFi, but it's pretty straightforward otherwise. Unfortunately, it will also set a poor precedent if you want peoples phones to stay away during the ceremony.

I wouldn't make special mention of those watching on the stream. For every person who thinks its the coolest thing ever, there could be someone bitter, thinking to themselves "I actually paid the money to show up in person." Those people are probably few and far between but why chance it.

Contact your venue and ask about their internet capabilities. That is step 1: evaluate if the stream is even possible.

I've had this happen several times, (either for illness or dramatic travel issues) usually via Skype from the front row. I usually say, at some point in the ceremony, 'we want to welcome aunt rose who sends her best wishes from Anchorage', but don't mention skype specifically, though i don't think it's a big deal either way.

I wouldn't anticipate anyone being pissed that someone infirm is able to view it remotely.

@ Michelle, we are having our tasting today (if the weather cooperates) and we do plan to ask the venue if we could use their WIFI to do this. Otherwise FH might set up a hotspot on his phone. Since someone at her assisted living would have to help her use the computer (as she doesn't know how to), we figured setting up a link would be easier than video chatting. We haven't ruled out having someone video chat with her, but I think having a gopro or handycam set up with be easier than tasking someone with this.

@Celica, I was hoping you would comment. Thank you for your insight. I like that phrasing of it. I'll probably just have the officiants say something like that.

If you go hotspot, or really anything with the phone, having it plugged in would probably help (depending on the length of your ceremony).

@rjmargo, have you used a go pro before? It uses a wide angle lens, so things can get pretty distorted. Some of that distortion can be fixed with postprocessing, but thats not possible if you're live streaming. Also, you don't have to be very far away to degrade the image (because of the lens). You may have an better quality video experience with a good webcam. ETA: I sell go pros, and have my own that I use regularly. I love them, I just think you may be disappointed with this application if you don't use them regularly.

I have never experienced this at a wedding, but my church livestreams weekly services using the app Periscope. The pastor usually acknowledges the fact that there is an ipad on a tripod set up to capture the service. I think it would be appropriate for the officiant to say something along the lines of what Celia said, especially if you would acknowledge your grandmother if she was physically present.

@Lindsay B, thanks for the tip. Yes we have used GoPros before. I'm actually a video editor and FH is in production, so we both work with them regularly. We are leaning more towards using my handy cam than a gopro. We only found out a few days ago that she couldn't come, so we are still figuring out exactly how we are going to do this.

Make sure she is muted if you do Skype or anything like that. And some type of tripod. No shoving a laptop at a random guest, which happened to my friend. It was so obnoxious.