To Stream or Not to Stream . . .

We are getting married in November. Our plan is to have less than 20 people physically there and stream the ceremony only via zoom (Streaming cocktail hour/ first dance/ dinner didn't seem like it was feasible for us). We will be sending out invites without the zoom link and then with the link about a week out.

We decided against streaming anything other than the ceremony due to added complexity and the fact that we are pretty much setting it all up ourselves, with the assistance of a groomsman. We do not plan for anyone to be actually manning the camera, we are able to set it up with a remote.

We're getting married this Saturday (yay) and are going to stream via a private group on Facebook Live. We chose this mostly so I don't have to teach my grandma any new technology. We're also going to record the live stream so we can post the video later and have it for our benefit. My brother in law is our usher and will be the one filming it for us

We just had our meeting with our coordinator and our musician and we will be live streaming our ceremony only as well. We are only doing a dinner afterwards with just immediate family and bridal party (about 35 people) so I do not need to live stream that. The video camera will be set up prior to the ceremony and someone just had to push record and then stop. It was a choice we had to make as our guest list was really shrunk down and even my grandmother is not able to travel from Washington state to be here. At least she will be able to watch it on video.

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Congrats Taran!

I've been getting butterflies since the arrival of some of the things I ordered online started to arrive. I'm still not sure about the FB streaming, but I did see the groups option so maybe we can consider that. I did want it to be a little more private so my main concern with FB is people sharing it to other pages or tagging other people. If I knew for sure there was a way to eliminate that from happening, I'm sure FB would probably be our choice.

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Hi Katie,

We have a call scheduled with our coordinator tomorrow so I have to make sure I ask her if they would be able to assist us with the streaming or if they have it built in somehow. Our ceremony will be on the beach of a nearby resort, so fingers crossed, we should be able to have good signal and service. It's gonna be very small and the ceremony only so we really don't need all the bells and whistles of some of the options I've see so far online.

My SIL streamed the ceremony on Zoom. One guest just held thr iPad during the 15 minute ceremony. My husband also recorded on his phone to send to people who may not have been able to log into the Zoom session.

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Mary, our list is even smaller than yours lol

As I said, we had to reset our date so there is the issue of not everyone being able to attend. And then throw in COVID 19, and well, you know the rest. Initially we were told that there was a restriction on how many people were allowed to gather in the first place - it was only 10. Now it has been raised to 50 but we have already planned for just the 10. I have asked my youngest sister to help with the filming but if FH and I can't agree on the platform for the streaming, we may just do the "old fashioned" thing and record the ceremony with my digital camera and send our family and friends who couldn't make it a copy of the video. Not a bad Plan B if you ask me.

View Quoted Comment We created a private group and invited people so the only thing they have the ability to do is like or comment. We didn’t want our wedding to be for public consumption either

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We're still going over our options Hannah. I did ask baby sis to handle it, but FH has a friend who does web pages so he said he would contact them to get their advice. So perhaps by the end of the week, we'll have some sort of plan of action.

Our wedding has been rescheduled twice and is not until December of 2021. If COVID has not calmed down enough for people to feel comfortable to travel by then, then they can watch our wedding video. I do NOT want people holding cell phones and cameras up during our event, I want them to be present and there with us, not staring into screens to be talking to people on zoom. We are also paying a lot of money for the photo and video, so if people miss it, they can see the photos and video like they did in the old days.

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Cool beans

That's good to know. Maybe I could do a test run to see how it would work.

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I hear you Alyssa

I have seen a post from Pinterest about what happens when people get in the way of the photographer during the ceremony. I was cringing, especially at the people with their tablets. Yikes! We will only be having a photographer so the only other person allowed to have a phone out will be baby sis who I have recruited to take the video for us.

On another note, I stumbled upon a site called eventlive.pro that seems to specialize in wedding streaming if anyone wants to give them a look-up. They appear to have it together so def will be put into the consideration cap.

We livestreamed our event as many family members and bridal party could not attend. We had a lot of people view it live and we also have it downloaded to show grandma at a later date.

We had our DJ be in charge of this for a fee (we opted out of a photobooth and went with the livestream option). I didn't want to put someone in charge of holding a camera/iPad and wanted it to be decent quality. We just livestreamed our ceremony.

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Spring for the videographer! Trust me, you want your sister to be just as present, she's a VIP! She also won't do the job a professional will.

I am actually hiring a local event broadcasting/live-streaming company to take care of the livestream since My videographer does not offer this service. I am having a minimony as well (15 people) instead of our originally planned 250-person wedding. It was important to me that the people I originally wanted to attend my wedding could see the ceremony and that my in-person guests (immediate family) be guests and not worry about working. Plus, a professional has the necessary equipment and can troubleshoot issues such as sound and poor internet quality at the site. Like others, I am just steaming my ceremony, but I will also livestream a virtual toast with and to our guests after the recessional and before family pictures. We’ll share pictures and video with everyone later.

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Hi Neeva,

I'm sure we'll have it all sorted out soon. It may just come down to us taping it and sharing the video later.

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Alyssa,

I wish we could afford a professional videographer. But since we've had to downsize everything, that also included our budget. But it will all work out. I have faith

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I agree with the importance of everyone being really present during the "minimony" (I love this term Sharonda!) Baby sis is actually looking forward to doing something during the service. Maybe I can get her to do a solo - we all love music. FH and I are still working out some of the kinks and I'm sure we'll have a working plan of action soon so I'll keep y'all posted . . .

View Quoted Comment Cool! My fiancé and I are working out the kinks too. I’m sure my fiancé wishes my brain would turn off sometimes. I’m sure your sis would love to sing at your wedding — it’s something you all will always remember (instead of her working as the camera person). 😊And yes, I’m having a “minimony” because there will only be 15 guests (immediately family). Definitely a change from the 250 person wedding I had originally planned.

View Quoted Comment Up to you-but photo and video are the two things I won’t compromise on. They are the only way you’ll remember the day aside from your memory.