In 2020 we saw a new wedding trend emerge from the shadows and into the spotlight … Virtual Live Streaming. Live streaming an event is not new to the event industry but how, why, and the creative details surrounding live streaming for weddings turned from a necessity to a requirement.
Big dreams of 100’s of guests filling beautifully designed wedding receptions came to a screeching halt last spring. CDC regulations placed restrictions on the percentages of guests couples could invite to their weddings. Local authorities and government agencies dictate by state, county, and city what those regulations will stipulate. The uncertainty has created the demand for certainty. We may not be certain how many guests may attend the wedding in person, but we are certain of the endless amounts of guests we can invite virtually.
Gone so quickly are the days of client steaming Zoom or Facebook streams. Guest limits, licensed music restrictions, poor Wi-Fi connections, and the weighted responsibility of frustrated friends placed in charge of making the streaming perfect, all create the emergence of virtual wedding streaming.
Hiring a company or tech savvy professional such as Nicholas Yapp, of MB Vision from Houston, Texas has become a vital part of ensuring a complete virtual experience for couples and their guests. Nick and his team of techies and wedding professionals bring the knowledge, tools, and equipment needed to facilitate a positive experience. The ability to handle Wi-Fi, or the lack of extreme weather, various locations, and unforeseen obstacles is valuable to the couple hiring a professional. The virtual streaming team comes equipped with the relevant equipment to ensure a seamless audio visual flow. These techies use efficient cameras, the best in online streaming interfaces, laptops, mics, speakers, wiring, and updated equipment. The combination of professional services, equipment and tools behind the scenes make for seamless streaming.
The other side to live streaming is the actual visual experience the guests see while sitting in the comfort of their own homes watching their loved ones say I do. Equally important is this experience and participation. The desire to feel a sense of ‘being there without being there’ has given the wedding community the opportunity to shine in creativity. From beginning to end, each visual event is thought through. For example, the MB Vision team will walk their clients through a consultation to discuss the details and options each wedding can incorporate. The consultations begin with the technical aspects of how the overall live streaming works. Then Nick and his team walk each couple through details and enhancements they would like to include. Each choice enhancing the online experience for their guests. Curating and combining the multiple options creates a mini production. Live streaming has become more than pushing a button on a video recorder. The ability to add pictures and small videos of the couple are incorporated and displayed before and during the live streaming ceremony. A beautifully written itinerary is graphically added along with gift registries with tastefully written reminders of the .com’s for those guests who want to give a gift while watching the wedding. Before the wedding, they also introduce the couple to the availability to send the guests who are watching online a custom gift box to help enhance watching the wedding.
No beat skipped or sound unheard while the online guests watch the live stream. DJ’s, live music, entertainment, speeches / toasting, cutting the cake, a couple’s 1st dance, parental dances, the emotional vows, heartfelt prayers, and the romantic kiss are all a part of the live streamed wedding. After the live celebration is over, they give the couple a link to the nuptials they can download and watch for years to come. The memories are all captured in the live wedding streaming, and the union of love treasured forever.
Keeping loved one’s safe and an endless number of guests to witness love will keep creatively live streaming a wedding the newest trend in the wedding industry.
Photo Credit: @katmackphoto