Your Virtual Wedding: IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL DISTANCING – HERE’S HOW TO LIVE STREAM YOUR WEDDING!
The live streaming of wedding ceremonies has quickly grown in popularity and with the advent of the Covid pandemic, it's become more a necessity than a fun add-on for participation. Basically, live stream is mainstream!
The great thing about live streaming your wedding is the easy inclusion of relatives and friends who would might not be able to make the event due to health concerns, travel or money issues or, as is the case right now, social distancing. Live streaming provides an opportunity for those far away to share in your very special moment with you and everyone else. So, where do you start with figuring out how to live stream your wedding? Well, Magic 101.9 has put together some ease solutions for getting you up and rolling!
First, you’ll need to choose a platform you can stream on. There are a lot of options but the most popular are Zoom, Facebook or Instagram Live, Skype, or plain old Facetime. And remember, you'll want to make sure to use a password with any of these platforms to make sure you stay in control of the stream and your virtual quests don't suffer through a video "bombing" or takeover.
Zoom
Zoom is a video conferencing platform that allows you to set up a meeting id and password which you can send to family and friends. The downside of Zoom is a limit of 100 people and a time cap of 40 minutes if you are using the free version. You’ll have to sign up for a paid account to get a longer time or room for more people. Depending on what you want, that can run you from $15 - $50 dollars.
Skype
Skype is a video calling platform that’s been around for years and works much like all the others. Group video supports up to 50 people and there’s a 4 hour time limit and it’s free but you do have to have a Skype account to use it.
Facebook and Instagram Lives
You could always choose to just use Facebook and Instagram’s Live features too. And to a certain extent you are able to control who will see it, but if you don’t really mind your wedding being out there for everyone in your follow list to see (take THAT ex-girlfriends!), then it’s a perfectly fine option.
Facebook Messenger Rooms
Facebook Messenger Rooms are a new feature build to compete with the popularity of Zoom and other video conference platforms. It’s free to use and there’s no time limit but you can only have up to 50 people in a room.
Facetime
Most everyone is already familiar with Facetime which can make it an easy option to use. There are limitations though. You can only include up to 32 people and it can only be accessed from an Apple product. That means your old college roommate with the Android might get left out of the fun, but if everyone’s an Apple devotee, then you’ll be good to go.
The Bring in the Pros Option
If you don’t want to hassle with choosing and setting up a video conferencing platform like the ones above, you can also try pay services that specialize in livestreaming weddings! Some good suggestions are Eventlive.pro , mystreamingwedding.com, or wedfuly.com. Also many local photographers and videographers are offering livestream services as well. It will cost you more but you might find some of their extras and services to be more to your liking.
But wait! What about sound quality? Well, if the set up is close enough to you and the wedding is indoors, the microphone on a phone or tablet will be just fine! If you’re going to be outdoors you may want to invest a super cheap projection mic that you can attach to whatever device you’re using. Options abound on Amazon.
One more thing to keep in mind is a test run. Just like you’ll rehearse your wedding to make sure everything goes as planned, you’ll want to rehearse your live stream as well! Your rehearsal night is the best time to give it that test run to work out the kinks. Do it to make sure you’ll have no surprises headed your way on the big day!
If you’re one of the “lucky” ones having to figure this all out in the age of social distancing, we at Magic 101.9 hope we’ve helped out a bit! We wish you the happiest of wedding days and the strongest of internet connections!