5 Essential Live Wedding Streaming and Interactive Ideas to Involve Your Remote Guests

First of all, we want to express how bad we feel for all the couples out there who have had to change their wedding day plans due to the coronavirus pandemic. We just had our 7th wedding anniversary and remember how stressful and time consuming it was to plan our big day. It’s breaks our hearts to think about how upset our clients and couples all over the world must be feeling. We’ve all seen news articles of couples on their doorsteps, utilising technology for live wedding streaming, a reality that they never would have imagined just months before.

We feel very fortunate to have successfully rescheduled every one of our “covid couples” to a new date without any difficulty. Unfortunately we still don’t know what state the world will be in come 2021 or if a second wave will prevent large gatherings from taking place. We’ve heard the phrase “new normal” over and over. You might have already implemented a “Plan B”. You might want to know what your options are for a “Plan C”. That’s where live wedding streaming and other video solutions can help.

Wedding Videographers are in a unique position to be able to help with live wedding streaming so remote family and guests can still witness your ceremony.

We have the technological know-how to set up a camera in the best position and (very importantly) synchronize professional recorded audio so your viewers can actually hear what is being said.

Not only can we offer live wedding streaming, we can provide a whole range of quick-turnaround videos which will keep your guests engaged throughout your event. Whether you imagine your guests tuning in live over facebook or keeping tabs on your day through instagram, we’re confident we have a way to keep your guests involved and entertained.

1) We can implement reliable wedding streaming with professional audio and dedicated internet connectivity.

Live wedding streaming is possible at little or no cost to a couple. You could have a guest handle that for you. It’s pretty simple to set up an iPhone on a tripod and hook it up to a streaming service of your choice. However, there are a few downsides to consider.

First, your guest is a guest, and not a video professional. They may not have the best considerations when it comes to positioning and lighting. They will probably just be using a phone (and not a professional camera). They might also not have time to get things set up if they’re running late. Secondly, your guest isn’t a sound engineer, so it’s probable that your vows will be inaudible. Thirdly, they’ll likely be relying on a venue’s wifi or their phones LTE network which could drop at any time.

At the other end of the scale, you can hire a dedicated live wedding streaming company who will film your wedding with multiple camera angles, synchronized sound and treat the event as more of a live broadcast. While this would give your guests the best experience, it means spending a significant sum of money. If you already have wedding cinematographers and photographers booked, it also means adding to the personnel count. This could feel quite intimidating if you’re having an intimate wedding.

We think the best solution lies somewhere in the middle.

We still want to film your ceremony creatively (so we can deliver a unique Cinematic or Highlight film) whilst also providing a wedding streaming service that is great value, reliable and unobtrusive.

If you book wedding streaming through us, we’ll bring an additional team member who will be able to set up a single 4K camera in advance of the wedding and make sure the stream is secure, through our own “MIFI” router. They’ll take a sound feed from either the DJ or a microphone attach to the groom which will be transmitted to the camera and therefore included in the stream. This will allow your guests to hear the vows and keep track of whats going on.

Finally, once the ceremony is over, they’ll upload the full ceremony stream to Youtube, so guests who weren’t able to tune in can watch at their leisure. Uploading the ceremony also has the benefit of providing a fail-safe in case the network drops, due to reasons out of our control.

2) We can also upload a full “multicamera” ceremony video just hours later.

If you’ve seen our packages, this is referred to as a “Ceremony Upload”. This option takes things a little further. Remember that you’ve also hired us to film your wedding, which means we’re still shooting your ceremony as normal, with 3 other cameras. Not only will we have an additional team member streaming your wedding, but when the ceremony is over, they’ll take all the footage from all our cameras and create a full “multi-camera” video. This will also include all sounds recordings from the bride, groom and officiant mic’s as well as any PA feeds).

A multi-camera ceremony video will feature dedicated camera angles for each person speaking, cinematic camera moves and crystal clear audio for any readings and vows. The video will be edited and uploaded all on the same day!

The advantage of a Same Day Ceremony Edit is that your guests will still have the option of tuning in live, but also have the opportunity to watch the full ceremony a few hours later, with the best audio-visual experience.

3) We can produce a dazzling Same Day Edit

We’ve been filming Same Day Edits for years now and have loved the way that guests can re-live the wedding experience just hours after seeing it all in person. Now Same Day Edits serve an even more important purpose because you can share your experience with your friends and family who aren’t able to make it to your wedding.

Having a completed film, ready to watch on the evening of your wedding day, could prove invaluable.

When we produce a Same Day Edit we add a dedicated editor to our team to sort through and carefully arrange all the footage whilst we keep filming. Even though we’re working to a tight deadline, we still include important bits of audio, such as any letter reading or vows. We want your Same Day Edit to be entertaining and engaging, with a strong narrative and beautiful imagery.

You have the option of adding the Same Day Edit to any of our packages. You can also “sub” a same day edit for a “Highlights” film and pair it with something a little longer like one of our 15-25 minute Feature Films. That’s a great combination which gives you something to share right away and a more documentary style film with more footage from the day to watch on a later date.

4) Or we can create an entertaining Instagram Same-Day Trailer

This is for couples who don’t want the expense of a full same day edit, but still value having something to share at the end of their wedding day. We still have an editor with us collecting footage (although for a little less time than a traditional same day edit) who will put together a short, energetic teaser that you can upload and share to your hearts content on the evening of your wedding.

We LOVE Instagram teasers. You can’t help but hit play over and over. Pairing a fun teaser with a ceremony stream will allow your guests to watch the most important bits and also get a taste of what’s to come from your Highlights, Cinematic or Portrait film.

5) We can also set up a dedicated Instagram account and upload engaging content all day long.

This is social-media inspired twist on a Same Day Edit. Rather than producing a single 3-4 minute short film ready for the evening, we’ll edit a series of short videos and upload them throughout the entire wedding day. These videos will likely include key moments from your day, such as letter readings, gift openings, first look, procession, snippets from the vows, first kiss and first dance amongst others. Before your wedding, we’ll talk through your timeline and pick out the moments that will mean the most to you.

Just as with a same day edit, we’ll have a dedicated team member, collecting footage and uploading videos to an Instagram account of your choice (or other platform), using what ever hashtags you choose.

This option might suit you better if you want to create a more interactive experience for your guests. It is also a great option to compliment one of our Highlight, Cinematic or Portrait films. That way you get one of our signature products along with a stream of curated content that will entertain your guests throughout your wedding day.

This pandemic has caused us all to re-think our plans for 2020 and 2021. Couples are having to re-plan and vendors are having to pivot by offering new products. We’re lucky that the technology for wedding streaming is so accessible. We’re spending a good deal of time brainstorming ideas that we think will help our couples. If you have any ideas you’d like to explore we’d love to hear them! While it totally sucks to be dealing with this all right now, we also see it as an opportunity to create and collaborate. We hope you do too!