We fell short of our Fall Fundraiser goal of 2,500 donations. Help us catch up ⏩ Give Now

Weddings see rise in online streaming

Molly Wood Jul 3, 2013
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Weddings see rise in online streaming

Molly Wood Jul 3, 2013
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Weddings are going digital. Wedding trend watchers are seeing a big jump in couples who want to share their nuptials with the world wide web in real time.

Think handheld devices at destination weddings broadcasting live to Grandma, who couldn’t fly out.

“The growth we’ve seen is pretty amazing. About 250 percent, year-over-year,” according to David Thompson, a vice president at Ustream.

He says his company has live streamed about 20,000 weddings in the past 12 months.

Thompson credits most of the growth to the ‘can’t make it’ factor’ — friends and family who just a few years ago would have to find out about a wedding via photo albums. An example of that was a recent wedding Ustream broadcast:

“The bride was from Colombia, and her whole family was watching from Bogota. But then we found out that a whole bunch of the family’s friends and friends of friends [were watching]…the whole thing became viral. It was like the wedding became a reality TV show for a whole bunch of people who weren’t planning to watch.”

That raises worries of etiquette and tastefulness.

“I think it’s one of the best examples, when done right, of technology keeping people first. And letting us have that connection that might not have been able to happen otherwise,” says Anne Post, great-great-granddaughter of etiquette advice guru Emily Post, and the author of wedding book, ‘Do I have to wear white?’. “The priority is keeping the priority, not on the technology, but on the people involved.”

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.