How to Plan a Virtual Wedding
How to plan a virtual wedding
How to plan a virtual wedding
Have you decided to change your wedding plans due to the pandemic?
Here’s how you can have a beautiful virtual wedding online!
I know it was probably a hard decision to postpone or cancel the big wedding you had been planning. With many states still limiting the capacity on large gatherings, it’s put a huge kink in your plans.
When you start to get upset, it’s important to remember why you are getting married. It’s not for the party.
Marriage is about spending the rest of your life with your fiance. The big party can come later.
Steps to Planning a Virtual Wedding
- Choose your location
- Identify technology needs
- Select an officiant
- Dress the part
- Invite your guests
- Practice
- Get married!
We created a free Virtual Wedding Technology Guide just for you! It will help make sure your online wedding goes as smooth as possible.
Step One: Choose your location
Choosing where to get married can still be fun, even if you can’t tour traditional wedding venues.
It could be as simple as your living room or backyard. If your favorite hobby is cooking together, then a wedding in the kitchen could be equally as exciting!
You know your local city and surrounding areas best. Do some brainstorming to see if there are any outdoor locations that you could stay a safe distance apart from anybody else who might be in the area. You’ll want to think about potential noise, too.
Bonus Tip: Use your hallway as the “aisle” for you to walk down!
Step Two: Identify technology needs
Pulling off the technology for your online wedding is almost as important as getting married itself!
You want to make it easy for guests to view the wedding, and make sure they can see and hear you.
Don’t make Grandma have to crank up her hearing aid to hear the ceremony over cars zooming around in the background.
You’ll need an online platform to host your virtual wedding, like Zoom or Facebook Live. Don’t let this overwhelm you.
I break down all the pros and cons to each platform in the Technology Guide.
Step Three: Select an officiant
Your officiant should be able to join you and your fiance at a safe distance to perform the ceremony.
You could look into the legal requirements of your state to have your officiant perform the ceremony online, but because a marriage license is a legally binding contract, you will most likely need them there to conduct at least part of the ceremony.
Not sure who should perform the virtual ceremony? You could have a friend or family member get ordained online through American Marriage Ministries.
When the ceremony is over, don’t forget to have them sign the marriage license and mail it!
Step Four: Dress the part
Just because you’re having an online wedding, doesn’t mean you have to give up looking gorgeous!
Wear that wedding dress you’ve been drooling over! Or jeans, we’re not judging — it’s your special day!
If you feel comfortable going to a trusted stylist who is taking safety precautions, you can still get your hair, makeup, and nails done.
Or, you can watch some DIY YouTube videos and get glammed up at home.
Grab a bouquet of flowers from the grocery store and make your own beautiful wedding bouquet, at a fraction of the cost of a florist.
Step Five: Invite guests
Don’t miss out on all the fun wedding planning activities!
You can still order custom wedding invitations (or ‘change the date’ cards) and mail them to your guests who you want to watch the ceremony online.
Here’s a blog post I put together of the 6 best websites to order wedding invitations, with great options for announcing a date / venue change!
You can also send email or Facebook group invites, too. Nobody is judging here.
Step Six: Practice
You don’t have to give away your personal vows during practice, but it’s insanely important to do a run through with your officiant so they know the order and what to expect.
The biggest part to practice will be the technology. We have tips for that in this free Virtual Wedding Technology Guide.
Step Seven: Get married!
Online guests, we are gathered here today…
Personal vows.
I do.
I do.
Kiss!
You’re married!
Hosting a virtual wedding online doesn’t have to be complicated.
With our free technology guide we are confident you can pull this off without a hitch!
Still feeling overwhelmed? Check out our Virtual Wedding Planning Guide in 5 weeks experience. It provides a step by step timeline complete with checklists and details, so you won’t forget or overlook anything.
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