If you are planning a destination wedding and not all your family and friends can afford to travel or take time off to join you, technology allows you to broadcast your wedding live over the internet. Many wedding venues, from the wedding chapels and hotels in Las Vegas to some registry offices in England or high end hotels in the Caribbean offer the possibility of filming your wedding with a webcam. The digital camera streams live video over the internet and your distant guests can access your wedding via a link to a web page you will have previously given to them.

Make sure you take time differences into account when you mention what time your guests can log on.  Most of these sites offer password protection so that only your guests can see you live.  The venue you have chosen for your wedding might already offer this service, either included in your wedding package or for an additional fee. On the other hand, if your wedding venue does not offer this service you can use an external supplier that will come and set up a webcam to broadcast your wedding. Certain websites such as www.weddingstreams.co.uk offer this service. Alternatively you could approach a local production company or wedding planner to get information on how to set about installing a web cam transmission of your vows. I would strongly recommend dealing with a professional that has experience in streaming live video.

Asking a friend or member of the family to set it up might cut costs but could result in last minute panics should the equipment not work. If you are not comfortable with the idea of your wedding being broadcast live, another way of including your distant guests is to send them a DVD of your wedding with a personal note.