When making the ultimate commitment to celebrate your love for another person, surrounded by friends and family, your wedding should be one of the happiest days of your life. There’s no one you’d rather have around you to celebrate the special moment than your nearest and dearest, but if you plan on marrying away from home, it can be logistically difficult to get everyone together in the same place at once, particularly if some of the invited are elderly, have financial difficulties or are unable to travel due to poor health.
That being said, not being able to accommodate shouldn’t run the decision on which destination you decide to get married in. The question is; what steps can you take to bring the people who can’t be there on the big day closer?
Create a Wedding Website
Using the internet as a way to include guests who can’t be there in person is a fantastic example of how technology makes the world feel smaller. By creating a wedding website, you can make a shareable space for photos, event information, and updates that guests can check out before, during and after the wedding day. The site will give anyone who can’t be there a detailed overview of the whole event and help them to feel part of the event. Look here if you have no idea where to start, but just make sure your wedding website is hosted by a reputable company. With this, you can inform and update guests in the run-up to the big day but have a lasting memento afterward with a photo gallery and even features that allow you to create opinion polls!
Pick up the Tab
Okay, so putting up travel and accommodation for the entire extended wedding party might not be financially feasible for most of us, but factoring in travel costs to your wedding budget for a small number of special guests (who would otherwise struggle to make it) would be a worthwhile extravagance – after all, an overseas wedding demands that guests spend more than they usually would at home and this can be too much of a financial strain for some.
If you’re really on a strict budget, one option is to create a crowdfunding account and ask attendees to donate towards the cost of other guests’ travel in lieu of a wedding gift. In return, you can assure those who contributed that they will enjoy the best time with the biggest amount of attendees to celebrate with… the more the merrier!
Stream team
Live streaming your wedding day is simple to do and the real-time video can be uploaded to social media such as Facebook, or accessed through online links which you can email out to guests who were unable to attend in person. Most wedding photographers will have experience with this type of video sharing, so if you are hiring a professional to capture the big day on camera or film, be sure to ask them about this option as part of your package.
Alternatively, the DIY option is to use a free live streaming service such as Ustream and nominate a friend or relative to film the event on their video camera/smartphone (if professional production values aren’t a necessity). Most streaming services come with options to limit access to who can view your video, so you can rest assured that only the right people will see footage of your special day.