For people across the country, videoconferencing tools like Zoom, Skype, Google Hangout, Facebook, and FaceTime have emerged as a solution to get married in front of loved ones while still maintaining social distancing guidance and preventing possible COVID-19 exposure. As travel restrictions may continue to persist for some time after lockdown eases, elderly relatives as well and friends and family living in other countries may prefer to dial-in and watch the ceremony remotely. Zoom weddings have provided a bright spot in an otherwise dark couple of months.
Picture Courtesy: @claire_casner
Countries Are Easing The Laws For Virtual Weddings
Under normal circumstances, marriages are legal only if the couple both appear in person at one of five borough offices. A new law has made it legal for couples in the US state of New York to hold virtual weddings.
The UAE Ministry of Justice announced that it has started to provide remote marriage contracts to allow weddings to continue while still carrying out precautionary measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus COVID-19.
For some couples in India, the usual throng of wedding guests has been replaced by an audience of mobile phones and tablets streaming live wedding ceremonies to distant family and relatives.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Thursday temporarily allowing adults to obtain marriage licenses through video conferencing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Online Platforms Are Emerging To Assist Virtual Planning
Picture Courtesy: @wedfuly
Online Wedding Planner Wedfuly Partners With Zoom to Offer Virtual Wedding Ceremonies. They match couples with real, professional planners and through the power of our technology, they help streamline and democratize the wedding planning process. Their services start at $500. Couples can receive the royal treatment of working with a full-service planner at a feasible price.
Love Can’t Wait!
Picture Courtesy: PA: Press Association
Recently, school sweethearts Ben Jackson and Sophie Austin from London got married over a Zoom call in front of family and friends while self-isolating. The couple got engaged in August 2018 and 300 people were due to watch them tie the knot in person on March 28, but they had to change their plans after the COVID-19 outbreak occurred.
This is not the only case of a couple choosing to get married over a video call amidst the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Another couple, from Bristol, was surprised by Ellie Goulding who serenaded them with ‘Love Me Like You Do’ during their virtual nuptials.
The hashtag #zoomwedding #virtualwedding will give you 1000+ results on social networking websites showing how couples are choosing to go ahead with their wedding instead of canceling on love.
Netizens Seem Equally Excited To Attend the Online Wedding
Seemingly, virtual weddings are getting popular as many netizens shared posts about being invited to one. Guests are equally excited to attend an online wedding as a real one. From choosing the dress to gifts to makeup to having a bachelor party, it’s all going online.
Tweep @colindross wrote: “I attended my first zoom wedding today, WBU [what about you]?”
Twitter user @tdub909 posted: “I attended an online wedding today. And it was special and beautiful, and I was grateful and heartbroken.”
Whereas, user @MissPatchesMD jokingly tweeted: “Got invited to my first zoom wedding! What to wear?”
Got invited to my first zoom wedding! What to wear?!?!?!? pic.twitter.com/icuTPpLURp
— A. Juice (@MissPatchesMD) April 7, 2020
Conclusion
Zoom has become the go-to video calling app for offices worldwide to hold meetings, and it’s likely we’ll continue to use it in other capacities post-pandemic. With trends changing, it is inevitable that there will be new ways of doing old things. The destination wedding industry is likely to witness the biggest shift in ways of how weddings are viewed and experienced, and it is safe to say that a large part of it will go online.
