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The Boston Globe
Larry Fair
started Live
Internet
Weddings in
Waikiki, in
2001. The
company is one
of dozens of
small,
relatively new,
start-ups that
team with hotels
and resorts or
offer their
services online
to couples
planning
destination
weddings.
Fair said his
firm has
produced about
130 live, online
wedding
broadcasts in
the past year,
up from about 33
the prior year.
Wedcasts from
Hawaii's scenic
spots are
particularly
popular with
California
couples.
In August,
Joshua Fair
hiked 15 minutes
up a mountain to
a waterfall on
Oahu, packing
his video
camera, with one
California
couple, their
minister, and
their
photographer to
film their
ceremony.
A decade ago,
Larry Fair said,
not enough
invitees would
have had the
broadband
connection
necessary to
handle streaming
video. Today,
more than
two-thirds of US
computer users
subscribe to
broadband,
according to
Nielsen/NetRatings.
"We've reached
the tipping
point," Fair
said.
Valerie DeRoy
and Bryan
Sklar's wedcast
was for those
who were not
invited to their
Nov. 8, 2006,
wedding. And
that was just
about everybody
they knew.
Unknown to DeRoy,
who was to leave
her home in
Plantation,
Fla., on Sunday
for a
computer-security
conference in
Waikiki, Sklar
was plotting a
surprise wedding
in Waikiki on
the following
Wednesday. He
would join his
fiancee and
whisk her away
to Secret Beach,
an hour's drive
away on Oahu's
western
coastline, for
the ceremony.
Sklar completed
most of his
planning, on the
sly, on
Saturday. First,
he contacted
DeRoy's boss to
request a couple
days off for her
so she could get
married. Sklar
bought his
ticket to Hawaii
and searched the
Internet for a
rabbi to conduct
the ceremony. On
Sunday, after
dropping DeRoy
at the airport,
he went shopping
with her sister
for a wedding
dress.
When Sklar
arrived at her
hotel, she
accepted his
proposal. The
couple sent out
150 Evites to
family and
friends, many
around
Philadelphia
where Sklar grew
up. The
invitations
included
directions for
calling up their
ceremony on
www.LiveInternetWeddings.com
and a request
for RSVPs so
they would know
who would be
watching.
"I got married
on a sunset
beach in Hawaii
with my family
watching," Sklar
said. "What else
could I ask
for?" His father
and stepmother
(her parents are
deceased)
interrupted a
California
vacation to fly
to Hawaii for
the day.
Everyone else
watched the
ceremony, in
real time,
including
Beverly Downey,
a friend of
DeRoy's. The
former security
guard for the
Massachusetts
Lottery watched
the sunset
wedding during
her night shift
at the lottery's
Braintree
headquarters.
"You felt you
were sharing the
moment," Downey
said.
Watching
simultaneously
was key, she
said. "If I'd
watched it
later, it
wouldn't have
been the same."
DeRoy said that
one advantage of
Internet
weddings is that
they are less
expensive for
those who watch,
because nobody
has to travel.
But it's also
less expensive
for the couple,
who can stage a
small event,
share it over
the Internet,
and "it won't
cost them a
bloody fortune,"
she said. "At my
age, I'd rather
spend money on
the honeymoon,"
said DeRoy, who
is 47. The
couple's entire
wedding,
including
Sklar's air
fare, cost less
than $5,000. |
