Zoom wedding now and "reception" later

That's similar to my plans. We're going to have a small ceremony and reception for our bridal party and immediate family with all of our other guests attending virtually. Not sure on the platform yet. I'm considering still having a big reception next year, but not sure if I'll be up to planning it! I'll probably decide after the wedding.

That\s a great idea and something I keep hearing other brides doing. There is nothing wrong with it, and I'm sure everyone (almost everyone anyway) will be more than happy to attend the reception at a later date. I know I would

I would let everyone zoom your ceremony and im sure they will want to come next year!!!!

We are planning on having a small ceremony with as many close people as allowed my regulations, and then we are having a ceremony and reception next year. We are not telling people about the ceremony this year/ not streaming it for everyone. I think that these are very hard, weird times and guests will be understanding!

Hey! We did the same kind of thing! We were supposed to get married May 23rd, and last minute were able to get a marriage license and did our wedding at home April 25th.

We had our minister, witnesses and parents from a distance and video called in some immediate family via Facebook messenger (however I would not suggest using Facebook messenger for the video call as I searched it and it said 50 people could join the chat and it only allowed 7, so a couple people that we had on missed it - I've heard good things about Zoom however heard that there is a 30-40 min cut off time. Skype may be another option too?). I wouldn't worry about calling in all of your guests as they will be able to witness in person at your renewal ceremony!

I wouldn't worry about people not attending next year, we decided to plan the same kind of thing and are doing a reception and vow renewal on our one year anniversary! Most of our guests have already reached out to let us know they are still looking forward to attending and appreciate us pushing the date forward for their health and safety and others. I honestly think people will be happy that you got married and are still having a day that everyone can celebrate with you!

Zoom is a good way to have guests watch the wedding and reception after. Posting a recording from your phone onto the computer is also possible done once married and let guests see the video online site or by email when sent.

Hello fellow August 14 bride.

Zoom is a good idea because you can also see the people. However the free version only allows I believe 40 minute sessions and people are automatically cut off. I have had that happen on our ALS walk coordinator meetings until our office purchased the version, so no more cutting off. Plus you can record it which is amazing and you can share the recording with whomever you want.

Whatever you end up doing be happy!

wish these posts were not happening with discussions of of happy day not being as we anticipated. I dont know about you but I hate how a happy time of planning our wedding has become stressful and has to have back up plans.

Unfortunately we must adhere to the govt rules and wait to see how we can keep our date. I believe it is important to keep our date as it is our 14th anniversary and we picked that day for a reason. We are planning an elopement wedding, plus a small wedding and a mid sized. Worst case scenario we have a party on our 1st anniversary.

Guests will understand.

Best of luck.

We're planning something sort of like that, where we might need to include some family who can't enter the country in a video call. Zoom seems to be the best for large gatherings, but I would look into the ways to make it private with a password to share with guests so you don't get "zoom bombed" during such a special moment. It also would make sense to have a tripod (even a small table top one) set up to make the video less shakey, a test run to pick the best spot for audio and visual would be helpful too so everyone gets the best seat in the house!


For the majority of our guests we are having a vow renewal at our reception on our first anniversary. That way people still get the wedding vibes and some of the tradition of the ceremony. I still want to have the bouquet toss and cake cutting too, so keeping the ceremony will make it feel a little more wedding-like and less of a fancy anniversary party to me.