What to know about Wedding Live Streaming in 2024 & 2025
Wedding Live Streaming is still very much in the mix for 2024 and 2025 weddings. You never know when one of your relatives won’t be able to make the flight or attend due to a health condition. Having a live streaming option ready to go for your ceremony will ensure your piece of mind and allow the people who matter most to share in your special day.
Pixel Dust Weddings has helped many couples by live streaming their wedding ceremonies but fortunately, even if you don’t have a professional videographer at your wedding there are a DIY options.
DIY Wedding Live Streaming Guide
Step 1: Choose a Platform
There are several platforms available for live streaming, such as Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Instagram Live, and Zoom. Choose the one that best suits your needs and is easy for your guests to access. Typically, YouTube live is the easiest for large numbers of guests. However, it requires you to turn on live streaming capability from your YouTube account which has a 24-48 auto approval window. If you have only a few guests missing Zoom is your best bet but keep in mind the free version only allows for 40 minutes.
Step 2: Test Your Internet Connection
This is the most important step. A stable internet connection is crucial for a smooth live stream. Test your venue’s Wi-Fi connection beforehand to ensure it’s strong enough. You can use any internet speed test but my favorite is Ookla. I just pull the website up on my phone and take 3-5 tests from around the ceremony area. You will need a minimum of 5MBPS Upload Speed. The download speed does not matter whatsoever but ensure you don’t get the two mixed up because the download speed will be 10-100X faster than the upload. If you are at a hotel make sure to ask for the “meeting” or “business” Wi-Fi. Sometimes hotels will put a hard limiter on their guest Wi-Fi, so 5 minutes into your stream it may shut you down.
Alternatively, if the venue does not have Wi-Fi, you can use your cell data plan. I recommend testing this the same way. If you plan to tether your unlimited data plan to a device be sure to read your data plan fine print. Some plans dramatically limit your upload speed when you are tethering vs streaming from your phone.
For reference here is wedding we Live Streamed out in a garden a good distance from the venue with a 5mbps upload speed. This is the absolute lowest upload speed and a healthy 10mbps will result in a far better stream.
Step 3: Select the Right Equipment for Streaming
Unless you have a friend with a nice video camera and a tripod, you will probably want to use your smartphone or laptop. When streaming with a laptop I recommend using the free program OBS to manage the stream. It’s a little complicated, so be sure to watch a 10 minute YouTube tutorial on it before you dive it.
Don’t forget about audio! If you have a DJ or MC who will be providing a microphone and speakers for your ceremony this will be much easier. I would recommend having your live streamer stand near one of the speakers. Yes, the angle won’t be ideal but hearing every word is far more important. Alternatively, you can purchase a Bluetooth Microphone system which will run you between $100-200. The most popular one right now is the Rode Wireless GO II but as long as you purchase a Bluetooth mic any will be fine. Once you have the mic, plug one end into your cell phone or laptop (you may need an adapter). Then plug the microphone part directly into you DJ or MC’s sound system (please give them a heads up before the wedding that you plan to do this) or you can clip the microphone directly onto your officiant.
Step 4: Let your Vendors know you will be Live Streaming
If you have a coordinator/planner, DJ/MC, and a photographer/videographer make sure they know beforehand that you will have someone live streaming your ceremony!
Step 5: Do a Trial Run
Before the big day, do a trial run to test the video and audio quality, and to ensure everything runs smoothly. This will help you identify and fix any potential issues in advance. If you can’t do a test before the wedding day make sure to do one on the day of.
Step 6: Inform Your Guests
Let your guests know in advance that you’ll be live streaming your wedding. Provide them with the date, time, and the platform link where they can watch the ceremony. On the wedding day if you are using Wi-Fi to stream insure the other guests do not have access to it until after the ceremony.
Step 7: Start Streaming
On your wedding day, start the live stream a few minutes before the ceremony begins to give your online guests time to join and for you to deal with any problems that may occur.
Step 8: Save and Share
Most platforms allow you to save your live stream video. This can be shared later with those who couldn’t attend or watch the live stream.
Is it worth it to Live Stream your wedding ceremony yourself?
If you made it through this guide and thought to yourself, that all sounds a little complicated. You wouldn’t be wrong. Live Streaming is difficult because there are so many scenarios that require a different approach and if you don’t take that approach it can blow up in your face at the worst possible moment. My advice is if it’s an easy situation then go for it. For example you are having your wedding somewhere you know the Wi-Fi is solid, there are good natural acoustics, communication from the venue is amazing, and you have a friend with a nice phone who is tech savey. If not then I recommend hiring a professional because honestly the stress on your wedding day is not worth it. Live Streaming can be added to any of our wedding videography packages. Check out our full pricing here: https://seattle-wedding-videographer.com/wedding-video-packages