Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Just Like Being There

Wedding webcasts enable family and friends to witness nuptials from anywhere

The wedding chapel at Caesars Palace recently joined a handful of local chapels offering couples the option of broadcasting their wedding live over the Internet. Newlyweds Shannon Bates and Chris Smotherman pose for pictures with the groom's parents after their wedding was broadcast last week. Photo by K.M. Cannon. Shannon Bates and Chris Smotherman kiss after their wedding at the chapel at Caesars Palace. The Internet webcam, above their heads, can broadcast weddings live to guests who can't attend. Photo by K.M. Cannon. Newlyweds Shannon Bates and Chris Smotherman, center, kiss after their wedding. They chose a webcast of their wedding so more family members and friends could view it. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

When Kristine and Fred Huizenga said their "I do's" at Caesars Palace on April 2, his parents were sitting in their California living room.

But they still witnessed the ceremony as it happened, thanks to one of the newest amenities offered by Caesars' wedding services: live webcasts.

The resort first offered the service in February as a way to appeal to couples who wanted their families and friends to be at the wedding without actually having them there, said Desirae Parker, wedding services manager. Caesars joined just a handful of local chapels offering live webcasts. Paris Las Vegas, MGM Grand and Little White Wedding Chapel are among the others.

It's an inexpensive way to make long-distance family and friends part of the big day, Parker said. Loved ones don't have to pay for airfare or hotel and couples save on reception costs.

"I think this provides our guests with a valuable service. If you have an elderly family member who can't travel, they can view it in real-time. When people hear about it, they think it's a wonderful thing," Parker said.

A professional-quality digital camera captures the event and feeds it through special software. Guests can access the Web site through dial-up or broadband service. They can see and hear everything, Parker said.

"They liked it," Kristine Huizenga, 28, said of her in-laws' reaction. "They liked the whole idea of being able to see it online. They had dial-up so it was kind of delayed, but they could hear the audio fine."

The webcast wasn't the deciding factor when they chose the Caesars wedding chapel, Huizenga said, but it was a nice bonus.

"We had actually checked out other chapels and Caesars had the best package available for the right price," she said. The couple spent $4,500 on the Amore package. "We noticed the package included the webcast and we thought that was pretty cool."

The webcast costs $200, making it a lot cheaper than flying everyone into town, Parker said. They decided to start offering the service, along with personalized Web sites, in an effort to make their packages more competitive. Las Vegas, long known as the quickie wedding capital of the world, has been building a reputation for more traditional ceremonies in recent years, Parker said. Such weddings, along with specialized services, appeal to a wider audience, she added.

Huizenga, who is studying kinesiology in college, considers herself to be technologically savvy. She said it makes sense to broadcast weddings online, because so many people are wired for Internet access now.

"I use the Internet for a lot of things, especially for school purposes. I have to use the Internet because everything is online nowadays," she said.