We’ve attended many virtual celebrations since 2020, but hosting one is definitely not the same, especially if it’s a big celebration. Earlier this month, I got to host (and attend, actually) my first virtual wedding on Zoom! It was quite an interesting experience. Here are some tips and lessons learned on hosting a Zoom wedding!
Background: The wedding was held outdoors at a church with limited attendees in-person (family and wedding party only). There were around 300 guests invited to join the Zoom call. The wedding was streamed using two phones signed in on Zoom. To stay within a reasonable budget, the wedding was mostly organized by the bride and groom’s family and the wedding party.
The virtual aspect of this wedding was run by a skeleton crew of only three people, but there are actually quite a few different roles/tasks!
Virtual Tech Team
Zoom Host – This person is the main point of contact between the bride and the groom, as well as all of the guests on Zoom. The Zoom host will manage the Zoom account, and knows the schedule from the inside out to ensure that the virtual aspect of the wedding is running smoothly. The Zoom host will be in charge of recording the wedding and can also serve as the MC between transitions.
Tip: If you are planning to create a wedding video, double up on the cameras so that the resolution is better. The Zoom recording resolution is not the best, but it is still important to practice recording ahead of time and decide how and where (local or cloud) you want the recording saved.
Waiting Room Admission – Have a designated person admitting guests from the waiting room. While having a waiting room may seem like extra work, it allows the tech team to test out equipment right before the wedding without guests who join early watching. Guests can be admitted all at once or one by one.
Slideshow Presenter – If there are slideshows that will be presented throughout the ceremony, put one person in charge of testing out the slides and familiarizing themselves with how to present and handle slide transitions.
Tip: Coordinate with the bride and groom on the format of the slideshows so that there is a consistent and smooth transition between different slideshows. Practice presenting the slideshows before the big day!
Mute the Extras – We’ve all been on a call with the uncle who forgets to mute himself and everyone can hear his whole conversation, and that is something you wouldn’t want happening during the wedding ceremony! Have someone in charge of muting all the participants that are generating unnecessary background noise and maybe even disturbing the wedding ceremony! Be careful to avoid using “mute all” because you might end up muting the audio from the in-person video too!
Spotlight Is Now On You! – If you have multiple cameras set up to view the wedding at different angles, you will need someone watching all the camera views and determining which camera to spotlight and when to switch between the different angles.
Tip: Coordinate with the cameraman on what parts of the wedding will be shown on each camera. It’s best not to switch the camera views too often or else the guests may even get a headache from all the switching.
Breakout Rooms Mover – Zoom breakout rooms will best resemble an in-person wedding where you are assigned to a specific table. It also opens up the opportunity for families and friends to interact with each other and familiar faces, rather than sitting in front of their screen and just watching the ceremony. While Zoom has the option of pre-assigned breakout rooms, it only works if 1) your guests have a Zoom account 2) you have the email addresses of your guests’ Zoom accounts, and 3) your guests actually sign in to the Zoom meeting with that Zoom account. If any of these conditions are not met, your guest will not show up in a pre-assigned breakout room. Additionally, you can only pre-assign up to 200 guests to breakout rooms, so the remaining guests will need to be assigned manually.
Tips:
- Have at least two people in this role. There will be a lot of guests who do not have an account or do not sign in with the correct email, so you will need to move those guests manually. If the person assigned this role knows the relatives of the bride and groom, it will also be easier. Participants do not always do a very great job of following instructions, even if it is as simple as updating their Zoom name to display their first and last names. At this particular wedding, many guests who did not show up in a pre-assigned breakout room were joining with their nicknames or only put their first name. This made it difficult to determine which “Richard” or “Maria” they were to place them in the correct breakout room.
- Ask the bride and groom for the complete wedding guest list (including the names of all family members). There will be families who will join using one account, and the account they use will likely be one of the children’s names. There were a few guests who did not show up in the breakout room list that I had – either they used their children’s account or they weren’t actually invited to the wedding, who knows? Control+F will be your best friend when searching for a name on the guest list.
- Create an extra room for the guests that you can’t determine which breakout room they belong in. They will end up in a room full of random people, but at least they’ll still be able to get a photo with the bride and groom as they go to every breakout room! Maybe next time they’ll follow the instructions and use their full names.
- Since there is a limit to the number of participants you can pre-assign, if your guest list exceeds that number, I would choose to pre-assign those who use Zoom often so that you won’t have to worry as much about needing to move them manually. Sort the remaining guests alphabetically in a spreadsheet by breakout room so that you can easily assign them.
- Once the breakout rooms are opened up, your job is not done. Do not join a breakout room. Stay in the main room so that you can assist guests who are having trouble joining their breakout room or those who claim they should be in a different breakout room.
Tech Support – If there are enough people helping out on the virtual tech team, having a number or chat to call or message for assistance would be helpful. This person can be in charge of answering all Zoom related questions so that the rest of the virtual tech team can focus on their tasks.
On-Site Tech Team
Cameraman – This person is in charge of setting up the cameras and coordinating with the spotlight person on when to show which angles.
Audio – The audio person will test out all audio to make sure that those joining on Zoom can hear clearly.
Point of Contact – The on-site point of contact will keep in touch with the Zoom host throughout the ceremony. If there are any schedule delays or technical issues, both the on-site crew and virtual crew will be notified and can adjust accordingly.
Hosting a Zoom wedding seems easy enough right? Make sure to do as many test runs as you need until you feel comfortable with everything!