How to Host Your Virtual Wedding With Joy

For example: Use Joy for your virtual wedding rehearsal on Zoom

Let’s say you want to use Zoom for your virtual wedding rehearsal, and invite only your wedding party and officiant. This process is exactly the same no matter which streaming platform you use, and for any event on your Joy website. After this overview, we’ll cover all the details.

1. Set up a meeting on Zoom. You’ll get a link from Zoom that looks something like this:
   https://us04web.zoom.us/j/1234567890?pwd=abCDefgHIJKlmnOPQrsTUV


   

2. Open your wedding rehearsal event in Joy. Edit the settings so that only your officiant and wedding party can see this event. See Private Events for more on this.

   

3. Add your Zoom link to the “Virtual Event” section.

   

4. Save your changes, and done! Your wedding party, officiant, and no one else, will now see the link to your virtual wedding rehearsal on your website.

   

Here’s some guidance and tips about how to set up your virtual event.

How it works

Zoom allows you and your guests to fully interact. Everyone who uses the Zoom app can see each other and talk. As the host, you can limit this, for quieter, uninterrupted events.

Guest experience

Your guests can join with the Zoom app (recommended for full functionality and interactivity), or with their web browser (limited functionality). Your Joy website will offer guests this choice.

Cost

Zoom’s free option limits an event to 40 minutes and 100 participants. There are paid options for more time and guests.

Setting up a Zoom event

Sign up for Zoom on the Zoom website.

Use Zoom’s “Schedule a meeting” to set up a virtual event. Most of the default settings are reasonable. A few things to be aware of:

• When: Set the meeting time to the same time, in your timezone, as the event on your Joy website.

• Duration: If you want your event to be longer than 40 minutes and/or allow more than 100 participants, upgrade to a Pro plan.

• Passcode: Our suggestion is to just leave this alone. By default, your meeting will have a passcode, and the passcode will be included in your Invite Link (in encrypted form), so your guests won’t have to know it to join.

• Waiting Room: If checked, your guests will first join a “waiting room”, and you, or someone helping you, will need to play “bouncer” and manually admit guests from the waiting room to the event. This is just to be extra-extra sure that only invited guests get in. This is totally up to you.

• Video: The video setting for both hosts and guests is “off”. This is a sensible setting; it just means that video is off right when you join the meeting. It gives people a moment to compose themselves before turning their video on.

After you save your event, you’ll see all its details. The Invite Link is what you’ll copy into your Joy event. Your Invite Link should look something like this:

• https://us04web.zoom.us/j/123456789?pwd=AbCDefGHIjkLMnOP

  

If your meeting link doesn’t look like this, there are two settings that will make it right.

• In your meeting, Passcode should be checked.

  

• Under Settings, “Embed passcode in invite link for one-click join” should be toggled on.

  

Starting your Zoom event

Whenever you’re ready, just click “Start this Meeting” inside Zoom. Enjoy!

How it works

EventLive is custom-designed for live streaming weddings. It allows your guests to watch your live streamed event. Guests cannot see each other and talk.

Guest experience

Your guests can join with their web browser, or use the EventLive app if they wish.

Cost

EventLive costs $50 for unlimited participants, up to 24 hours, an automatic recording of the event, and more.

Setting up EventLive

EventLive provides instructions for getting set up.

How it works

Google Meet allows you and your guests to interact. Everyone who joins can see each other and talk.

Guest experience

Your guests can join with their web browser, or use the Google Meet app if they wish. For the free version of Google Meet, guests will need to create or sign in to an existing Google Account to join.

Cost

Google Meet’s free option works for up to 100 participants. There are paid options for more time and guests, and the ability to record the event.

Setting up a Google Meet

Google provides instructions for getting set up.

How it works

YouTube allows your guests to watch your live streamed event. Guests cannot see each other and talk.

Guest experience

Your guests can join with their web browser, or use the YouTube app if they wish.

Cost

YouTube Live is free, however if you have a channel with less than 1,000 subscribers, you can only go live from a desktop, you will not be able to use a smartphone or tablet for your Live.

Setting up a Google Meet

YouTube provides instructions for getting set up.

As long as you have a link pointing to your live stream or virtual event, it’ll work with your Joy website. Just follow the steps in the first example on this page.

To become super confident that everything will go smoothly on your big day itself, consider hosting a virtual rehearsal event in advance, with some family or friends. You can set this up in Joy and on the platform of your choice, just like any other event.

Please note: If you are using YouTube, the livestream link will change each time you go live. For example, if you had set up a link, then used it for a test, you would then have to set up a new link for your actual event, because you won’t be able to re-use the test link again. In other words, you’ll want to do a test before you share the link with your guests to avoid any confusion.

The Joy Welcome Video was originally intended for your engagement video, hosted on YouTube or Vimeo. It can hold one video, and it’s visible to all of your guests. So:

• If you’re doing a one-way livestream of one event, on YouTube or Vimeo, and it’s OK for all of your guests to see it, you can totally use that link as your Welcome Video.

• Otherwise, it’s better to add your Virtual Event link(s) to the events in your Joy schedule.

After your wedding, if you’ve made a recording, you can post it really easily: Just upload it to YouTube or Vimeo and add it to your Welcome page as the Welcome video (as mentioned above), for everyone to enjoy and relive the memories of your special day.

How to keep your virtual wedding secure

If you want to make sure your virtual wedding is as secure as it can be (and avoid any unwanted and unexpected visitors) we have a few suggestions:

– Take advantage of our private events feature — Show your virtual wedding on your schedule page only to guests that are invited. To set this up, you would want to assign tags on the guest list (for example, you can create a tag called “virtual” and then assign that tag only to guests that are invited to your virtual wedding) and then apply the relevant tag(s) to your virtual wedding on your Schedule page. When guests come to your website, they will be required to enter their name (which will need to match the name you have entered for them on the guest list) and they will only be shown the events that they are invited to, like your virtual wedding. If they are not invited to the virtual wedding, they won’t see that event information.

– Password protect your Joy site — By doing so, only guests with your event password will be able to access information on your Joy site. This adds an additional layer of security. Learn more about adding a password to your website in this help article. 

– Send “virtual” wedding eCard invitations through Joy — This will ensure that, again, only the guests that you invite to your virtual wedding, are the ones who will have the information to the event. When sending eCard invites out through Joy, you can directly email your guests the invite, and only those who are invited will have access to your event password to unlock the site (if you have one). And from there, they can also view your schedule based on their name that you added to the guest list, which is the same name used on the invite. It’s all tied and linked together for more security.

Still have some questions?

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Ask us directly! Click on the black and white chat bubble in the bottom-right corner of this page to ask us your questions, or you can email us at support@withjoy.com. You’ll get a friendly response from someone on our team! 🙂