Wedding Webcast

Every now and again we like to tell the world what we've been up to. This week we put out a press release about a wedding we filmed recently. We love talking about our passion - making movies - but we are always a bit uncomfortable talking about ourselves. In this case, we overcame our discomfort to write a news piece in the hope that a bride somewhere will read about the possibility of webcasting and solve the problem of how to take the sting out of dear relatives who cannot make it to the wedding.

PRESS RELEASE

Savadelis Films may have made history by successfully webcasting a bride's outdoor wedding ceremony to her mother's hospital room 2500 miles away using full-motion video. But best of all, they made a Mother and daughter very happy.

Just days before Pam and Phil's wedding, Pam's Mother Sue shattered not just her leg, but also her dream of watching her daughter walk down the aisle. Pam and Sue were heartbroken. Pam frantically searched for a way to get her Mother to the wedding. But given the nature of the break, there was no way her Mother could travel. Sometimes, though, a miracle can happen in a way you never expected.

When the couple's wedding videographers, Chuck and Jewel Savadelis of Savadelis Films learned of Pam and Phil's predicament just 48 hours before the wedding, they vowed to do whatever it took to broadcast Pam and Phil's wedding ceremony live over the internet. Magically, the pieces started to fall into place.

On Friday, as Pam and her bridesmaids drove to the spa for a day of relaxation, Savadelis Films contacted the head of technology at the hospital in Ohio where Pam's Mother was receiving care. The hospital was able to provide a computer from which Sue could view the live webcast of the wedding. Then Savadelis Films called on Event by Wire to provide the streaming technology to webcast the ceremony live from a California winery to an Ohio hospital. Although slated to play in an annual golf tournament, Dan Grumley, owner of Event by Wire, committed to forego the tournament to personally oversee that the broadcast went flawlessly.

Ten minutes before the wedding, just as Pam and her bridesmaids were ready to walk down the aisle, the internet broadcast went live. Sue, dressed in the pale pink chiffon dress she had chosen, and adorned with a corsage, saw guests gathering under a stand of stately redwood trees on a brilliantly sunny day at a private winery near San Francisco. Then she saw a sight she'd been praying to see: her daughter floating down the aisle on her father's arm. Sue saw her husband gently kiss Pam's cheek as he presented her hand to Phil.

As the couple approached the minister Phil whispered to Pam, "You are so beautiful. You take my breath away." As Pam spoke her vows to love Phil in joy and in sorrow, he wiped her tear away. Then they exchanged rings and kissed. Sue saw and heard it all. At the moment that it was happening. From 2500 miles away.

Afterwards, Pam said, "I truly felt like my Mom was there in the crowd of family and friends who surrounded us. Knowing that she was watching freed me from worrying about her, and allowed me to fully experience all the joy of our wedding day." Pam's Mother put it more simply: "It felt like I was there. I really was there, sharing every moment with my children."