Akademik

(WEB.kast WED.ing)

n.

A wedding ceremony broadcast via streaming video over the World Wide Web.

When Lori Dickinson and Tyson Reiser walk down the aisle on Wednesday evening, most of their guests will be in pyjamas. The couple, from Waterloo, Ont., will say their vows in a Las Vegas chapel with 10 of their closest friends and family on hand. But another 40 or 50 people will be at home, watching the wedding live on the Internet after Ms. Dickinson, 28, and Mr. Reiser, 30, sent out e-mail invitations for the Webcast wedding to family and friends in British Columbia, Calgary and Manitoba.

— Melanie Seal, "Honeymoon in Vegas: Tying the knot on the Net," The Globe and Mail, February 4, 2002

In a first for Virginia's judicial system, the Wise County Circuit Court is offering to broadcast weddings live over the Internet, enabling faraway friends to witness the nuptials on their computer screens. The cost to the bride and groom: $ 150. The payoff: The money far-flung relatives save on airfare can be plowed into big-ticket wedding gifts. "To our knowledge, this is the first Webcast wedding site in the nation," said Court Clerk Jack Kennedy, who has made the Wise courthouse one of the most technologically advanced in the state.

— Rex Bowman, "Wise guy pitches Web weddings," The Richmond Times Dispatch, September 2, 2000

The phrase Web wedding used in the title of the earliest citation is a synonym (another is Net nuptials), and it's a bit older:

Wardner was the perfect spot for another reason — although only about 200 people live there, it has one of the slickest home pages on the Net. It plays bucolic music and shows live camera footage of the front porch of the mayor's gift shop. Usually, all you see is Peterson sipping coffee. But Sunday, users could call up the porch wedding at 4 p.m. Schenbeck's sister had a computer party in California to celebrate. About 30 others caught the Web wedding, too.

— Ward Sanderson, "Town on cutting edge for high-tech marriage," The Spokesman-Review, May 19, 1997