Online Nuptials

A good friend of mine got married a few weeks ago. I was not able to attend her wedding because I was so busy drafting my SLR paper. After finishing my SLR paper, I imagined myself getting married in the future (here goes my imagination again hehe). Most probably, during that time, most of my friends are already busy professionals. As most of my cousins are already residing abroad (I have plenty of them, by the way), it is not far-fetched that most of them would not be able to attend the wedding because of their busy schedule, or because they’re on the other side of the world. So what’s the solution to this dilemma?

Well, there’s this website called webcastmywedding.net. As more and more savvy couples are now arranging for their wedding to be broadcast over the internet, a US company saw such gap in the market and created the website on 2006. So why not just take a video of the wedding, one might ask. It’s because the webcast is in real time! The website boasts that it can support up to 100 simultaneous viewers or more. And if your “guests” can’t “make” it during the particular time of your wedding, the webcast is archived for up to 30 days. Perhaps there are lots of other mediums scattered over the net similar to this. Heck, one may even use youtube as it could serve the same purpose. But what actually triggered my curiosity is the fact that the marriage can be webcast in real time. As such, there could be major legal implications.

Art. 6 of the Family Code states: “No prescribed form or religious rite for the solemnization of the marriage is required. It shall be necessary, however, for the contracting parties to appear personally before the solemnizing officer and declare in the presence of not less than two witnesses of legal age that they take each other as husband and wife. This declaration shall be contained in the marriage certificate which shall be signed by the contracting parties and their witnesses and attested by the solemnizing officer.” If in the future, more and more marriages will be webcast, will it be possible that the presence of not less than two witnesses can be dispensed with already (as through the webcast, the witnesses could be deemed “constructively present”). As to the signature to be made in the marriage certificate, isn't it true that electronic signatures are now becoming the "in" thing? But I guess nothing beats sharing your precious moments with your loved ones - in the flesh. I guess I’ll just ask my friends to synch their vacation leaves. As to my cousins, probably during that time, they’ve already saved enough dough to buy plane tickets. Now back to reality.

(Fourteenth Entry)

Sources:
webcastmywedding.net
image from: http://www.lgrproductions.com/images/vedorlinks-online.jpg