Couple’s wedding vows echo across the world

Their wedding will be watched around the globe. Charles and Camilla? No, Keith and Michelle.

When Wellington couple Michelle O'Brien and Keith Block marry next month, the ceremony will be attended by 70 New Zealanders and 50 of Keith's English friends and family.

But here's the twist: while the wedding will be in Wellington, the Londoners will stay in London.

In a first for New Zealand, O'Brien and Block, both 34, will be using a two-way video conferencing system to broadcast events from each of the locations.

The innovative arrangement will allow the couple - who met 10 years ago in the UK and both now work for Telecom - to simulate having all their friends and family together in one place.

While the London crowd celebrate a Saturday morning champagne breakfast, the Wellingtonians will gather in the capital's tallest building, the Majestic Centre, for a night-time ceremony and dinner.

Each venue will be equipped with unobtrusive cameras and large screens to allow the guests to watch the wedding and the speeches - and each other.

O'Brien says the video conferencing technology will retrieve the wedding from the "too difficult" basket.

"The whole point is celebrating our commitment to each other in front of both our families. It just wouldn't have been the same to do it in England and then later in New Zealand," she says. "This way both families from opposite sides of the world can enjoy the occasion."

For the couple's parents, who have exchanged Christmas cards but never met, it will be the closest they've come to a face-to-face encounter and a chat.

Hiring two venues and catering for two lots of people is costly, Mr O'Brien admits, but significantly cheaper than any alternative. "There's no reason why other big occasions couldn't be marked the same way," he said.

"Christenings, births, when you want to show your newborn baby to the other side of the world's family - it's a really neat medium to be able to do things like that."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY