Bridesmaid attends wedding using iPad’s FaceTime app

By Trevor Mogg August 25, 2011

Virginia-based Renee Armstrong desperately wanted to attend the wedding of friends Jonathan Alberico and Jamie Wilborn – she’d been asked to be a bridesmaid, after all. The problem was, her friends live in Denver, Colarado, some 1500 miles away, and the cost of getting there just proved to be too expensive in these economically tough times.

Bride Jamie told Cnet: “Unfortunately, the economy sucks. She just didn’t have the means to make it out to Denver. It was absolutely devastating when we found she couldn’t come.”

So, what to do? After having a think about it, Jamie hit upon the idea of using an iPad. The tablet’s FaceTime app allows two-way video communication, so Renee could be at the grand event after all – sort of.

Jamie put the idea to Renee, who loved it. On the big day, the bridesmaid got ready as if she was going to be at the wedding in person, donning her best outfit for the occasion.

She was ‘carried around’ the proceedings by a groomsman, who took her down the aisle and ensured she had a perfect view of the vows. Hopefully the wedding guests knew what the groomsman was up to, otherwise they might’ve been thinking, “Why is that guy showing off his new iPad like that?”

In a conversation captured on video (see below), Renee tells Jamie, “I got all teary-eyed during the ceremony, and I couldn’t have got that from pictures.”

According to the Cnet report, the FaceTime plan nearly didn’t happen when a slightly sloshed groomsman accidentally dropped the tablet in the middle of the wedding rehearsal. Luckily, a replacement was obtained.

The short video below, shot by wedding guest Jamie Goswick, shows the happy couple exchanging vows, as well as a man walking around with an iPad showing bridesmaid Renee on the screen.

[Screenshots courtesy of Jamie Goswick]

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