Style

STYLE Virtual Nuptials

Samie and Ryan Roberts’ LoveStream platform adds social distancing to the wedding party

BY TAYLOR BOWLER

MARK BENNO proposed to Catherine Poling at the Rose Parade in Pasadena on New Year’s Day 2018. Once the couple returned home to Cornelius, they began brainstorming wedding locations. They weren’t in any big rush; it would be the second marriage for both, and each had children and careers that kept them busy. They considered a European wedding in the Alps and explored a schooner wedding in Charleston. “We had all of these great destination wedding ideas, then we shi ed to Lake Norman to be more accessible to our families,” Catherine says. They ultimately decided on the Peninsula Club on Lake Norman and set the date for September 12, 2020.

By late 2019, they had a guest list of 90 and their honeymoon booked. They’d planned a 12-day Mediterranean cruise that would take them from Spain to Italy, but as they heard about multiple COVID19 outbreaks associated with cruise ships, they knew they had to cancel their trip. In May, it was clear they’d need to change their wedding plans, too. “We were anxiously waiting for the governor to give us an update on Phase 3,” Mark says. “Or would we go back to Phase 1?”

Dilemmas like theirs inspired husband-and-wife team Samie and Ryan Roberts to launch LoveStream, a livestream platform that allows couples like Catherine and Mark to say their vows with their friends and family watching from their own homes. “When Ryan and I got married, it was the middle of Hurricane Irene in New York City,” Samie says. “It’s not quite the same as what these couples are dealing with, but we lost a third of our guest list. So we’re passionate about nding a way to make it happen.”

Before the pandemic, the Robertses coordinated as many as 35 weddings a year through their wedding planning company and created Bustld, a Charlottebased online wedding platform that connects vendors with wedding planners. But by March, they started to see a decline in bookings. “Couples would postpone