If you search the Web, you’ll find all sorts of claims about the first online wedding. Some claim it took place on Prodigy in the 1980s. Others say AOL in the 1990s.The first online wedding was held on CompuServe on February 14, 1983. The couple were George Stickles and Debbie Fuhrman. They met via CompuServe’s CB Simulator, and decided it would be fun to get married in the same venue.
The service was conventional and the logistics were fairly simple. A minster and the couple sat at different computers in the same room in Texas. All three were logged into a CB channel, along with more than 100 other CompuServe members. The minister spoke aloud while an assistant typed in his words. Stickles and Furhman spoke and then repeated their vows by typing them out.
If you’re broad-minded in your definition of “online,” you’ll be interested to know that the first long-distance, electrically enhanced wedding cermony was held in 1876—by telegraph. (See The Victorian Internet, by Thomas Standage.)
The booik? On the Way to the Web is my next title, due out in hardcover at the end of June. Click on the title or the image to buy a copy.
Copyright © 2008, Michael A. Banks
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