I've come across this issue a few times, and signed up for an account for a friend as a present. And after I saw that it worked I suggested online sharing for quite a few friends and family. After using it, no I spoke to one regretted sharing wedding video online, and it saved a lot of both money and time.

3 places which do it and have a reputation for having done it well for at least a year are www.sharingourjoy.com, homemovie.com, and viddia.com; the thing I liked about the sharing joy website is that you can watch and post comments without having the movie stop. All 3 handle 2 hours of wedding video, you just click on section you want to watch and only see what you want. It's too bad in the other 2 websites that your video stops and you go to a new page when you want to write something down to post a comment. Then you have to click the back button, check the video again, and restart it from where you guess you left off. I like the comment while you watch idea a lot, it gets people I have not thought about posting original things with fresh eyes. It also seems the other 2 websites are trying to push yesterdays DVD technology, and they're like o by the way, we also do online video.

I've had the bad experience of going to a cousins place to watch her wedding video, and was subjected to 7! DVDs being brought out. Ya; I like her and all, but I just want to watch a few key scenes, find myself in the video, tell a few friends to check me out, and be done with it. There's no way I'm watching her videographers cut of 14 hours of video. I also like that with online video I can watch and talk about it in the password protected guestbook section. Then it becomes just like a discussion forum, people build on each others comments, just like we're doing here.

The price was $100 for each of the three, but the sharing joy website kept giving accounts away to every friend I referred. My friends just filled in anything at the promo code section, and it gave them free online video for a year. None of the 3 websites have advertising, so no youTube like unnecessary advertising. In all 3 sites the video was watched by friends and family who couldn't attend, and the videographer dealt directly with the website, so you don't have to do anything. It goes straight from videographer to online from their digital files. No matter what people say about sending things in the mail, it is just not that important once the day is over. I got thank you letters almost a year after some weddings I attended. And DVDs? Not likely someone will spend that amount of concentrated effort. Time just moves on.

I see answers here that say just burn and mail DVDs. Burning a DVD takes time, burning a few hundred takes that much more time. And then getting peoples addresses and mailing it so it gets there without scratches costs more. And this being 2008, who wants to watch a movie without sharing it with someone else? It's like saying, here's a cool toy, but since you all live in different places, you can't play with anyone else. And after you're done, give it to someone else so that they can play with it. At least with online video/guestbooks you can all watch and post at the same time so that you don't forget how cool your lost uncle was, or what it felt like the last time you saw grandma. With a DVD if you get to feel that way you think you'll tell someone later, and then it's 5 years before you think about it and you're alone again so you can't share.

I like movies a lot and watching them, but I think the wedding videographers have a long way to go. Photographers figured it out long time ago: give people access to their own pictures. But for video they just don't get it yet. They still expect you to pay them to burn DVDs. The video cost the couple a few hundred or a few thousand dollars; what's the videographer going to make on copies, another $20? I would think they would spend time and concentrate on getting another 2 thousand dollar video. I get that the bride and groom want one to watch forever. But why should the couple pay to give everyone else an isolating experience? At least online you can watch only portions of video you like while you're at work, and talk about it in the online guestbook all at once so you bounce your ideas about the video together and off each other. When the 15th online guest comes to watch, they add to your comments like the people before. By the time the 50th online guest comes along, there's as much life in the guest commentary as much as there is in the video. Multiple eyes see so many different things, and with a really good videographers work you can see perspectives you just missed on that day.

I can see uploading to youTube, but they limit you to 10 minutes. And they have the worst videos next to your videos. Like I really want to see some new youTube artist right next to someones wedding video. And by the time youtube gets done with your video it looks like you have passed it through a paper shredder. After paying a few hundred or a few thousand bucks you at least want watchable video. Right now I can only think of 2 people of everyone I know who doesn't have internet access. And they probably see their neighbor who does have net access to they can get their email. I like highlights reels, I agree with that poster that these 10 minute deals are really to the point and effective so you don't bore people.

These new websites coming out are already changing the way people watch video. I do think DVDs are nice, but one friend I had evited 480 people to watch their wedding online. She told me only 450 people watched. But still. If she had done DVDs and paid 30 cents each, gotten a bunch of burners, spent the time to burn 480 DVDs, got all the addresses, put them all in mailers, posted them by mail, it would probably have cost her 2 or 3 dollars a piece. At that price it's almost like hiring another videographer to take another whole video.

$0 - $100, password protected, post online comments, no ads, the whole video online, watch whatever you want, evite guests who weren't at the wedding and online friends. I keep recommending those 3 websites. But sometimes people still want to stay safe with DVDs. Maybe it will be another generation before people see that they can be online. Maybe people just don't realize they have other options, or have never seen examples of good online video without ads. Maybe they don't know they can tell their videographer they want this, or have never seen it themselves to trust it. My vote is, tell your cousin to keep one DVD and make backups for herself, so she doesn't lose it over the years and can transfer it to the next dead end bluray hd/dvd disk technology which comes around 5 years from now. But share her wedding video online in a password protected space. That's what she needs. To give people access, and they can decide whether to watch or not. Make it easy on her and the people in her life. Tell her videographer what she wants, and for them to check out those sites and she won't even have to deal with it herself, she just gets to share with whoever she wants. If she's too busy with her wedding plans just gift it to her, you probably get a great deal because these websites are really early for online video and are rushing over themselves trying to get people to use them. You'll end up looking like a hero, and get her a present no one else even thought of: A way to share wedding video online!

Good luck.