If it’s true that technology both opens up our world and makes it smaller at the same time, then JoAnn Peach and Nico Cerutti are connected citizens of the world. Their use of technology throughout their wedding planning let them coordinate details from different continents and share their meaningful moments from wherever they landed.

They shared their story in a visual montage of blogs, slideshows, VOIP and instant messaging as they became engaged while living in France and planned for a wedding in California.

Using technology to coordinate and keep in touch was a necessity. “My husband is Italian and I’m an American,” JoAnn said. “We lived in Paris but have friends and family in at least eight different countries.”

Keep in touch they did, starting with a blog launched when they became engaged and updated throughout their planning and ceremony. The first lengthy story posted told of the night Nico proposed to JoAnn at a window seat Ciel de Paris, with the Eiffel Tower lighting the night sky behind them, three years to the day after they shared their first kiss.

The wedding blog accounted excitement and frustration, opinions and course changes. There was humor - and JoAnn posting images of varieties of bridal lingerie - and Nico’s bachelor party documented in photos and video. The date for JoAnn and Nico’s wedding changed and they posted the information to the blog, but they locked in wedding photographer Scott Campbell to photograph the Carmel ceremony within weeks and shared their choice with everyone.

“We also used Shutterfly to print photos for our friends and to share with our friends all over the world,” JoAnn said.

Still living in Paris, JoAnn and Nico decided on two engagement shoots: the City of Lights as well as in California. It turned out to be a smart decision - an engagement photographer didn’t show for their California session, leaving them only with photos from their Paris shoot.

In a whirlwind six months, the couple also planned their nuptials, held bridal showers for JoAnn in Amsterdam and San Francisco, and moved back to the U.S. a month before their wedding. As she wrote on her blog, “In the past three months, Nico and I have moved countries, started a job (me), bought a flat in SF (us), moved in, decorated, finished planning a wedding and got married! WHEW!”

With guests coming in from around the world, JoAnn and Nico said their vows June 9, 2007 at the Carmel Mission Basilica. Ever the connected techie, JoAnn even found a way for guests to keep tabs on their children during the reception. “We used a live web cam so the parents at our wedding could continually check their kids without leaving the reception,” she said. “All you need is a WiFi, two laptops and a webcam.”

Two days after their ceremony, the couple was on the road again, going on “an unofficial honeymoon road trip with 15 other people - our guests from the UK, France and Africa - from San Francisco to Los Angeles to Las Vegas.”

Naturally, they photographed every moment of the journey.

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