Danielle Derringer always dreamed of an October wedding so she could become another generation of the family to be married in that month, following her late maternal grandparents and parents.

So, 15 months ago, after her engagement to fellow Butler native Frankie Krouse, the planning began and Oct. 25 was picked as the big day for family and friends to celebrate the union.

But in February, Danielle's older brother, Dennis Derringer, learned he wouldn't be able to attend. A captain in the Air Force Reserves, he was being deployed for a six-month tour of duty in Iraq beginning in June.

Still, Capt. Derringer, 27, will at least be able to witness his sister's wedding live, even if he's a half-world away. Computer technology provided by Armstrong Cable in Butler will allow him to view and hear the service. He will even be able to maneuver a Web cam in St. Paul Church from a joint Army/Air Force base in Balad, Iraq, where he is serving with the 332nd Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron.

"I'm really excited he will be able to be there in his own way," said Danielle Derringer, 24, who, like her fiance, now lives in Cincinnati, where she is an editor for Housetrends magazine. "When I'm up at the altar, I'll feel he's there because I'll know he's watching."

Mary Ellen Derringer, the siblings' mother, said everyone is excited that Capt. Derringer at least will be present virtually at his sister's wedding.

"This is really important," she said. "They're our only two children. The older they're getting, the closer they are. We wish he could [be here], but this is the best we can do right now. I think it will be great if he can actually see this."

In an e-mail to the Post-Gazette from Iraq, Capt. Derringer said he was disappointed not to be a part of his sister's wedding celebration "but I also knew that this type of situation is part of being forward deployed overseas. Most of the members of my team will miss some type of family occasion, whether it's a birthday, anniversary, holiday, wedding or birth of a child or grandchild.

"If I am able to watch the wedding ... it will be the next best thing to actually being there, and, hopefully, my family will feel like I was able to be a part of the wedding as everyone else was able to experience it -- even though I am 6,000 miles away."

Capt. Derringer, who in civilian life is an engineer at the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority in Pittsburgh, got the idea for watching his sister's wedding from Iraq after visiting the USO on his base in Balad. There, he learned that many military personnel had used Web cams to watch family occasions, primarily births, taking place back in the states.

He thought of Armstrong Cable because for years the company had broadcast weekly services at St. Paul. He sent the company an e-mail and explained the situation.

"They were extremely responsive and willing to help us," Capt. Derringer said in the e-mail.

Carmen Bianco, an Armstrong local programming coordinator with whom Capt. Derringer has been corresponding, said the company is happy to help.

"Community is very big to Armstrong. We're a local company, pretty much family run, and we always are trying to do what we can to help the community. It is so important what these men and women are doing in Iraq. We're thrilled we can facilitate this so he can watch his sister's wedding."

Capt. Derringer will be able to watch and hear the 2 p.m. wedding on a computer at his base in Balad, where it will be 7 p.m. The Web cam will be set on a tripod on the altar, giving Capt. Derringer a view of the faces of his sister and her fiance as they take their vows -- a vantage point even the audience in the church won't have. And he'll be able to pan the camera and zoom in on his family and friends in the audience.

There are no plans to use a Web cam at the wedding reception, but Capt. Derringer, or at least a likeness of him, will be there, too. Danielle Derringer has ordered a 6-foot cutout of a photo of her brother in his Air Force garb. They plan to place the cutout at the bar, posing him as if he's leaning on it.

It will be the next best thing to his being there.