It’s tough to ignore how much social media has changed weddings. A couple might coin their wedding hashtag within minutes of the proposal, and you can change your Facebook status to “married” right there at the ceremony. There’s room for innovation with the introduction of each new social medium, and this wedding season you can watch a couple exchange vows live on Periscope.
Kyle Harris, 24, and Bryanna Mazzella, 23, are getting married May 30 at 3 p.m. EST in Long Island, New York, and they’re live-streaming the event on the brand-new Twitter-owned app. Since Periscope is a mere two months old, the couple is fairly sure this is a first.
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“We have a lot of people who won’t be able to make it,” says Harris. “And it’s not logical to invite every person we know, but why can’t we let everyone come, via the Internet?” The couple has always been really excited by and attached to social media. In fact, they even met via Twitter.
“I was just looking through my followers and stumbled upon her profile,” says Harris. “I saw she had a YouTube channel and tweeted out the link, saying, ‘Check out this girl’s music!’ She tweeted back, and one thing led to another.” It’s a love story that could have only happened in the 21st century, and so it seems perfectly appropriate to keep the tech theme going throughout the wedding itself.
The reaction from family and friends? “It’s been overwhelmingly positive,” says Mazzella. “We have a couple of family members who are elderly and can’t make the trip or some that are our age who can’t afford it or take time off work. Now they get to see it anyway!”
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Of course, putting your relationship and wedding all out there on the Internet means opening yourself up to trolls. “A lot of people are skeptical,” says Mazzella. “They think it’s an intrusion, or they ask, ‘Why do you want your special day broadcast to everyone?’ But we don’t see it that way at all.”
Their celebration is just hours away, and anyone with a wifi connection is invited to tune in (if you’re not Periscope-savvy, you can also watch here). So what can strangers expect from this ceremony? “Lots of surprises,” says Mazzella. “I don’t want to talk too much about them in case I spoil them. There are some things that Kyle doesn’t know about and some things he’s been working on with my parents.”
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And the social-media magic doesn’t end with the live stream. The couple will have a photo booth at their reception, but it’s not your run-of-the-mill props-and-backdrop sitch. “The booth is worldwide,” says Mazzella. Their wedding hashtag will provide a stream of photos to the booth, where they will be printed out live. “Our friends watching from Costa Rica can take a photo, and it will print at the reception,” she says. “I think that’s an insanely amazing way to connect.”
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