Voices: Social media should be banned from weddings
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Our relationship with social media and nuptials has gone too far, writes Olivia Petter - and now it should be banned from our special moments. These days, if you don’t post a video of yourself saying “I do” on Instagram, you might as well have said, “I do not”.
Social media is an integral cog in the wedding industry’s relentlessly whirring machine. It’s opened up an entirely new employment sector, with many couples hiring dedicated wedding content creators to capture the perfect photos and videos for their social accounts.
Some of it can be harmless; a flattering snap of your first kiss here, a champagne pour video there. But it’s not hard to see how excessive it can get: think ludicrously long photoshoots while your guests celebrate your nuptials without you and staged dance routines designed for TikTok.
This week, we learned just how bonkers it can actually get: a man in Melbourne, Australia swindled the woman he was dating into marrying him so he could post about it on social media. Yes, really. The bride, who was in her mid-20s and cannot be named due to legal proceedings, met the groom on a dating app in September 2023. Three months later, he invited her to a “white party” in Sydney where she soon learned the man had organised to marry her.
“When I got there, and I didn’t see anybody in white, I asked him, ‘What’s happening?’” the woman told the court. “He told me that he’s organising a prank wedding for his social media. To be precise, Instagram, because he wants to boost his content and wants to start monetising his Instagram page.” The bride proceeded with the nuptials, thinking the wedding wasn’t legally binding. “We had to act to make it look real,” she said.
