PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing.

Nothing Says Romance Like an IKEA-Backed Online Wedding

 & Chloe Albanesius Executive Editor, News

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

Our Expert
LOOK INSIDE PC LABS HOW WE TEST
65 EXPERTS
43 YEARS
41,500+ REVIEWS

People get married in weird places—from Costco to The Grammys—so why not host a virtual wedding sponsored by IKEA?

"Invite your friends – as many as you like and wherever they may be – and celebrate together via a video link," IKEA says on its Wedding Online page.

A video demo of the service (below) is dated April 8, so it does not appear to be an April Fool's Day prank. Presumably, it's more of a marketing stunt to showcase the IKEA furniture you could use to decorate your own (real-life) nuptials.

If an online wedding seems appealing, however, log in with Facebook and pick your favorite background: a rooftop cityscape, an all-white "modern" affair; a circus-themed prairie event; or Twilight-esque forest scene. Then, log in with Facebook and invite your friends and family.

As IKEA points out, if you want the wedding to be valid, the couple getting married, the officiator, and two witnesses need to be in the same room during the ceremony. You can, of course, do this for "fun" without all those people present, IKEA said, but you won't actually be married.

IKEA has places for nine people, whose heads will appear in the wedding scene: the couple, marriage celebrant, two witnesses, and four additional places for friends. These people don't have to be on Facebook, but anyone else you invite must be on the social network if they want to do more than watch silently.

"If any of the people you'd like to invite don't have either a Facebook or a Twitter account, they will be unable to interact with the guests or the bridal couple, but they will be able to see and hear everything that happens during the wedding," IKEA said.

IKEA will make its wedding broadcast available for six hours. No word on whether the retailer will provide a wedding gift and/or whether you must assemble that gift yourself in a process that will likely result in the quick dissolution of your marriage.

About Our Expert

Chloe Albanesius

Chloe Albanesius

Executive Editor, News

My Experience

I started out covering tech policy in DC for The National Journal, where my beat included state-level tech news and all the congressional hearings and FCC meetings I could handle. I later covered Wall Street trading tech before switching gears to consumer tech. I now lead PCMag's news coverage.

My Areas of Expertise

Getting my start in DC means I still have a soft spot for tech policy; Congressional hearings can sometimes be as entertaining as a Bravo reality show, for better or worse. But PCMag is all about the technology we use every day, as well as keeping an eye out for the trends that will shape the industry in the years ahead (or flop on arrival). I've covered the rise of social media, the iOS vs. Android wars, the cord-cutting revolution that's now left us with hefty streaming bills, and the effort to stuff artificial intelligence into every product you could imagine. This job has taken me to CES in Vegas (one too many times), IFA in Berlin, and MWC in Barcelona. I also drove a Tesla 1,000 miles out west as part of our Best Mobile Networks project. Of late, my focus is on our hard-working team of reporters at PCMag, guiding and editing their robust coverage.

Read full bio