YouTube’s Derek
Blasberg weighs in
on how social
media has created...
The first part of this fairy tale is fairly traditional. Boy meets girl, boy proposes,
they get married. But what happened to Jillian Peterson and Kevin Heinz in the days
following their wedding in St. Paul, Minnesota, exactly one decade ago, is a thoroughly
modern fable for today.
Jillian, who loved to dance growing up, had the idea for her wedding party to boogie down
the aisle to a pop song. “It was one of the first things we decided we wanted to do when we
got engaged, although I’m not sure if our friends thought we were kidding or serious until
the day of,” Jillian remembers now. The result? A five-minute processional that begins with
two ushers tossing wedding programs into the air and goofily bopping down the aisle. The
rest of the wedding party follows, including a dramatic group number and finally the bride
crunking with unadulterated joy toward the altar. It’s candid, playful, silly, and absolutely
endearing. The boyfriend of one of the bridesmaids recorded it from his perch on the aisle
and the couple posted it on YouTube. “We sent it by email to our wedding party and family.
That was it. The Today show called us within 48 hours!”
Unwittingly, Jillian and Kevin had pioneered a new bridal phenomena: the viral wedding
party. “To be honest, when people told me it was going viral ten years ago, I had no idea
what that even meant,” Jillian says with a laugh. “We didn’t even hire a videographer!” The
video will eclipse 100 million views this year, which isn’t even the most surreal part. Soon
after it was uploaded, the couple got offers to write books, host a reality show, dance at other
weddings—all of which they turned down because both were full-time graduate school stu-
dents. They opened a P.O. box and strangers started sending things, including Christmas
cards, wedding gifts, and letters from soldiers overseas. They had a wedding email address
that was flooded with more than 10,000 messages after just a few months.#the viral
wedding
august + september 2019 brides.com by DEREK BLASBERG