Ikea Gets Into the Business of Love With Virtual Weddings
— -- Furniture, kitchen utensils, Swedish meatballs and now virtual weddings: Ikea really does have everything.
The Swedish retailer, best known for its blue and yellow big box stores filled with furniture assembly kits, announced today it is getting into the business of love.
Called Wedding Online, Ikea's new service is a virtual video conference that one-ups Skype by placing remotely located guests together in a virtual wedding location. Guests' heads superimposed over bodies so it looks as though they're sitting in the room sharing in the special moment.
After the virtual "I do's," guests can then head over to a virtual wedding reception.
"The best sort of love is easy and effortless. And promising one another eternal devotion at a wedding should be just as simple. That's why we've created a new type of wedding that's neither expensive nor complicated," Ikea said on its wedding page.
A video in Swedish, with English subtitles, shows how one of Ikea's basic virtual weddings works.
Couples who are ready to tie the knot are guided through the process online by first logging onto their Facebook accounts through the service. They are then asked to choose their locations, a date and time and then send out a guest list.
Like any real-life wedding venue, the bride, groom and guests have access to their locations for a limited amount of time (six hours) before they're sent packing.
If you want to have a pretend wedding, that's cool with Ikea too. In order to make it the real deal, couples will have to have a licensed officiant and witnesses in the room.
Who said romance is dead?
