Social Media Column: Trent and Elizabeth’s livestreamed Edmonton wedding

Published in the March 26, 2013 issue of The Edmonton Sun.

Linda’s social media column can be found every Tuesday in the Edmonton Sun.

Trent and Elizabeth’s livestreamed Edmonton wedding

Meet Edmonton’s social media couple: Trent and Elizabeth Wilkie.

The pair met through social media, their relationship blossomed on Twitter and Facebook, Trent proposed in a YouTube video, and the couple’s wedding this past weekend was streamed live online for the world to see.

‘Social media weddings’ have become more and more popular as the number of people using social media continues to rise.

Couples are creating wedding hashtags so guests can live-tweet and follow along throughout the day, post pictures instantly to Instagram and Facebook and even livestream the nuptials – like the Wilkies did.

But the decision to livestream their ceremony and reception wasn’t because the couple wanted to be ‘hip’ or part of a growing social wedding trend.

It was just a practical thing to do that, in the end, made a lot of sense in the grand scheme of their relationship.

“When we’re telling you how we met and all these things and all the social media, it seems sort of made up but in a way they were all functional reasons to communicate with each other,” Trent says.

“With the live streaming, if you think about it, it’s like yeah we’re living in the future but at the same time it’s all a very functional part of our life… as a side product of our social lives and what we do for a living and who we are as people, it just sort of came to be.”

Their wedding budget was small, so Trent and Liz chose to livestream the event so friends and family locally and across the country could still share in the special day without actually being there.

“I have a huge extended family and there was just no way we could afford to have a big wedding and reception,” Liz says.


“A lot of our Twitter friends watched our relationship develop and watched us fall in love over Twitter and so it’s nice to be able to invite them to join in on the ceremony in that manner.”


About 80 people tuned into the wedding from the comforts of their home, writing in the livestream chat box, tweeting under the hashtag #LizandTrentWedding, and watching as the bride serenaded the groom with a love song during the ceremony.

“I’m standing here love, standing still love, not going anywhere, unless you’re there,” Liz crooned.

Their livestreamed wedding is the first I’ve heard done locally but I suspect not the last.

I see weddings becoming more social as social media becomes more popular.

Social networking creates opportunities and connects people and what better a connection than this?

If it weren’t for social media, Liz and Trent may not have met and their wonderful love story may not have come to be.

Congratulations to the happy couple!

Thanks for sharing your special day with the world.

As one virtual wedding guest wrote, ‘The Internet is with you both.’

Click here to read the column on the Edmonton Sun website!

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