Nothing Says Romance Like an IKEA-Backed Online Wedding

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.

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"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.