Weddings already suck, and the tasteful wedding is becoming ever rarer. If the ceremony is not at a Victorian folly that costs more to book than a normal person’s annual salary, you could well be in for a different kind of statement.
Would you gladly attend an Amazon-themed wedding? Not one with howler monkeys trashing the canapés or poison dart frogs in Champagne glasses, but the other Amazon – Jeff Bezos’ world-conquering e-commerce platform.
It’s hard to imagine that all guests to Eddie Levine and Jing Gao’s knees-up would be “glad” about it, given the amount of obstacles to enjoyment the couple threw in their path, but the couple thought it a good idea.
Why? According to CNBC, the two met at an Atlanta e-commerce conference in 2016 and a couple of years later shared their first kiss in the equally romantic setting of an Amazon seller summit in 2018. Gao moved into Levine’s Chicago home in 2020.
If you hadn’t already guessed, the star-crossed lovers both sell products through the ubiquitous website – Levine as president of Hub Dub, which “helps brands manage their businesses online and provides logistics services,” while Gao sells home decor kit.
“So it only made sense that when it came time to tie the knot, they turned to e-commerce for their inspiration,” CNBC said.
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Walking into their Chicago wedding, guests would have been forgiven for thinking they’d mistakenly entered an Amazon conference by the sounds of things. “Amazon paraphernalia” was said to be draped everywhere and attendees weren’t given a simple table number, but an “ASIN” (Amazon Standard Identification Number), a 10-digit code used to look up products on Amazon.
“Wedding favors were tiny Amazon packages, complete with barcodes and filled with treats, placed in miniature shopping carts,” CNBC said. “Attendees posed for photos in front of a backdrop declaring ‘Jeddie (a combination of the couples’ first names) Prime Day,’ an homage to Amazon’s annual summer shopping bonanza.”
Thankfully, when Levine asked attendees whom the couple knew from e-commerce to make themselves known during the toast, “literally half of our guests stood up,” he told the news org.
Meanwhile, bar and catering staff were said to be bemused.
Levine said he came up with the idea, explaining: “We went through all these ideas, and they were so boring I wanted something that showcased our background and gave homage to where we came from.”
They even went as far as suggesting that they turn their wedding “into a full-blown Amazon conference, with a software company offering, in jest, to sponsor the event.”
What is so wrong with a modest registry office appointment, with everyone heading to the pub afterwards?
Love is strange and people are stranger, but plenty of couples like to keep it a bit quirky, like this pair who threw a Pokémon-themed wedding. ®
Weddings already suck, and the tasteful wedding is becoming ever rarer. If the ceremony is not at a Victorian folly that costs more to book than a normal person’s annual salary, you could well be in for a different kind of statement.
Would you gladly attend an Amazon-themed wedding? Not one with howler monkeys trashing the canapés or poison dart frogs in Champagne glasses, but the other Amazon – Jeff Bezos’ world-conquering e-commerce platform.
It’s hard to imagine that all guests to Eddie Levine and Jing Gao’s knees-up would be “glad” about it, given the amount of obstacles to enjoyment the couple threw in their path, but the couple thought it a good idea.
Why? According to CNBC, the two met at an Atlanta e-commerce conference in 2016 and a couple of years later shared their first kiss in the equally romantic setting of an Amazon seller summit in 2018. Gao moved into Levine’s Chicago home in 2020.
If you hadn’t already guessed, the star-crossed lovers both sell products through the ubiquitous website – Levine as president of Hub Dub, which “helps brands manage their businesses online and provides logistics services,” while Gao sells home decor kit.
“So it only made sense that when it came time to tie the knot, they turned to e-commerce for their inspiration,” CNBC said.
- Amazon fails to overturn New York City union election
- EA shares volatile on the back of unconfirmed rumor of Amazon bid
- Amazon has repackaged surveillance capitalism as reality TV
- Alibaba mimics Amazon by slashing jobs after poor results
Walking into their Chicago wedding, guests would have been forgiven for thinking they’d mistakenly entered an Amazon conference by the sounds of things. “Amazon paraphernalia” was said to be draped everywhere and attendees weren’t given a simple table number, but an “ASIN” (Amazon Standard Identification Number), a 10-digit code used to look up products on Amazon.
“Wedding favors were tiny Amazon packages, complete with barcodes and filled with treats, placed in miniature shopping carts,” CNBC said. “Attendees posed for photos in front of a backdrop declaring ‘Jeddie (a combination of the couples’ first names) Prime Day,’ an homage to Amazon’s annual summer shopping bonanza.”
Thankfully, when Levine asked attendees whom the couple knew from e-commerce to make themselves known during the toast, “literally half of our guests stood up,” he told the news org.
Meanwhile, bar and catering staff were said to be bemused.
Levine said he came up with the idea, explaining: “We went through all these ideas, and they were so boring I wanted something that showcased our background and gave homage to where we came from.”
They even went as far as suggesting that they turn their wedding “into a full-blown Amazon conference, with a software company offering, in jest, to sponsor the event.”
What is so wrong with a modest registry office appointment, with everyone heading to the pub afterwards?
Love is strange and people are stranger, but plenty of couples like to keep it a bit quirky, like this pair who threw a Pokémon-themed wedding. ®
