After getting married, most newlyweds get to look back on their wedding through a guest book, photos and storytelling. But Janeeka and Eric McDowell got something else to remember their big day by: a viral post shared by a guest at their wedding. It wasn't just any guest who documented the day on social media.
Actually, it was a complete stranger who attended the couple's nuptials after finding their wedding invitation on Eventbrite. On Sept. 2, Shaneisha Wofford, whose username is @nemos_journey on Threads, posted about being at the wedding , saying that she "found a wedding on Eventbrite like 2 months ago" and decided to RSVP.
"I’m here. I know no one,” Wofford wrote in the post that has now accumulated nearly 15K likes. “I didn’t show up empty handed.
The attire said cocktail, I’m wearing a floor-length off-the-shoulder red dress and light makeup.” The post also included videos that gave followers a glimpse at some moments from the wedding, from grand entrances to the couple’s first dance. Speaking to TODAY.
com, Eric McDowell explained that friends and family eventually flagged the Threads post to them. “I got a text in my poker chat, like, ‘Hey, you guys are going viral on Threads.’ We were cracking up," he recalled.
He then reposted the thread on his own account , saying that he and his wife "loved" Wofford's message and thanked her for attending and being "respectful." The newlyweds explained that they decided to use Eventbrite to manage their guest list and RSVPs, which is how Wofford found their wedding. They considered going more traditional routes to track attendance, like The Knot and Zola, but got the idea to use Eventbrite to streamline the RSVP process.
Everything went smoothly until a week or two before the wedding, when they started noticing unfamiliar names on their growing list. “We didn’t really think about how random it was on Eventbrite,” Eric McDowell recalled. “(Then I was) like, ‘Wait a second, who is, you know, recognized?’” “We were like, 'OK, if we don’t know them, we can just delete them,'” Janeeka McDowell explained.
“But I think for (Wofford), we just thought like, 'Oh, maybe she’s someone’s plus one.'” It wasn’t until they exchanged vows and got to the reception that they met Wofford, which occurred when the McDowells asked each of their 150 guests to take a photo with them at their sweetheart table. “When (Wofford) told us that she saw our wedding on Eventbrite, we were kind of shocked,” Eric McDowell recalled.
“We didn’t think someone would actually come that we didn’t know.” The couple was pleasantly surprised when Wofford gave them a gift. “She was so sweet,” Janeeka McDowell said.
“She was like, ‘Hi, I saw your wedding on Eventbrite, I brought a gift.’” Though initially taken aback, they were thrilled she stayed. “We were actually kind of happy that she came, because as long as she, you know, she was very nice and respectful, and then she gave us a gift,” Eric McDowell explained.
“We wanted everybody on all of our guests to have a great time.” “One of my friends said she was sitting by her for a while, chatting with her, and she seemed nice. So it seemed like she really fit in,” Janeeka McDowell noted.
The wedding came and went, but Wofford's posts solidified their big day's presence on the internet, which the couple's family eventually found out about. “My mom was staying with us at the time, and when she saw the text (about our wedding going viral), she was shocked. But she thought it was a blessing,” Janeeka McDowell said.
“The video that (Wofford) showed was so beautiful, and it really showcased our wedding in a beautiful light," she continued. For Janeeka and Eric McDowell, Wofford's attendance became an even bigger way to celebrate their love. “It felt like hundreds of thousands of people across the world were able to see our love,” said Janeeka McDowell.
In the end, the McDowells had no regrets about using Eventbrite for their wedding. “If we could do it again, we probably would,” Janeeka McDowell said. “It worked out well, and she brought such good vibes.
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