Televise Your Wedding
Currently, it is quite easy to capture a wedding on a phone or some other device, and there are too many wedding-related reality TV shows to count. That wasn’t the case in 1987 when Trevor and Lynn Bright became the first Canadians to get married on television. The couple was acquainted with broadcaster Betty Thompson, who proposed they tie the knot on her talk show. The studio paid for all the wedding essentials, including Lynn’s dress and the cake. Twenty-eight years later, they are still happily married. While the Brights may have been one of the first, there have been numerous other couples who have tied the knot on television since then.
Prince Charles and Lady Diana
The world’s obsession with royalty predates reality television. The July 29, 1981, nuptials of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were one of the first reality TV weddings. The couple rode to and from the ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral in carriages through throngs of cheering crowds, and the event was watched by millions of people around the world. The image projected of the couple to the public was one of marital bliss. However, like many reality TV shows, there was something else going on behind the scenes and, after an unhappy marriage, the couple acrimoniously divorced in 1996. Diana was killed in a car crash in France the following year.
Prince William and Kate Middleton
In another huge television event, Prince William married Kate Middleton on April 29, 2011, at Westminster Abbey in London. The couple now has two children, born in 2013 and 2015, respectively.
Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries
Kim Kardashian is one of the queens of reality TV. She and Kris Humphries were married on August 11, 2011, in Montecito, California in one of most well-publicized media spectacles of all time. E! TV aired a two-part special of the preparations for the wedding and event itself, all of which coincided with the release of Kardashian’s new perfume, “Kim Kardashian Love,” and the opening of the Kardashian Khaos store in Las Vegas. Kardashian ended up filling for divorce after 72 days of marriage, citing “irreconcilable differences.” Many people speculated that the wedding was merely a publicity stunt to promote Kardashian’s TV show and other products.
The Bachelor and The Bachelorette Weddings
The Bachelor and The Bachelorette are reality TV show staples. The Bachelor has been on the air for 19 seasons and The Bachelorette for 11, but the odds of actually ending up married after participating in the shows aren’t great.
Only two of The Bachelor couples have gotten hitched in the nearly two decades that the show has been on air:
- Season 13: Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney
Jason originally proposed to another contestant, Melissa Rycroft, but later asked Molly out for coffee. He ended the engagement to Melissa and married Molly in 2010.
- Season 17: Sean Lowe and Catherine Giudici
The couple got engaged on the show in the fall of 2012; they married in January 2014 on a live special.
The odds are a little better on The Bachelorette; over 11 seasons, three couples have tied the knot.
- Season 1: Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter
The couple got engaged in early 2003 and married on TV at the end of the same year; they now have two young children.
- Season 7: Ashley Hebert and J.P. Rosenbaum
They were engaged on the season finale in August 2011 and exchanged vows in December 2012. Hebert and Rosenbaum have since given birth to a son.
- Season 9: Desiree Hartstock and Chris Siegfried
The Bachelorette’s most recent success story is Desiree Hartstock and Chris Siegfried. They got engaged on air in August 2013 and married in January 2015.
Getting married on TV is not for everyone, but some couples — including the Brights of Canada — have demonstrated that it is possible to live happily ever after.
