Four outfit changes, a wedding venue that was featured in a Taylor Swift music video and an Excel spreadsheet to plan each and every social media post leading up to ‘I do’.
Many, if not most, women fantasize about getting married. But for social media influencers, a wedding is also represents a gold mine of viral content, new followers and likes.
Earlier this summer, influencer Jazmyn ‘Jaz’ Smith (550,000 followers) dominated social media feeds with her ‘wedding of the year’ to fiancé Kevin Callari at Oheka Castle in Huntington, New York – famously the backdrop of Taylor Swift’s Blank Space music video.
Jaz’s friends, themselves all popular on social media with a combined following of 10 million, dubbed the nuptials their ‘royal wedding’, with no expense spared.
And Smith certainly lived up to the occasion, even going so far as to schedule videos to be posted throughout her wedding day, telling followers that they ‘deserve to virtually be here’.
Earlier this summer, influencer Jazmyn ‘Jaz’ Smith dominated social media feeds with her ‘wedding of the year’ to fiancé Kevin Callari at Oheka Castle in Huntington, New York
Influencer Jazmyn Smith (right) dominated social media feeds with her ‘wedding of the year’ to fiancé Kevin Callari (left) in May 2025
The bride’s fellow influencer friends, who have more than 10 million followers combined, dubbed the highly-anticipated nuptials their ‘royal wedding’
Smith posted TikTok videos from her wedding in real-time, as social media feeds were inundated with constant content
Then, just weeks after that viral event, something strange happened: a slew of other influencers announced their own engagements.
On June 20, Danielle Bernstein – influencer (3.3 million followers) and founder of We Wore What – revealed her engagement to real estate agent Cooper Weisman.
The first of her many posts to follow flaunted a slideshow of photos taken during Weisman’s rooftop proposal. This was followed up with a seven-minute Instagram Reel documenting their ‘engagement story’, and a close-up look at Bernstein’s pear-shaped diamond ring designed by celebrity jeweler Lorraine Schwartz.
Brigette Pheloung, better known online as Acquired Style (920,000 followers), was next, revealing her engagement to finance bro Mitch McHale on Instagram just a day later… and with a very similar pear-shaped diamond ring, this time designed by Ring Concierge.
Then it was Dairy Boy founder Paige Lorenze’s turn, sharing a clip with her 1 million followers of her beachside engagement to tennis pro Tommy Paul last month.
So is it just a coincidence? Or, whisper it, are these influencers all jumping on the latest trend?
Influencer Brigette Pheloung (pictured), also known as Acquired Style, announced her engagement to finance bro Mitch McHale one month after Jaz’s wedding
Fashion influencer Danielle Bernstein (pictured), 33, shared news of her engagement the same week as Acquired Style with a similar style of engagement ring to match
Certainly, financial benefits that can come from such a public engagement and wedding are appealing – from scoring brand deals on bridal fashion to discounts with wedding vendors in exchange for content.
Brooklyn-based influencer Kelsey Kotzur, 31, told the Daily Mail she was offered a paid sponsorship with Anthropologie Weddings while planning her Vermont nuptials to fiancé Jared Masinton last July.
A proposed six-month brand deal included a gifted rehearsal dinner dress with accessories included, as well as dresses for Kotzur’s mother, grandmother and all of her bridesmaids.
This type of sponsorship is said to be common in the influencer world. In fact, it is one of the main ways content creators make money.
And, according to an insider who has worked in the influencer marketing industry for three years, the opportunity to plan a wedding – and share every intimate details with followers – is among one of the most lucrative things you can do.
‘There’s so many streams of income,’ the insider said.
For someone like Alix Earle, who has over 10 million followers across Instagram and TikTok combined, just one sponsored post could cost a brand upward of seven figures, the insider estimated.
But the real flow of revenue comes from posting affiliate links through platforms such as LTK and Shop My.
Let’s say a bride-to-be posts a photo on her Instagram Story showing off the $500 pair of heels she bought for her rehearsal dinner, along with a link to purchase them online. For every follower that uses that link to purchase that same pair of shoes, the bride gets a cut.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, influencer Kelsey Kotzur (pictured) said she ‘without a doubt’ gained more followers and engagement from posting about her wedding
‘Brand deals are a nice, big cash grab, but mostly you’re making anywhere between $10,000 to $40,000 a month in other income streams like affiliate links,’ the insider said.
‘It’s so lucrative. There’s Amazon storefront girls that are making almost seven figures a year in just commissions.’
Days after her wedding, Jazmyn ‘Jaz’ Smith shared in an episode of her podcast Delusional Diaries that she spent over $300,000 on her wedding.
She also revealed the secret to her real-time wedding content: an Excel spreadsheet that meticulously planned every TikTok video in advance. It showed the time during the ceremony it would be filmed, the minute it was to be posted, and what trending audio should be attached to the clip.
It seemingly paid off, as Reddit sleuths estimated that the content creator gained over 100,000 followers in just one weekend.
Anne-Sophie Goulet, the founder of Montreal-based marketing agency Anso Atelier, applauded the ‘perfectly executed’ content strategy.
‘This level of planning and content meant that her audience didn’t just see the wedding, they experienced it,’ she explained.
‘When influencers who we’ve followed for years and formed parasocial relationships reach that point, it feels personal. We’ve seen their highs and lows, so watching their wedding is like watching a close friend get their fairytale ending.’
Following her wedding, Smith shared screenshots of the Excel spreadsheet she used to post content from her ceremony in real-time (pictured)
Carly Weinstein, a guest at Jaz’s wedding and a fellow influencer, dubbed it the ‘influencer Met Gala’
When it came time to decide how much Brooklyn-based influencer Kelsey Kotzur wanted to share about her wedding with her 217,000 TikTok followers, she mainly turned to her online community for advice such as what outfit she should choose for her engagement photoshoot and what items to include on her registry.
The growth in followers and engagement she received from posting about her wedding was ‘without a doubt’ noticeable, she told the Daily Mail.
‘I think seeing people go on this journey like the way my followers did, leading to the pinnacle of the wedding and finally get to getting to see all of the details and how those details are personal to me, I think that’s something that is intriguing as a consumer of content,’ she said.
‘If you’re a bride-to-be, there are so many little ways that you can make your wedding personal, and half of those I wouldn’t have ever known about had it not been for TikTok and other people doing it first.’
Indeed, the wedding industry – which generates more than $60 billion a year in the United States – is becoming increasingly dependent on social media trends.
Brittney Bartling, the owner and founder of BLB Events, has witnessed this first-hand in the weddings she has planned.
Film photography, calla lily bouquets and Vivienne Westwood-style draped off-the-shoulder gowns are just some of the hottest bridal trends being set by influencers in 2025.
‘It is very interesting how much… influence these influencers have on the wedding industry,’ she said.
With a majority of bridal magazines no longer in circulation, and Pinterest now relying on artificial intelligence to generate content, Instagram and TikTok have slowly become main sources of inspiration for soon-to-be brides.
‘You can only see so much from Pinterest,’ said Kotzur.
‘Looking at photos of beautiful people in beautiful dresses with extravagant décor, that doesn’t really show me the life of the wedding. These people could be models in a fake wedding and I wouldn’t know.’
Both Bernstein (left) and Pheloung (right) have already begun tailoring their social media content to match their ‘bridal era’
To outsiders, it seems that a concrete formula has emerged in planning an influencer wedding: the more money you spend, the more viral your content is likely to be.
Who can forget influencer Bridget Bahl’s lavish wedding in 2023, when she blocked off an entire street in New York City in front of the Dior flagship store – leading some followers to speculate the event was at least partly sponsored by the brand – and held her wedding reception at the iconic Plaza Hotel?
According to BLB Events, the entire wedding was estimated to have cost close to $1 million.
When one influencer’s wedding has already been dubbed the ‘royal wedding’ of the century, it becomes a nearly impossible task for another to beat it.
‘Once one influencer’s wedding goes viral, there’s an unspoken competition to match or even outdo what came before,’ Goulet suggested.
Who can forget influencer Bridget Bahl’s lavish wedding in 2023, when she blocked off an entire street in New York City in front of the Dior flagship store
YouTube star Alex Pierce (pictured) was trolled online over her budget wedding and ‘tacky’ reception, which was held in the parking lot of a bar and grill
WWE star Logan Paul is pictured at his wedding to fitness influencer Nina Agdal
Since her June engagement, Pheloung has posted at least 25 TikTok videos related to her wedding, fully kicking off her ‘bridal era’.
On Instagram, Bernstein’s first pinned post is a close-up photo of her engagement ring, followed by a picture of her fiancé.
She has also created two Instagram Story Highlights for her page, one with a ring emoji documenting the entire proposal, and another dubbed ‘planning’ that gives followers a step-by-step look into her wedding details.
‘It’s like a digital milestone for their personal brands,’ Goulet said.
Surely, no one in their right mind would plan an event as permanent as a wedding simply for an uptick in followers and engagement.
But if the opportunity arises to build your online brand, well, it sounds like a match made in heaven.