Game Breaker
Kennel Addict
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2005
- Messages
- 7,478
- Reaction score
- 4
How my big fat Greek wedding went viral
Asher Moses
June 23, 2009 - 3:43PM
When Yanna Elfes was planning her ultimate big fat Greek wedding in Sydney, she never imagined it would be virtually attended by millions of people around the world or become the subject of a vicious email slur campaign and a police investigation.
But that's exactly what happened after she married her husband Kosta two months ago at the Greek Orthodox church in Kogarah.
Her friends published photos on their Facebook pages and within days the images were appearing in nasty viral emails that quickly spread across Australia and to workplaces as far flung as London and Dubai.
Of course, this was no ordinary wedding.
The theme was black and hot pink, with Yanna, 25, wearing a pink crystal-encrusted white dress complete with mini-skirt front and tulle train. It was inspired by the Guns N' Roses video clip for November Rain.
The groomsmen wore tight black tops with pink braces, which matched the bridesmaids' gowns, spotted wedding cake, Playboy-tagged champagne flutes and satin table decorations.
To top it off, some of the 220 guests were ferried to and from the wedding in three stretch Hummers with fur interiors, and the bride and groom were introduced for their bridal waltz with WWE wrestling-style fireworks.
The photographs made the perfect recipe for a viral email hit, but as it spread people began adding their own nasty captions ridiculing the wedding and guests.
One Yanna found particularly crushing: "Dad: `sure am glad to be giving this away'!"
Yanna said she left to go on her honeymoon - a month visiting the USA and Mexico - a few days after the wedding and a week later received a frantic call from her sister, Leah, informing her of the emails.
"I've had calls from people in London to Dubai that have got these emails, it's just gone viral crazy," said Yanna.
"It's sad that someone can stoop that low to actually do that. Like, why would someone want to trash someone else's wedding day?
"It's supposed to be a personal and private thing - at the end of the day, I've just got to not let it get to me."
Yanna said her sister called police, who attempted to track down the person who started the vicious email campaign.
She said they initially suspected it originated inside St George bank but further inquiries led them to conclude "a couple of days ago" that it just passed through the bank's offices and probably originated from a Facebook user.
"Once it goes on to Facebook it's public domain they said at the end of the day," she said.
Yanna said she could understand why people would perceive the wedding as outrageous but "at the end of the day all of my family and friends know that's Yanna, I don't want to change it because people will think different of me".
"Everyone walked in there and saw me and said Yanna, this is you, no one could pull this off like you have," she said.
"From day one I said to my mum, `this is how I want to do it' and my mum was like, `that's great, that's you', why would you want to change that?"
Yanna said she knew who took the photos but she had no idea which friend or acquaintance took them off Facebook and spread them across the internet.
The photos have even been published on websites and blogs including Office-humour.co.uk with headlines such as "tacky Greek wedding" and "Greek wedding of the year".
Yanna said she was even offered money to appear on A Current Affair but turned it down because she did not trust the show's producers and did not want to be perceived as opportunistic like Clare Werbeloff, the "Chk-chk Boom" girl.
"My brother had people who he hadn't spoken to in five years that live in another state call him and say `hey, I saw you in a wedding!'," Yanna said.
"I didn't start this, I didn't even want this to happen, I just wanted a normal wedding day like everyone else."
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/how-my-big-fat-greek-wedding-went-viral-20090623-cuny.html
Its pretty slack that it was sent to people on the net, feel sorry for them. But what a funny wedding
![[DoGgIeS FaN]](/forum/data/avatars/m/1/1568.jpg?1456554857){kind=avatar}
