Yahoo News Blind bride blindfolds sighted groom and guests so they can ‘live a moment in her shoes’ on her wedding day
To help them “live a moment in her shoes” on her big day, a bride blindfolded her sighted husband and wedding guests before walking down the aisle — and now, the footage is going viral.
TikTok creator, journalist and broadcaster Lucy Edwards (@lucyedwards) gained over 6.2 million views, 474,000 likes, 14,000 saves and 1,600 comments when she uploaded the wedding video to her account.
While we’ve seen emotional wedding footage go viral on the app before — like the bride who brought her grandmother to tears when she wore her 1970s courthouse dress to the wedding rehearsal — Edwards’s video is providing a unique perspective on what it’s like to get married as a blind person.
“So this is the moment that I blindfolded all my guests, and I walked down the aisle on my #wedding day,” 27-year-old Edwards wrote in the caption of the video.
“It was such an emotional moment and one that I will remember for the rest of my life. I am so lucky that I have a husband that accepts me for exactly who I am my disability and everything. The whole me,” Edwards continued in the caption.
For Edwards, who lost her sight at age 17 due to incontinentia pigmenti (just two months into her relationship with her now husband, Ollie), it was important for her loved ones to experience the special day in the same way she did.
She also wanted Ollie to “see” her wedding dress for the first time in the same way she did, through touch.
It’s not the first time Edwards has blindfolded Ollie to give him a glimpse into her world.
In 2021, she tasked him with making a frozen pizza without the use of his sight. Before that, she had him walk down an unfamiliar street using only her white cane to show him the way.
After losing her eyesight, Edwards took to YouTube to document her everyday experiences as a blind person, from putting on makeup to cooking a meal. Since then, she’s amassed 709,000 YouTube subscribers, 1.8 million TikTok followers and 168,000 Instagram followers.
But she also shares her not-so-everyday experiences as a blind person as well — like planning her wedding.
From picking flowers for her bridal bouquet to selecting an outfit for her Sten Do (or Stag/Hen party, a joint bachelor/bachelorette party), Edwards has taken followers along every step of the way — a perspective on wedding planning that viewers seem to appreciate.
“I’m a florist and it’s great to see how your amazing florist communicated the different flower varieties to you,” commented @the_skenic_route.
As for why she films such personal glimpses into her life, Edwards explained in a comment, “The reason that I do what I do is to show young blind people that they can live a life they deserve, full of happiness,”
While some of those glimpses can be quite “emotional” and “raw,” as Edwards wrote in her viral video’s caption, she feels it’s important to share those moments with the world.
“I thought it was so important as it’s not a typical way that a bride walks down the aisle but it was my way,” she wrote.
As for why she chose to walk down the aisle to “Arrival of the Birds” from the film The Theory of Everything, Edwards explained that the late physicist Stephen Hawking, who also had a motor disability, has been an important role model in her life.
“I really believe in the philosophy that we are all just small beings and atoms on this massive planet and Stephen taught me that you can love and hate your disability equally, and that’s a truly beautiful thing,” she wrote. “It’s a sense of self that I’ve had to work on.”
She continued, “Just remember you are so special and you don’t have to follow traditions if you don’t want to. Our wedding day is about you and the person that you love and every moment needs to feel right for you.”
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