Give them love. It’s the one thing someone can’t get enough of.
For those who don't know me yet, my name is Kyle, and I'm a co-founder of VidDay. I recently gave my parents a VidDay group video as a surprise gift to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. I know I'm biased in saying this, but it was honestly the most touching thing I’ve seen in a very long time. It even made my Dad (who shows little emotion) cry of happiness. And my mom? Well, she started tearing up with joy as soon as the video montage started.
I’m fortunate that my parents, sisters, and I say "I love you" often, and we regularly text message or call each other. But having all that love rush in at once in a video... that’s a tear-jerker. The life my parents experienced raising four children on our family farm was not always easy, but they taught us the meaning of love and kindness, which has shaped who I am today.
In this fast-paced world, everyone seems to have everything, and life appears to be rush rush rush — it’s easy to forget to look back at the amazing world we live in. Remember the crazy journey that got us to where we are and how important it is to care for our planet and the people who live on it. To spread love and happiness as much as we can.
That’s why I wanted to showcase all this love by sharing stories and wonderful memories through video messages for my parents. I wanted my gift to be a tribute to their past 40 years together with a little glimpse of what they’ve given to us kids (and now their 8 grandchildren).
It really reinforced why I wanted to build and share Vidday with the world. I want others to also experience a special moment of love and appreciation. I'm proud to have been a part of making an incredibly user-friendly group video service.
Watch this video to see how easy it is to make a surprise anniversary video with VidDay:
Curious as to how it works?
All I had to do was start the event by adding my parents' names and the due date for video submissions. Then, voila! A web page was created to gather videos for the event. Then, I invited my extended family and my parents' friends to visit that page so they could submit their video messages. They could also share the link to the web page with others because let’s face it — I don’t have all my parents' friend's contact info.
Once the video messages started rolling in, I added a few photos and placed them in the order I wanted. That was it! I just hit "publish," and VidDay compiled all the videos into a wonderfully animated video montage. It was more than perfect and so unique (special thanks to my uncle for sending a song and dance message). It would have normally taken me hours to curate all the videos from text messages, Facebook messenger, WhatsApp, emails, etc., and edit them together, but not anymore! With VidDay, no technical skills are required, and literally, anyone with internet/Wifi can do this.
So, with it being a time-saver and my parents' most memorable gift of the year, it was a win-win. I now had the extra time to spend with my wife and two children to make lasting memories of our own.
Be kind to others, and kindness will surround you.