The first wedding in the metaverse

During the pandemic, there were many couples who streamed their wedding via Zoom or players who walked down the aisle on Nintendo Switch Animal Crossing, Second Life or other gaming platforms, but Traci and Dave Gagnon took the concept of a virtual wedding to another level. The American couple exchanged vows in a hybrid ceremony, IRL (since virtual marriages aren't currently legal) and on the cloud, in front of a group of friends and avatars who, in keeping with tradition, celebrated and made toasts to celebrate the two lovers. That's not so surprising if you think that Traci and Dave met for the first time as avatars, during an event of eXp Realty, the company specialized in communication in virtual environments for which they both work. As revealed by The New York Times and The Sun, the idea to get married in the metaverse came from their boss, Jason Gesing, who provided the couple with Virbela, "one of the most robust cloud campuses in the world".

Guests only needed to download the program to their computers, create their own avatar before attending and then, there they were ready to watch the exchange of the rings. Even for the bride and groom, the organization (which is estimated to have cost around $30,000) was pretty quick and easy, but still personalized. Traci and Dave took photos of themselves recreating likeness avatars and customized every detail, from the wedding dress to the little flower in her hair, from accessories to decorations for the virtual location. It's not hard to imagine that more and more details could be incorporated in the future, like taking friends on a space rocket or having the ceremony in Paris and maybe moving to the Italian countryside for the party. The possibilities are endless. What about you, do you agree with whoever wrote on Twitter that it sounds like the plot of a bad episode of Black Mirror or do you think getting married on the metaverse could be funny?