With Covid-19 still outraging throughout India, the long-living tradition of grand-scale weddings was forced to downsize. But one tech-savvy Indian couple found a breakthrough alternative to an IRL wedding, having decided to hold the ceremony in the metaverse.
Dinesh Sivakumar Padmavathi and Janaganandhini Ramaswamy from Tamil Nadu, where the number of guests to the wedding is now restricted to only 100 people, have pushed the limits to 2,000 invitees to the first-ever metaverse wedding party next month.
Being avid Harry Potter fans, both young people have chosen a Hogwarts-themed party that can be attended using a favorite smart gadget.
"Because of the pandemic, a physical, real kind of reception is not possible with the huge number of people attending," explained Padmavathi, nicknamed Dinesh SP, on his phone from the southern state's capital of Chennai. "So, we decided: let's make it in the metaverse."
Probably, the whole idea of a metaverse wedding would never pop up in the couple's minds if a 24-year-old groom wasn't a blockchain and cryptocurrency enthusiast, who worked with start-up platform TardiVerse to build a Hogwarts-themed castle-like metaspace. Notably, the whole digital venue costs Dinesh 150,000 Indian rupees ($2,016) to design, develop and host.
Of course, the wedding ceremony will also take place in a real-life physical venue with close friends and relatives in Ramaswamy's village in Tamil Nadu's Krishnagiri district, about 170 miles from Chennai. But when the official part is over, the couple will log on to join their metaverse feast. The event will last about an hour, allowing all participants to customize their avatars to the wedding theme.
Another advantage of the VR ceremony is an impossible in reality opportunity to meet those who are no longer with us.
"My father-in-law passed away last April," Padmavathi said. "So, I'm creating a 3D avatar that looks similar to (him), and he will bless me and my fiancée. That's something we can only do in the metaverse."
This Indian wedding in the metaverse is not a novelty, as many couples worldwide try VR ceremonies alongside IRL wedding parties. Even nowadays, no Indian wedding ceremony is held without witnesses, and metaverse reception allows compliance with this tradition to the fullest. Padmavathi believes his wedding to be the first-ever ceremony of the kind to be held in India. Not only did the groom convince his bride-to-be to choose the metaverse format, but he also got his parent's approval.
"From childhood, I've been working with robotics... and for the last year, I've been working in blockchain and mining Ethereum," he said, adding: "So my family knows that I'm into tech."
Metaverse weddings seem to have even more advantages than we can even imagine. Perhaps, that’s where our future lies. And what do you think of it?
