A bride and groom from Tamil Nadu fused tradition and technology together as they hosted their wedding reception in the metaverse. Dinesh SP and Janaganandhini Ramaswamy got married on February 6 in Sivalingapuram, a small tribal village of the south Indian state. However, friends and family from across the globe were able to witness the wedding reception that followed as it was held in a virtual world.
Metaverse is a platform that combines various elements of technology like blockchain, augmented reality and virtual reality. Here people can go live in their digital avatars and also interact with other users.
"Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I had to cap the number of friends and family at 100 for my marriage and reception. So, I decided to solemnize my marriage in the presence of a small group of people at Sivalingapuram and hold my reception virtually on metaverse. I was also working on blockchain technology for the past one year," Dinesh told The New Indian Express.
Dinesh and Janaganandhini picked a Hogwarts theme for their reception as both are Harry Potter fans.
A start-up called TardiVerse worked for a month to design the metaverse where the event was hosted. Along with avatars of the guests and the couple, an avatar of the bride's late father was also created.
Avatar of the bride's late father | Image: Tardiverse
"My father-in-law passed away last April," Dinesh told CNN before the wedding. "So, I'm creating a 3D avatar that looks similar to (him), and he will bless me and my fiancee. That's something we can only do in the metaverse."
Photos and videos from the metaverse wedding reception were shared on social media. One of the videos features a musical concert that was conducted through metaverse from Chennai.
The marriage also included NFTs or non-fungible tokens. Special-edition NFTs were introduced by GuardianLink and the NFT collection included artwork with backgrounds and attires from the Harry Potter and cyberpunk era - in addition to the traditional wedding attire featuring the bride, groom, and bride's late father.
Dinesh, who is a project associate with IIT Madras, had earlier explained how the idea of a metaverse wedding came to him.
"I came up with the idea of having a Metaverse wedding reception, and my fiancee also liked the idea," he had told Times Of India. "I have been into crypto and blockchain technology, and have been mining ethereum, a form of cryptocurrency, for the last one year. Since blockchain is the basic technology of Metaverse, when my wedding was fixed, I thought of having a reception in Metaverse," he added.
