As Omicron the new variant of Covid-19 rages through the land forcing government of most Indian states to impose gathering restrictions, the country witnessed its first wedding and a wedding reception in the metaverse in an interval of a day.
Abhijeet and Sansrati tied the knot on February 5, 2022, to become the first Indian couple to get married on a 3D Metaverse. The wedding took place on Yug Metaverse a made in India metaverse platform. The event was conceptualized, organized and executed by the media agency Wavemaker India for ITC Ltd. and Matrimony.com.
It was soon followed by the wedding reception of Dinesh SP, 24, and his fiancee Janaganandhini Ramaswamy, 23, in a traditional ceremony in the southern state of Tamil Nadu on February 6, 2022. As the guest numbers were curbed down to 100 due to Covid restrictions in place, the couple decided to hold their reception in the virtual world.
First Indian Metaverse Wedding
The wedding held on February 5, 2022 had the digital avatars, of Abhijeet Goel, a tech entrepreneur and Dr. Sansrati from Bhopal who met each other online through a matrimonial site, on a scenic beach side venue where the guests also joined in via their digital avatars.
The wedding took place from 8 pm to 9 pm and coincided with the physical event held in Bhopal on the same day. The couple decided to tie the knot but wanted their friends and family across the globe to be a part of their big day and that’s when they thought of getting married on a virtual platform.
Utkarsh Shukla, creator of Yug Metaverse said, “Metaverse is a new concept and its adoption is still at an early stage worldwide. We wanted India to lead and be at the forefront of this technology revolution, and hence we built a Metaverse Platform, YUG, in India.”
Wavemaker, part of GroupM played an instrumental role in crafting partnerships with two major brands – ITC Ltd. and Matrimony.com for this first-of-its-kind 3D wedding on Metaverse platform.
Talking about this industry first event, Ajay Gupte, CEO – South Asia, Wavemaker said, “Marketing on Metaverse platform is the next wave in digital marketing. We have built an in-house team of experts to help our clients navigate better in this domain and find the right fit to associate with metaverse events.”
“Metaverse is still at its nascent stage and offers us huge opportunity to shape the platform that we really believe in. This is the future of consumer experience and we are all excited to ride this wave,” added Ajay Gupte.
The reception that followed
India’s first wedding reception in the metaverse, hosted by newlyweds who wanted to avoid coronavirus restrictions on their big day saw more than 3,000 guests. It was hosted by Dinesh SP, 24, and his fiancee Janaganandhini Ramaswamy, 23.
The groom, who works in blockchain technology and is a cryptocurrency enthusiast, and the bride an IT professional, are self-professed “Potterheads” and hence they set up a Hogwarts-themed metaverse for the reception with help from a tech start-up called TardiVerse.
GuardianLink.io, which offers an NFT ecosystem technology framework, launched a metaverse wedding NFT collection on its marketplace platform, Beyondlife.Club. Via this reception.
This NFT collection comprises 12 NFTs of which 11 unique (ERC 721) NFTs are of the bride and groom’s virtual avatars, projected in traditional as well as western attire with and without the bride’s late father and one NFT of the wedding invitation (ERC 1155) consisting of 50 copies.
