Potterheads Dinesh SP and Janganandhini Ramaswamy hosted their Hogwarts-themed Metaverse wedding reception on February 6 and managed to have the bride’s late father bless them as well. After their traditional humble wedding in Tamil Nadu’s Sivalingapuram, they were joined by about 6,000 people from around the world for their virtual reception ceremony. It has been dubbed as the first Metaverse wedding reception in Asia. Talking to indianexpress.com over the phone, Dinesh said everything went well and people were happy. For the event, Dinesh and Ramaswamy’s avatars were clad in traditional attire. "As we were in a hill station inside a forest, there was no proper network connection and we faced difficulty due to that. However, the event went well. People from different parts of the world, including Germany and Australia, attended the reception. Our food partner Local from Chennai ensured food delivery at our guests' houses. The event was sponsored by Coinswitch company and we are thankful to them," he added. The bride’s father passed away last April last year so Dinesh planned to have his digital avatar at the reception. "Avatar of Ramaswamy's late father greeted everybody and made the event special," Dinesh, a project associate at IIT-Madras, added. Photos and videos of the event have been doing the rounds on social media. Watch the video here: At @kshatriyan2811 's meta wedding 👰💍🤵💒 @TardiVerse #asiasfirst #Metaverse #metawedding pic.twitter.com/RRGyEzUz4Y— cryptopangu.nft (@CryptoPangu) February 6, 2022 Finally into Asia's 1st Metaverse Wedding. Interesting experience. @beyondlifeclub @TardiVerse @kshatriyan2811 pic.twitter.com/zhGPTuedOf— Divit (@divitonchain) February 6, 2022 See reactions: Congratulations to the couple, pioneers in metaverse . The virtual presence of the deceased father must have been heart-warming.— Kal Raju (@kalraju) February 7, 2022 That's wild, and only the beginning— Lionel (@LafontLft) February 7, 2022 Technology rocks— P Sreeraghuram (@SreeraghuramP) February 7, 2022 TardiVerse, Chennai based start-up led by Vignesh Selvaraj, planned the couple’s Metaverse wedding project based on Polygon Technology Blockchain. "The event was planned for an hour but got stretched to two. We have received good responses from people and many who attended the event have become our clients now,” Selvaraj said. When asked about guests' experience during the event, Selvaraj said they were able to move around using shortcuts on the keyboard and get the perception of an avatar. A 12-member team of TardiVerse worked for a month to make Metaverse reception a virtual reality. Dinesh told indianexpress.com before the virtual wedding that he came up with the idea. “One fine day, I came across a video on Metaverse on YouTube. I thought why can’t we do an event in Metaverse? I know the future is big in Metaverse. Now, companies like Microsoft, Facebook and a lot more are investing in Metaverse. So I thought by conducting an event, everyone in India will know about the technology. We can work on a start-up and develop it,” he added. Metaverse is a digital space represented by digital representations of real people, places, and things.
