A couple held a live online wedding ceremony in the metaverse where their avatars married at a virtual chapel in the sky

• A couple hosted a virtual wedding in the metaverse with custom avatars.
• Traci and Dave Gagnon met in a virtual space in 2015 and after years of friendship, got engaged.

A Florida couple who met in a virtual space paid homage to their meet-cute by staging a wedding in the metaverse on Labor Day weekend.

Traci, 52, and Dave Gagnon, 60, are both employees at a real estate brokerage. They first met as avatars in Dave's "virtual office" in the metaverse – a term Fortune defined as "a merging of virtual, augmented, and physical reality" – in October 2015 because Traci was considering joining the company and Dave was their head of growth, she told Insider.

A week later, the couple met in real life at the company's global convention where they became friends, and later started dating in March 2019. After three months, they were engaged and on September 4, 2021, they married in a virtual chapel in the sky, as a nod to their meeting in an online office.

While the Covid-19 pandemic forced many couples to consider online ceremonies, using technology was not an alternative but rather the first option for Traci and Dave.

Traci told Insider it was the CEO of the company she and Dave work at who suggested the idea of getting married "in the cloud." The virtual venue was designed by a sister branch of their employer that creates virtual spaces.

They held a traditional real-life wedding in front of 100 guests in Manchester, New Hampshire on September 4, but invited guests who they could not accommodate in the physical space to celebrate their nuptials in the cloud. With the two ceremonies happening simultaneously, one wedding photographer recorded their real-life wedding while the other facilitated a livestream for virtual guests, Traci explained.

Traci told Insider her wedding dress was used to customize her avatar to look more like her on a special day, and they also designed avatars for the wedding party. Guests were able to customize their own avatars and also had control of them during the ceremony. "The avatars can dance, the avatars can run, the avatars can do all kinds of really, really cool things," Traci said.

While they were gifted the experience, Traci said Virbela, the company which created the virtual space, estimated the virtual wedding costs at over $30,000 but said that with less customization, they could create a space for $10,000.

The couple recalled their friends and family were "really excited" by the prospect of a virtual wedding, with some guests enjoying the game-like element of being in the cloud on the day. She added that the children were able to play on a virtual beach, soccer field, and pirate ship.

"I think it shows that the world has changed and what could be possible next. It is a very exciting thing," she said, adding that Virbela had hosted a Bar Mitzvah in the metaverse but this was their first wedding.

According to the American Marriage Ministries' website, marriages that solely occur in a metaverse or video game are not legally recognized. Traci said that virtual weddings have a place in some circumstances, such as with military officers who are out of the country, but thinks they are "one of the very few things that you can't just do via a television screen."

Despite this, she said dating or having major life experiences as an avatar is "fascinating" because you bring your "best self into the mix."

After three months of marriage, Traci and Dave have reverted back to the physical world and enjoyed a honeymoon in West Palm Beach and several other trips.