Minecraft Becomes a Wedding Destination

Couples are turning to digital platforms like Minecraft, Roblox, VRChat, and Discord as their wedding venue, kicking off a virtual version of nuptials that allows endless customization and no need for guests to travel.

Why It Hits: The average wedding price has skyrocketed over the past few years, mostly due to location and logistics costs post-COVID (when people were hosting weddings on Zoom). That’s forcing some couples to rethink the ritual, making it smaller in scale but just as special in execution. And for the digitally native who spend most of their social life online, turning to a metaverse platform is simply another extension of how they fell in love in the first place.

Behind the Ceremonies: Destination weddings are getting a whole new meaning.

• The metaverse weddings in games like Roblox and Minecraft feature custom-made locations, custom skins instead of suits, and even side quests and scavenger hunts that literally gamify the big day.
• One wedding hosted in Discord featured “custom emojis, bot-generated confetti, and a playlist curated by fellow server members,” per Wired.
• Virtual weddings have become prevalent enough that some ordained ministers, like Jessica Hu in Chicago, are now marketing themselves as a “digital celebrant.” Hu has already officiated over 40 digital ceremonies.

Happily Ever After: One couple, Sarah Nguyen of Oregon and Jamie Patel of England, met and started dating an ocean apart by playing Minecraft. Years later, Patel proposed in the game, so they said having the wedding there was also inevitable, calling it “the closest thing we have to a shared home.” Fifty friends and family spread across eight countries attended… all for the grand total of $300.

Prediction: Wedding planning companies, like Wedfuly, are already offering digital packages, so don’t be surprised if creators start to architect gamified venues as a new form of passive income. Is this the start of the virtual-rental market?