Phoenix Couple’s Metaverse Marriage Won’t Be Legally Binding

Ryan and Candice Hurley had a typical wedding 14 years ago and recently celebrated the first-ever U.S.-based metaverse marriage with a guest count of over 2,000. 

The wedding took place on Feb 4 in the browser-based Decentraland virtual reality metaverse. A Twitter user who goes by @KanardAzul shared a few photos from “that much-anticipated wedding.”

“This marriage is out of this world…literally. Ryan and Candice Hurley are about to say ‘I do’ in the metaverse. They’re renewing their vows and receiving a first of its kind NFT marriage certificate,” said David Caltabiano, a reporter at Arizona’s Family.

Moreover, the couple minted a non-fungible token (NFT) marriage certificate. Among the 2,000 virtual guests was Clint Bolick who is an Associate Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court.

Is an online marriage considered legal?

The American Marriage Ministries (AMM), however, does not legally approve the wedding since the metaverse distorts the couple’s faces. According to the AMM, an online wedding must be executed in real-time using conferencing software and without any distortions to the couple’s appearance.

“The laws have not caught up to the world in which we live, meaning that I don’t believe that [a metaverse wedding] would be legal, and it would just be a ceremony,” a professional marriage officiant, Lori Prashker-Thomas, told Business Insider.

Another wedding ceremony follows

Right after the first U.S.-based metaverse wedding, an Indian couple celebrated the first Asian metaverse marriage. A Harry Potter fan couple from Tamil Nadu did not want to wait for the COVID-19 pandemic, and decided to get married in a new metaverse called the Tardiverse.

Dinesh and Janaganandhini’s wedding ceremony was held on Feb 6 with 2,000 people invited. “Because of the pandemic, a physical, real kind of reception is not possible with the huge number of people attending,” Dinesh told CNN. “So, we decided, let’s make it in the metaverse.”