The song for the bride and groom's dance was I Hear a Symphony. Scarlett's big day was on December 4, 2021, when she married her boyfriend. But it was not a traditional wedding in many ways. First of all, because was celebrated in Habbo. The online community lived glorious years in the 2000s. It was at the beginning of the century when it was born and in 2008 it reached 100 million users. These were the beginnings of what is now called the metaverse and whose essence has a lot to do with it. In the metaverse of Facebook, an Indian couple will get married this year and as curious as it may seem, getting married in an online game is not new. The weddings in Habbo had a peak in the early 2000s and in 2021 they are still, for some, more alive than ever.
Scarlett explains that it is very common in Habbo for people to play at being a couple, although it is possible to find someone special. Through Twitter, she explains to Hipertextual that Habbo weddings “are very common and very pretty.” “I was excited to get married in the game, clarifying that it is only a game. But the person I married is someone very important in my life, so it was something very nice to be able to marry he”.
The wedding in Habbo was not far from a real wedding in some respects. Scarlett created an entrance for the bride and the process was similar to a religious ceremony. When it was over, the 60 guests went to the room where the party began. Between her and her partner they organized everything. “He was in charge of the design of the room and how the ceremony would be carried out, and I was in charge of the invitations and my entrance with my ladies. Between the two of us we chose a radio from those on Habbo and they were the ones who carried the part of our party,” recalls Scarlett.
A wedding in the metaverse and at Hogwarts
Mark Zuckerberg announced at the end of the year the arrival of Facebook's metaverse and the company's name to Meta. There are still many loose ends and many doubts about how it will succeed, although there is no shortage of people who have not hesitated to jump on the bandwagon. In India, a couple has decided to marry in the metaverse. The wedding will be themed and will be based on Harry Potter. A wedding at Hogwarts with 2,000 guests. In fact, the main reason for holding it 'on target' was to be able to hold a celebration with a capacity of more than 100 people, the maximum allowed in the region in which the couple lives due to coronavirus restrictions.
Dinesh Sivakumar Padmavathi and Janaganandhini Ramaswamy are from Tamil Nadu and it will be in this place that they will first celebrate a physical and legal ceremony with their closest entourage. Later, they will travel virtually to Hogwarts to continue with the wedding in the metaverse and with the rest of the guests. The late father of the bride will attend the digital wedding . “I'm creating a 3D avatar that looks like, and he's going to bless me and my fiancée. That's something we can only do in the metaverse,” the boyfriend told CNN.
In total, the event has cost just under 1,800 euros and will last about an hour. The news caught the attention of the international media, although some Twitter users criticized that the information was treated as a novelty, when many people have been getting married in video games and platforms for many years. Habbo weddings existed and they still exist. For example, during the pandemic virtual celebrations for confinement increased. Animal Crossing: New Horizons came to light in the midst of a global pandemic and many players decided to move their weddings to this community.
Weddings in Habbo or in 'Animal Crossing'
Ines was one of them. In her case, she had no guests , it was something she set up herself because she was excited to simulate a wedding even if she didn't get married in real life. “It made me very excited, it's the closest thing to doing a real wedding, and if you're okay with your partner, it's very cute, comforting…”, she describes to Hipertextual.
For the celebration, she decorated the room as she liked, “with a sweet and pleasant aesthetic that was in accordance with the dynamics of the wedding.” She invited the neighbors with whom she and her partner got along the best and that's how the celebration began.
While weddings are celebrated in the metaverse and in newly released communities like Animal Crossing, there are people who are still tied to the games that marked their time. And it is in these that they want to celebrate special events. Alexandra entered Habbo in its time of expansion. Today she continues even though she recognizes that the community is much smaller but persists .
A large majority are adults between 30 and 40 years old, who lived through the golden age of Habbo and do not want to give it up. “It's like creating a reality, one that you would like or that you created randomly and then you liked. In the end it ends up being an escape from what you really live,” explains Alexandra to Hipertextual.
In Habbo, parties are nothing new. There are DJ rooms and community radios where the announcers play music to liven up the party and fulfill the musical requests of the players. Alexandra wanted to go with her friends to one of these parties and in the end she decided to organize her own birthday celebration. “I created everything. I liked to give it realism. I hired staff and within the game I looked for waiters, a bartender, a driver and a person that I paid to welcome the guests”, remember.
The event agency to get married in Habbo
That was his first experience with events and the first step in creating his event agency in Habbo: Buga Events. After celebrating his birthday she realized that one of the biggest demands was weddings on Habbo. There was a time when these celebrations were repeated daily and it was like one more activity within the platform. Now, instead, there is an organization behind it. That's where Buga Events comes in.
“The bride and groom usually ask for a theme or in a special place like a beach. Some want a religious wedding and others that are not attached to protocols,” explains Alexandra. In the end, almost everyone wants their Habbo wedding to look as realistic as possible. To achieve this, they perform up to two rehearsals before the day of the ceremony.
Wedding rehearsals in Habbo are for planning the entrance of the bridesmaids, as well as the groom and finally the arrival of the bride at the altar. “The ladies and the pages enter at the same time and take their places, everything is well rehearsed and very beautiful,” says Alexandra.
Even the moment of the delivery of the rings is rehearsed. After the vows and the last words of the priest, the party arrives. In one room, a DJ entertains the party. Some boyfriends even ask for fireworks.
“At the bride and groom's dance, we play the song they have chosen and everyone surrounds the couple. They dance in the middle and at that moment there are steps like the boy kneeling and she spinning around. People in Habbo develops their imagination and they understand what is being done. Then the party continues and people ask for songs.”
Alexandra, founder of Buga Habbo Events Weddings in Habbo, a job full of emotions Nothing is missing at weddings in Habbo: neither the launch of the bouquet nor the toast of honor, which is usually given by the best friend of the couple. For missing, not even a dress test. Alexandra created a room for the bride to go with her friends to try on the dress with which she would say 'I do'. At first she hired a fashion consultant who accompanies the bride, but in the end she saw that it was a moment of friends in which they did not need any advice other than the opinion of the group.”It was a moment for them,” she says.
For Alexandra, organizing weddings in Habbo is a job full of emotions. She likes to learn about the history of couples , some of whom met on Habbo and later turned that relationship into something physical. Others who haven't gotten that far but have very deep feelings for her partner on Habbo. “It has been the most precious thing about Buga Eventos, these couples love each other, they know each other in the game but they love each other very much,” she celebrates.
