The bride wore a flowing white robe and a chic crown.

And so did her avatar.

On Sept. 4, Traci Gagnon, a broker-associate with eXp Realty in San Antonio, and Dave Gagnon, an agent with eXp Realty in Harmony, N.H., had been married below sunny skies at Atkinson Resort & Nation Membership in New Hampshire. However as Dave waited in his go well with and vivid, bird-of-paradise boutonniere with officiant David Oleary (a broker-associate with eXp Realty in La Palma, Calif.), and Traci walked down the aisle along with her colourful, cascading bouquet, a second, simultaneous ceremony was occurring elsewhere.

The Gagnons had been additionally getting married within the metaverse—a digital world the place folks can socialize, work, and even maintain main occasions.

Detailed avatars of the Gagnons and Oleary mirrored the trio’s real-world actions in a computer-generated occasion room offered by Virbela, an organization that creates digital areas for work, training, and occasions. Virbela, owned by eXp Realty’s dad or mum firm, eXp World Holdings, additionally enabled the marriage celebration and visitors to create personalised avatars and add them to the occasion house. And behind the avatars of the Gagnons and Oleary, a digital “display” broadcast a livestream of the in-person proceedings.

On the finish of the ceremony, the group in New Hampshire burst into applause, whereas the digital attendees responded with even larger enthusiasm. Whereas digital balloons descended from the ceiling, the avatars of the visitors clapped, cheered, danced—and did backflips.

And because it seems, the metaverse was an excellent venue for the tech-savvy couple’s nuptials.

It’s additionally the place they met.

Traci started her actual property profession in 1997, working first with Century 21 after which with Keller Williams, earlier than becoming a member of on-line brokerage eXp Realty in 2015. Dave—also referred to as “Tremendous Dave”—obtained his actual property license within the Eighties and have become a group chief for Keller Williams in 2006, ultimately shuttling round seven places of work all through New England. He grew to become agent quantity 123 at eXp Realty in 2013 (eXp Realty now has over 60,000 brokers worldwide), and labored for 3 years as the corporate’s director of cloud management and progress. A part of his job was educating courses in eXp World, the corporate’s 3D digital platform, and he first encountered Traci in avatar kind when she took one among his courses.

“We met in individual 13 weeks later in Las Vegas at an eXp conference,” says Traci, including {that a} romance quickly blossomed in the true world. On the conference, Traci additionally bestowed the nickname “Tremendous Dave” on her future husband. “I had a Southern accent, and I used to be at all times saying, ‘Tremendous, Dave!’ ‘That is tremendous, Dave!’ And all people began saying it.”

Flash ahead a couple of years, and the marriage ceremony within the metaverse—Virbela’s first, which was offered freed from cost to the Gagnons—allowed family and friends who couldn’t be current in individual to attend just about. Traci’s maid of honor was unable to journey as a consequence of sickness however was nonetheless in a position to stroll the bride down the aisle within the digital atmosphere. And a pricey good friend of Dave’s, who was additionally unable to attend in-person as a consequence of a household sickness, was in a position to provide a digital toast to the couple.

“Metaverse weddings are great for individuals who have relations who’re unfold out,” says Traci. “Actually anybody on the planet can attend.”

And Dave is fast to extol the virtues of eXp’s metaverse mannequin: Brokers can function in any state the place they’re licensed; they aren’t tied to brick-and-mortar areas however can entry bodily places of work and assembly areas in the event that they want them; they’ve entry to on-line coaching and help; and so they additionally obtain fairness within the firm. “All of us get inventory in dad or mum firm eXp World Holdings,” he says. “All of us get to share within the platform.”

The Gagnons are enthusiastic about all of the metaverse has to supply, and so they aren’t alone. In December, in a narrative in The New York Instances concerning the Gagnons’ ceremony, wedding ceremony planners waxed rhapsodic concerning the potentialities of digital nuptials as an addition to in-person ceremonies. (As of this writing, digital ceremonies aren’t authorized in most states.) NBA star Stephen Curry made a giant splash in the identical month when he bought 2,974 nonfungible tokens representing pairs of sneakers that may be worn in all or any of three metaverses: Gala Video games, the Sandbox, and Decentraland.

In the true property realm, Andrew Kiguel, the CEO of Tokens.com, informed USA In the present day on the finish of December that he’s made a tenfold revenue on his November buy of $2.43 million in business actual property parcels within the trend district of Decentraland.

And, after all, the corporate previously often known as Fb made headlines all over the world in October when it introduced it had modified its company title to “Meta” in honor of the metaverse.

With all of this metaverse exercise, can residential actual property be far behind? Will we see gross sales of residential NFTs and brokers representing metaverse-only properties?

Traci believes these may occur and that with the metaverse, something is feasible—for each weddings and actual property. “The sky’s the restrict,” she says.