They Fell in Love Playing ‘Minecraft.’ Then the Game Became Their Wedding VenueNEWS | 12 May 2025On a crisp Saturday in March, beneath a canopy of pixelated cherry blossoms, two avatars stood in front of a digital altar crafted from shimmering quartz blocks and flickering redstone torches. They were surrounded by a sprawling Minecraft village, complete with custom-coded NPCs reciting lore about the couple’s decade-long digital courtship. Nearby, pixelated foxes darted between guests—each one logged in from across the world, dressed in custom skins as forest druids and rogue mages. After the vows (typed and read aloud on Discord), guests dispersed for side quests, scavenger hunts, and an enchanted maze culminating in a virtual fireworks show. This wasn’t a rehearsal for an in-person wedding—this was the wedding.
Welcome to the new frontier of love: the hyper-niche internet wedding.
Over the past decade, virtual weddings emerged as a necessity—Zoom ceremonies during Covid-19 lockdowns, livestreams for distant relatives, even robotic proxies for international couples facing visa issues. But what's happening now is different. More couples are choosing to host their ceremonies in the very digital spaces where they first met, bonded, and built their lives. Not as a compromise, but as a celebration of who they are—and the communities that shaped them. As such, platforms like Minecraft, Discord, and VRChat have become unconventional yet meaningful venues. These aren't stopgap solutions; they're deliberate, deeply personal choices.
These digital ceremonies often incorporate interactive elements: virtual scavenger hunts, themed quests, and personalized avatars. Guests might receive digital invitations embedded with augmented reality features, allowing them to experience a 3D animation of the couple's journey together. One couple, who met in a Discord server dedicated to indie game development, tells WIRED they hosted their wedding within that same server, complete with custom emoji, bot-generated confetti, and a playlist curated by fellow server members.
The appeal isn't just about novelty. For many, it's about authenticity and accessibility. Virtual weddings can be more inclusive, allowing friends and family from around the globe to attend without the constraints of travel. They also offer a canvas for creativity, enabling couples to design experiences that reflect their unique stories and shared interests. It’s not uncommon to hear vows referencing video game lore or to see ring exchanges coded into emotes or Discord bots.
Sarah Nguyen, 24, from Portland, Oregon, and Jamie Patel, 25, from Leicester, England, met when they were 13 years old on a Minecraft role-play server. What started as a random team-up to build a tavern in a medieval village turned into years of collaboration. “We’d log on almost every day after school,” Nguyen tells WIRED. “Sometimes we’d just build or farm; sometimes we’d write whole stories for our characters. It was this creative outlet that became our friendship and then something more.”
By the time they were 18, Nguyen and Patel had developed their own shared Minecraft world—a sprawling, custom-coded fantasy realm where their avatars led an epic saga as rulers of a magical kingdom. “We didn’t just game together,” Patel says. “We were world-building, storytelling, living inside this universe we made.Author: Tom Wiggins. Margaux Blanchard. Mattha Busby. Will Knight. Ben Dowsett. Nicole Kobie. Angela Watercutter. Lauren Goode. Matt Kamen. Simon Hill. Source
