CNN iReport

Well I'd heard quite a bit about people being invited to sl weddings, but it finally happened, my friends Captive007 Latte and Roach Benelli, decided to get married, so I got an invite. The wedding was all set to go ahead on the 30 August and I went out and bought a posh frock and my friend Drax bought a nice suit and shoes for the occasion. Trouble was the night before the wedding Captive got in touch with me and asked me over, she said that her maid of honour Cher could not make it because of real life commitments, so could I step in and take on the role. I can tell you I was a little bit worried, as SL is not always kind to me for this sort of thing, with computer crashes etc, but I agreed to do it for Captive's sake as it was so late in the day as well as feeling it was an honour that she asked me. She took me over to the beautiful chapel at Fanastacia (Region Appassionatta) and the whole thing looked like something out of a fairy story. Captive told me that her wedding was the first one to be held at Fanastacia, which is owned by Anastacia Markova. Captive and Roach had to write a set of vows each for the service, so that they could recite their feelings for each other on the big day. She showed me step by step what I would have to do and it's all cleverly laid out with an usher pad marked ‘maid of honour' that you step on at the start of the aisle. This animates your avatar to walk slowly down between the pews of seated guests until you reach the alter at the other end. As maid of honour I would be the first to step onto the aisle, followed by the other bridesmaids and then the flower girl. Captive would then make her entrance once we were safely on other pose pads on the left side of the alter. As in real life weddings, the groom and the best man and ushers are already waiting there on the right side of the aisle, unlike a real life wedding, they each with a pose pad to keep them in the right place.

I can only say that I found waiting for the wedding to start nearly as nerve wracking as a real life wedding, in fact it was going through my head about all the things that could go wrong because you still have that sense of letting the real people behind the keyboards down on their big day. The bride's party wait behind a curtain at the start of the aisle and you are supposed to walk through the curtain, which is set to phantom, so you can pass through it. However this is on a raised platform and when they told me to ‘go' my avatar couldn't get up the step, so I ended up going round the side! I could have pressed my ‘page up' key on the keyboard to jump up the step, but knowing my luck I would have flown up to the ceiling, so I opted out of that risk. It was probably my fault as I was so nervous. Once on the other side of the curtain I was aware of the people sitting either side in the pews, as I stepped onto the usher pad to take me down the aisle. I seemed to be moving extra slow as the lag was holding me back. You have to take any animation overrides off before you go and I had made sure that my walk animation was off. I was however, wearing a face light (an attachment that adds a glow to your avatars face so you can take nice pictures) as I didn't think this would affect anything, but I removed that as well just in case, and the walk still seemed to take forever. I was really pleased to reach the end and stand in my position waiting for the others.

I started to enjoy things then as the other bridesmaids, Elvina and Rubi followed by flower girl Nazna, came down the aisle towards me. My dress and the bridesmaids' dresses were very elegant, they had full knee length skirts, with a boned bodices in champagne coloured satin, complete with a broad black sash, with a large bow at the back. We wore black high-heeled shoes to match. The Little flower girl Nazna looked really sweet in a cream organza dress with a full, floor length skirt.

Captive followed us in the most beautiful bridal gown I have ever seen, her full skirts billowing out as she walked, again in a cream silk style material with boned low cut bodice and a long train, she looked stunning!

It was a ‘black tie do' for the men, so they all had either tux's or smart suits on and the whole thing was really quite emotional as Anastacia took Captive and Roach through their vows. The service wasn't rushed and was nearly as long as a real life one, without the hymns in between. The Chapel is set in a winter wonderland and it's very pretty inside. Once the service was concluded, the bride and groom kissed and great whoops of joy and applause filled the chapel from the guests. We then stepped onto the teleport pad, which took us to the reception area for the photographs to be taken. The guests then joined us and the party began with everyone dancing and having a good time.

I'm sure Captive and Roach had a brilliant day and putting a virtual wedding together is quite time consuming and a lot of work if you go in for the whole white wedding bit, as they did. I'm pleased I went, it was quite an experience for me and it was lovely to be asked to be the Maid of Honour. I hope Captive and Roach live happily ever after in Second Life, congratulations to them both!