This paper introduces a timely case study on a 3D virtual reality-enabled graduation celebration project that provided an alternative approach to celebrating university graduation amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The project was carefully designed with fun, engaging, and interactive activities to compensate for the cancelation of the conventional commencement in spring 2020 due to the pandemic. More than 20 graduating students, faculty and staff members participated in a 2-h virtual reality live event appearing as 3D avatars on their own computers. Quantitative and qualitative data collected from 10 participants were analyzed for user experience, cognitive contribution, technology acceptance, and the feasibility. Results revealed that such a project was technologically sound, functionally acceptable, user-friendly, and practically implementable. The results also informed the lessons learned from the current design and the places to improve. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10055-022-00646-2.