Wedding Ceremony

Our wedding was intended to be a ceremony of commitment, to each other, and also to our values. We (Ruben Bloom and Miranda Dixon-Luinenburg) got married in the Lawrence Hall of Science planetarium in Berkeley on February 21st, 2015. Mostly because it took me six years to get the audio recording processed, I’m now, at last, posting on the occasion of our 6th anniversary the recordings and transcripts of our ceremony.

Our friends gave speeches, each expressing a different facet of the values that we were committing to pursue together. They delivered their words against the backdrop of wonderous starscapes, and in between the prose, we played music that captured our love and ambitions.

The speeches stand as excellent essays in their own right, and although some of the authors/​speakers have published them independently on their blogs, it seems worthwhile bringing all of them together in one place, especially together alongside the accompanying images and music. (Since it was in a dark planetarium, there is no video).


Recording of the entire ceremony. Individual posts have the recordings for each speech alongside the transcript

The ceremony had the following structure and was graciously officiated by Logan Brienne Strohl:

  1. Values

    1. Darkness (Nate Soares)

    2. Hope & Triump: How Far Humany Has Come (Tara Mac Aulay, written by Jess Whittlestone)

    3. Light: The Grandest Vision for Humanity (Riva Melissa-Tez)

    4. Tsuyoku Naritai (Ruby)

  2. Community (Oliver Habryka)

  3. Partnership (Miranda)

  4. Declaration

    1. Feelings and Admiration

      1. Ruby towards Miranda

      2. Miranda towards Ruby

    2. Vows

    3. Declaration, exchange of rings

Miranda and I met via LessWrong (me finding her many excellent writings), so it feels quite fitting to celebrate one of our anniversaries here.

This Sunday, I have published the first two speeches. I will post the remaining ones daily until the Sequence is complete.

In­tro to the Wed­ding Sequence

[Cer­e­mony In­tro + ] Darkness

Triumph & Hope: How Far Hu­man­ity Has Come

The Gran­d­est Vi­sion for Hu­man­ity (Light)

Tsuyoku Naritai

Community

Partnership

Feel­ings of Ad­mira­tion, Ruby ⇔ Miranda

Vows & Declaration