The Lord-Black Wedding Ceremony
Marriage is a multi-level commitment. Many wedding ceremonies focus on only one or two levels; we decided to address them all, with your input.
- Commitment to each other
- Love starts with two people. When we got engaged, we cemented our commitment to each other. The part of our ceremony where we present our vows to each other will be dedicated to this commitment.
- Commitment to the state
- Living in a lawful society, we must make a commitment to the state. The signing of our marriage certificate fulfills that commitment.
- Commitment to our community
- This is where you come in. You are a very important part of our
community. As we're getting married on July 4th, we thought it would
be appropriate to present our Declaration of Interdependence.
We are interdependent not only upon each other, but with our community
as well. In our ceremony, we would like to make vows to our community,
and we would like you to suggest vows for us to
make. We may not agree with all of them, but those that we feel are
important will be integrated into our Declaration.
If you do not wish to submit ideas ahead of time, there will be an opportunity for you to propose vows on-site which will comprise the Amendments to our Declaration. - Commitment to the greater consciousness
- Your wishes and our thoughts are all we need for this commitment to succeed.
The Officiants
In California (as in many other states), you can deputize anyone you wish to officiate over the ceremony, so we have selected two of our friends to do the honor, and are working with them to design our ceremony.
Frank Giuffrida
Sam and Frank went to school together at the University of Michigan. When Sam worked in Ann Arbor the summer he was in grad school, he shared a house with Frank and a few others (Magrathea Manor). Frank is now the proprieter of Casa del Wombat and is a popular "cruise director" in the Napa Valley.
Cynthia Pettit
Sam and Kiki (as she is known) worked together for a while at Pixar, from the time Sam came to California until Kiki left Pixar for greener pastures. She is active in the Burning Man community, and we really wish it were possible to have her firefall at the wedding. Unfortunately, fire and redwood groves don't mix terribly well...
The Musicians
Music before and during the ceremony will be performed by a Joged trio of the Bay Area's own Gamelan Bamboo Bali.
