Burning Man 2022. Wednesday night.
On Wednesday of the 2022 burn, I officiated a handfasting ceremony for a couple who had met speed dating earlier that year. The groom had brought the bride to Burning Man for the first time. She seemed to understand, on about day three, what she’d gotten herself into.
We rode out to “The Afterlife” — a piece of art on the open playa, a place with prayer flags and the kind of stillness you can find out there after midnight. I set up the camera angles beforehand. The ceremony was short and direct.
Officiating ceremonies is a Ranger service, not a Fred service — meaning the ceremony wasn’t about me, and the credit for the moment belongs entirely to the two people making the promises. My job was to hold the space, say the words in the right order, and not drop the camera.
I’ve done other ceremonies over the years. This one stays with me because of the artwork — the prayer flags in the dark, the playa flat in every direction, the scale of the space against the smallness of two people deciding something.