Marriage ceremonies
Marriage is the official union between two dreamkeepers, both in the romantic and legal sense in Anduruna. Each district has a different traditional ceremony - and in addition to district ceremonies, various subcultures have their own totally different ceremonies and practices. Although all the main ceremonies focus on a union between male and female, those traditions can also be used with unconventional couples, and even multiple partners. Anduruna law is very permissive on what constitutes marriage, so long as the paperwork is completed. As a result, the number of ways a marriage can be celebrated is multitudinous. It can be anything from a massive, raucous, expensive gala to a quiet, private union. Unions range from the bizarre to the tame.
The one feature all marriages share is that the legal Anduruna registration paperwork must be signed in the presence of a witness and filed, so that Central City Authority can track and modify the social accounts of the wedded and charge the appropriate licensing fees. Informal weddings can happen without the paperwork, but these are not legally recognized by the City.
Engagements between dreamkeepers can be anything from a spur-of-the-moment elopement to a years-long mutual waiting period. Although not legally required, one part of the engagement has remained the same: The groom-to-be proposes by giving his beloved a simple, plain ring - symbolizing his encircling love and, in times past, the dedication of his halo’s power to ensuring her safety and protection. Those powerful symbols, rings, are typically exchanged during the engagement, and not worn until the marriage ceremony. They serve as a quick visual cue to who is single and who is not in the city. (Bear in mind, the ring doesn’t necessarily need to be worn on a finger - with the variety of Dreamkeepers shapes, improvisation is sometimes necessary.)
Over time, the planning of weddings has grown into a burgeoning industry. Although it’s not always necessary, it is quite possible to spend as much money as one likes on a wedding. Professional planners, caterers, venue rentals, astoundingly costly garments and decorating, weddings can become extremely costly at times. Fortunately for dreamkeepers with less lucre at their disposal, most traditions can be followed without the need to go all-out in every facet of expenditures. The more moderate approach is to hire one wedding planner to coordinate the festivities and options among the family members, and pool resources to cover any desired accommodations.
After marriages, honeymoons are often enjoyed. The couples may choose to vacation in another district, go on an offshore ocean cruise, rent a luxury suite in the Sabbaton Towers, visit rustic resorts or cabins nestled in scenic areas outside the Sky Road, check in at island haciendas in Alchera, or visit the gentrified Eridu delta country.

A brief overview of the different district marriage traditions:

Talocan: Talocan marriages are traditionally large, sprawling celebrations involving as many relatives, friends, and associates as possible. The festivities can often spread throughout the area, and may involve the rental of multiple adjacent buildings. Guests arrive throughout the day - in costume. Invitations are largely superfluous. Anyone who knows the couple will surely arrive, as well as any individuals wandering about and looking for a good time. Weddings in Talocan are not exclusive affairs - they are closer to anything-goes community block parties, where anyone may join in the mix. Often marriages will be planned to fall within the Harvest Festival, amplifying the celebratory chaos. Everyone must wear a mask or disguise of some type, including the groom and the bride. As the celebration grows on into the evening, it is the goal of bewedded to find and identify one another in the midst of the celebration. It's a ritual that involves much fun, trickery, and performance. Some guests may aim to impersonate the groom or bride, seeing if they can dupe the searching betrothed into unmasking the wrong person. No food is served until the betrothed find one another, but until they do, there is an open bar feeding fermentae into the crowd. Therefore, depending upon how hungry or how thirsty some guests are, they may try to help or hinder the search. After a day of tricks, intrigue, and celebration, the wedded find one another and the party comes to a climax as they exchange vows, and everyone feasts.

Margate: A district traditionally based on seafaring and shipping, their marriage ceremonies focus on the meeting of water and land. Guests of the bride and groom will gather on a beachfront pavilion, with the groom present. The ceremony begins when a sailing vessel arrives, bearing the bride. The groom will wade into the ocean to meet the bride, and standing together in shallow water at the convergence of shore and sea, they exchange their vows. Then the two board the ship together, and set sail, symbolizing the beginning of their journey through life together.
Their sailing experience can sometimes be the beginning of a long honeymoon, but usually they stop back at shore later that day to attend the wedding after-party with their guests.

Kojiki: The traditional wedding of the Kojiki district involves much preparation, dedication, and practice on the parts of the bride and groom. It consists of a ceremonial duel / dance between the betrothed, using the ritual katanas of the district's heritage. Although contemporary katanas are typically dulled for safety purposes, the original ceremony used blades with a razor edge.
The origins of the ceremony were less about a rehearsed dance, and more about actual conflict. In bygone generations, the duel would be conducted between the groom and the bride’s father, to test the groom’s worthiness in battle. Bladed duels were more common in older eras of Kojiki, as a symbolic and (usually) non-lethal alternative to powers combat. The fight between groom and father would be until first blood, and if the groom was victorious, he had won the right to the daughter’s hand.
However, in one famous duel, the bride to be stood resentful as this fight went on. Proud and formidable in her own right, she chafed at the idea of someone fighting in her stead. Breaking the ritual, she stepped into the ring and forcibly disarmed her father, proceeding to duel her husband-to-be for herself. The duel ended in an emotional stalemate - they finally had fought to a position wherein they could strike one another - but neither landed the blow. They instead froze, staring into one another’s eyes, and then sheathed their blades, and married. This couple became very influential, their story famous, and afterwards it became the custom for the bride and groom to duel one another.
The ceremonial duel takes place in a circle of smooth white sand thirty feet in diameter, ringed by blossoming cherry trees and wedding guests. Traditional family display robes, handed down through the generations, are worn by the duelists. There are variations on the dance, it can range anywhere from a dozen to a hundred blade-strikes. Every move of the duel is pre-planned and rehearsed, meant to showcase grace, power, and coordination. Completing the dance is meant to showcase that the couple has the dedication to accomplish any task in tandem, and give proof of their coordination and sensitivity to one another. Risking death in the circle for one another, and completing the duel requires perfect synchronization and technique, and the two must be in genuine harmony with one another.
Accidents do sometimes happen in the ceremony - but, as in life, withstanding misfortune and completing their goal together is paramount. The dance does not have to be perfect, as long as they finish it together. The dance ends with one last stroke, wherein each thrusts their sword into the sheath being worn by the other, ending with the blades out of sight and the couple in a tight embrace. They kiss, and are declared to be married. At this point, the on looking guests are permitted to enter the circle and give their hearty congratulations.
After the ceremony, the families adjourn to a dining hall to celebrate.

Theophanies: Theophanies celebrations are conducted in the tradition of their primary religion, Sacrare. According to its customs, the betrothed cannot sleep together, live together, or spend time alone together prior to the wedding. This isolation is to preserve the moral superiority of the pair, and avoid offending the engrossed and detail-oriented spirits. Once a couple becomes engaged, to prevent temptation, their time together must be spent in the company of family or qualified church representatives. This custom also guarantees a series of interesting surprises post-marriage, as the pair gets acquainted with one another for the first time in the context of an irrevocable lifelong commitment. After engagements that typically last for a year or more wherein the betrothed get to speculate about what their significant other is really like, the day of marriage finally arrives.
Held somberly in a church, the guests arrive and wait in the pews. The groom and bride spend the day dressed completely in white, symbolizing their utter purity and spotlessness in the eyes of the spirits. While the groom stands at the front of the assembly, family members and friends take turns speaking at the front delivering testimony and personal anecdotes that typically relate to the betrothed. Sometimes special hymns are sung. All in all, based upon how much attention the various guests need to gather, the recitals and sermons can drag on for hours upon hours. At last, the bride enters the scene, and is escorted up the aisle by her father, who in the religion of Sacrare, owns her until she marries. He then gives her away to the groom, and the two stand across from one another at the front of the church.
At this stage, the head minister begins the actual wedding ceremony. The traditional ceremony includes extensive readings from the Scrolls of Sacrare, and expounds upon the central importance of the spirits, and their crucial role in the life of the married. Blessings are sought from many different spirits, and each one's particular influence is sermonized upon to the audience. The length of the sermon chosen by the betrothed is supposed to be indicative of their piety and devotion. As a result, they must stand silent, staring into each other's eyes, sometimes for hours on end while the sermon is read. At the end of the sermon, the minister grants them permission from the spirits to marry, and they are wedded. At that point, they and the guests can mercifully retreat to the wedding dining hall, where dancing is not allowed and gifts are required.

Norvondire: A Norvondire wedding ceremony lasts the night, and is the most informal of all Anduruna celebrations - typically, casual attire is worn by nearly everyone, even the bride & groom. Once all of the guests arrive in the evening, they retire to two separate dining halls. The groom and all the men from both families flood into one, and the bride with all the family women into the other. Thus separated, the celebrating begins. These bachelor-bachelorette dinner parties are rarely formal, and can sometimes get downright rowdy. But in the end, it's a fun, close chance for members of the other families to get to know one another over some good food and drink. Stories are shared, experiences recounted, and above all, congratulations and advice are given to the betrothed without reservation. Wedding night advice is offered more freely in a hall of all men or all women, as inhibitions towards propriety and modesty fall to the wayside. At the stroke of midnight, the men take up the groom, and carry him bodily from the feasting hall; The women sometimes carry, but more often lead the bride from their wedding hall. For every wedding, a small, quant inn is rented out for the night, with every room vacant, and it is to on this inn that the wedding parties converge. The groom and bride are both tossed into the inn together, and are then locked in.
The guests then retire to their own rests for the night. In the morning, the wedding party regroups outside the inn with a minister, and the door is unlocked. The bride and the groom then come out together, and are married in the doorframe in a ceremony that rarely lasts more than three paragraphs. They then cross the threshold, and step out into the beginning of a new day and their lives together. There is then a brunch celebration where everyone mixes together, one big family for the first time.

Calypsa: Rather than announce their union beforehand and celebrate it's inception with family, traditional Calypsa marriages work a little differently. The bride and groom marry together in private, with only one witness to the union. Their goal is to then spend their first year together being married in secret, conducting their love affair by stealth. Any family members or friends who find out are tasked with helping to keep the secret, creating a (hopefully) small, tight knit group that is brought together by keeping the faith. Having one year in secret together negates the normal public expectations of marriage, turning it into an exciting honeymoon year of intrigue. Also throughout the year, they can plan their wedding party together, and plot the most fun ways to reveal their union to their family and friends.
At the end of their first year, they announce the surprise wedding ceremony to their families, and for any family member who didn't catch on earlier, the ribbing begins. Thus having been tested and surviving it's first year, the happy couple has a celebration in honor of their marriage with their families coming together. The in-laws often meet each other for the first time during these celebrations, getting acquainted over a night of stories... Not the least of which will be tales of how close the couple came to getting caught over the past year.

Ruskol: The marriage tradition in Ruskol involves an exchange that, although does make sense, sometimes kills the marriage before it has a chance to happen.
After announcing their wedding date, it is traditional in Ruskol for the betrothed to refrain from seeing one another for the entire four months prior to the wedding. This period of time is meant for them to reflect upon their decision without passions interfering with their judgment. The four months apart is more than that, however - during those four months, the bride goes to live with the groom's family, and the groom goes to live with the bride's family. Not only does this cause them to deeply evaluate their feelings for one another, but it also gives them a chance to become acquainted with their potential in-laws. This can be a good thing, and sometimes it can be a living hell.
When the wedding day finally comes, the bride and groom meet together in the morning in private, to reunite and share their experiences. The guests arrive throughout the rest of the day, and in the afternoon, the groom and bride come into the reception chamber and announce their final decision together. If their feelings for one another endured for months un-encouraged, and they can live with the full knowledge of their in-laws, then they take their vows and the guests celebrate.
Honeymoons are usually taken immediately and far away from family.