Resplendent in their favorite science-fiction uniforms, the captain and a member of the Asheville Star Trek Club exchanged wedding vows on May 23 before a gathering of about 60 people at Jubilee Community Church in downtown Asheville.

The bride and groom were Diane Stanton and Richard Heim — and they invited the guests to wear their favorite “Star Trek,” sci-fi, science, or superhero outfits — and many did — to share in the theme of the wedding and share in their “feeling of awe and adventure of science.”

 Officiating was the Rev. Howard Hanger, Jubilee’s pastor, who walked in last, wearing a flowing white robe, a burgundy sash, a broad smile — and pointed Vulcan ears, in the style of Star Trek’s Mr. Spock.

“Marriage, the final front, this is the voyage of Richard and Diane,” Hanger intoned, imitating the dramatic beginning of the original “Star Trek” series.

At one point, Hanger said, “Richard and Diane would like to extend their gratitude to you for your presence at this event establishing their life-merging. I ask that you join me in wishing that they both ‘Live long and prosper’ — a key phrase in Mr. Spock’s signature Vulcan salute on “Star Trek.”

Heim, the groom and captain of the club, is a meteorologist for NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has its National Climatic Data Center located nearby at 151 Patton Ave. Heim is considered one of the world’s experts on droughts, several attendees of the wedding noted.

As a result of Heim’s weather connection, the turnout included an estimated 12 NOAA employees, including some who wore “Star Trek” uniforms.

The ceremony featured science-fiction music mostly, although father of the bride Donald Stanton, dressed as the Phanton of the Opera, sang a surreal version of Elvis Presley’s classic, “Love Me Tender.”

Among the often-cosmic readings, maid of honor Debra Stanton read a poem she wrote titled “When Passion Meets Passion” as follows:

“When passion meets passion

Two positive people

Caress and share kisses in bliss

“When passion meets passion

Excitement explodes

Such a jubilant journey is this

“When passion meets passion

We manifest magic —

An awesome awareness arrives

“When passion meets passion

Drab worlds disappear

As we rise to sail up to the skies.”

Meanwhile, best person Deni Niethammer told the gathering of how she first joined the Asheville Star Trek Club several years ago — and Heim “quickly became one of my closest friends.” With a laugh, Niethammer noted that she was the proofreader for Heim’s Match.com posting, which read: “I’m a combination of Einstein and Leonardo da Vinci.”

“I told him it (the posting) sucks,” Niethammer quipped.

However, within an hour of posting the ad, Stanton responded and the couple instantly bonded and have spent the last five years getting to know one another thoroughly.

The couple dated for two years and then moved in together in Canton, where they have lived for three years, Niethammer noted. Every room in their home is decorated with “Star Trek” memorabilia.

“Diane and Richard, I love you both. We wish you a long and prosperous life together,” she concluded in her remarks.

During the exchange of vows, the bride and groom — in the spirit of “Star Trek” — each said, “I will make it so,” rather than the traditional “I do.”

Hanger then said, “Let these vows sink in and the magic begin.”

He added with a smile, “I encourage you to give these rings a twist on a daily basis — just to remind you of what’s important.”

As Heim carefully placed a wedding band on Stanton’s finger, Hanger half-joked, “All the way on — we want a good marriage.” The gathering erupted in laughter.

As the vows concluded, Hanger said, “I want you to do more than just be here and eat their (wedding) cake.” He asked the attendees to pledge “their love to support them,” to which the gathering responded, “We will!” One person added, “And make it so!” triggering more merriment.

At that point, Hanger asserted, “Amen — and oh, yeah!”

After a pause, the minister said to the newly married couple, “I’d say you’ve got a relationship that’s truly out of this  world.”

After the traditional kiss, Heim and Stanton each placed a hand on the other’s head, symbolizing the Vulcan mind meld, made famous by Mr. Spock — and triggering cheers from the attendees.

Earlier in the ceremony, Heim gave a lengthy and impassioned address. He first spoke of why the wedding had its unique theme, noting, “The great astronomer Carl Sagan said (that) the very atoms of our bodies were forged in the hearts of stars. We are made of star stuff. Through the magic of carbon and biochemistry and evolution, we are the universe becoming aware of itself. Expressed another way, Eckhart Tolle said (that) you are the universe expressing itself as a human for a little while. This is awesome, almost spiritual!

“So we are special, in the cosmological sense. Jesus said (that) we are but children!

“Gene Rodenberry, creator of ‘Star Trek,’ built on this idea when he said, ‘I believe in humanity. We are an incredible species. We’re still just a child creature, we’re still being nasty to each other. But we’re growing up, we’re moving into adolescence now. When we fully grow up — we’re going to be something!’

“And that was Gene’s philosophy in ‘Star Trek.’ It was a positive philosophy. He said:

• “‘Star Trek’ was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences, in ideas and differences in life forms.

• “‘Star Trek’ speaks to some basic human needs, that there is a tomorrow — it’s not all going to be over in a big flash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans. No, ancient astronauts did not build the pyramids — human beings built them because they’re clever and they work hard. And ‘Star Trek’ is about those things.

• “It is important to the typical ‘Star Trek’ fan that there is a tomorrow. They pretty much share the ‘Star Trek’ philosophies about life: the fact that it is wrong to interfere in the evolvement of other peoples, that to be different is not necessarily to be wrong or ugly.

“Charles Shaare Murray and Mike Marqusee said: ‘In the annals of science fiction, where dystopias rule the imaginative roost, ‘Star Trek’ stood nearly alone in telling us that our future would be better than our past, that our common problems would be solved, that we, as a species, were fundamentally good, and that the universe would reward us for our goodness.

“That is why a ‘Star Trek’-science-science-fiction-superhero them” was featured at the wedding, Heim concluded.