Nicole Shanahan Commits to Partner Jacob Strumwasser in 'Beautiful' Love Ceremony (Exclusive)

Nicole Shanahan has found a new love!

On May 5, the 37-year-old attorney and philanthropist committed to partner Jacob Strumwasser, a 39-year-old vice president at Lightning Labs and a "reformed Wall Street guy," as she describes him.

"He's silly, smart, sensitive, considerate, creative and loves nature,” she tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview about her transformative year.

The duo were surrounded by a small group of friends in Southern California during their love ceremony, which included a water blessing that paid homage to their shared passion for surfing.

"There’s a beach both he and I are very connected to, where we had independently surfed many times before meeting and then surfed together on an early date," she says. "We fell in love surfing there, and we did a love blessing ceremony with water we collected from that beach."

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After gathering the water, they finished the sweet ritual at her SoCal property.

"It was spontaneous with a few friends," she says. "We didn’t know who was gonna end up there, but we had a handful of friends and we had a friend who believes in the magic of water lead a water blessing for us. It was beautiful."

Sharing why she opted for a love ceremony over a traditional wedding, Shanahan says, "I’ve actually spent quite a bit of time understanding the history of marriage — how ancient peoples once married. The Druids and the Celtics would handfast. You know the term 'tying the knot?' It comes from this ancient Druid tradition of taking a piece of fabric and tying a knot around two people’s hands — they would fast their hands together."

"I always dreamed of doing a handfasting because I felt like it represents the spirit of marriage more than the legal documentation of marriage," she adds. "I think that in today’s society, we’ve really gone in the direction of these big, very expensive weddings with lots of people and tons of planning. Then we sign these legal documents...and I wonder if we lost the plot a little bit on what that’s all about."

The celebration came about 10 months after a July 2022 Wall Street Journal story in which unnamed sources claimed Shanahan had a tryst with Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, 52, leading her then-husband, Google billionaire Brin, 49, to file for divorce. (Shanahan and Musk both denied the affair; WSJ told PEOPLE, “We are confident in our sourcing, and we stand by our reporting.”)

In this week's issue of PEOPLE, Shanahan reveals the "utterly debilitating" aftermath of the allegation and says she was never more than friends with Musk, who was in her Silicon Valley circle.

While healing from the ordeal last summer, she attended the Burning Man festival, where she met Strumwasser through a friend.

“I was there for less than 24 hours and we met over coffee,” she says. “He had no idea who I was, and I had no idea who he was, and we became friends. Our relationship started as a deep friendship. We saw each other in a silo of our own experience with one another and nothing else.”

Soon the pair realized they both love that special beach. "We were living parallel surfing lives it seems, and then we met at Burning Man, which is the driest place on the planet, and talked about how much we missed surfing," she says with a laugh. "I feel really fortunate, he’s lovely." 

She's found him to be a supportive partner, especially as she co-parents daughter Echo, 4, with Brin. "Echo comes first, and Jacob understands that, and he shows up for me as a friend," she says. "I feel like a better mother as a result."