Wedding Ceremony Checklist Prep Steps Most of you have a wedding day checklist. I’ve seen your fat folders and bulging spiral notebooks. Planning the day, Your Day, is the first thing on any bride-to-be’s mind after saying, “I Do!” First Congrats! Second, don’t panic.   There’s a lot of pressure to get this right. And surely you know someone (who will remain nameless) that over planned, frazzled up, and lost their cool on the big day.   There is nothing wrong with having a plan. In fact, a well tailor plan can free your mind to concentrate on the things… Read More »

Write the Wedding Ceremony Playbook that’s about you As a creative and a wedding officiant I let my couples know they don’t have to write a wedding ceremony for themselves. That’s my job. I enjoy the challenge of putting words together to form a picture and a feeling. Plus I love to find things out about my couple and incorporate them into what I call my Framework Ceremony. It’s the bones of the ceremony I always use. There are officiants who create a new ceremony every single time. But over the more than 30 years I’ve been involved in leading… Read More »

How to Start Your 2021 Wedding Day with Less Anxiety You, like every engaged couple, want to have a wonderful, memorable wedding day. Don’t you? Don’t you love knowing your friends and family are going to be together for your most special day? Or that everything, down to the last detail, will go off as planned? But what happens when your hopes and dreams, i.e. wanting the wedding day of your dreams to be totally awesome, turns into unmet expectations, and huge disappointments because of safety protocols, lockdowns and vendor cancellations? I started 2020 with more couples booked than ever… Read More »

Oh, by the way, this is a non-legal marriage One of the biggest surprises around a ceremony I officiated for happened a few years ago.  It involved people going through the motions of commitment, but in the end, it was a non-legal marriage. Here’s what happened: I arrived early to check in with the couple. When I ask for the marriage license, the groom informs me the marriage, for now,  would be “non-legal”. He first contacted me six weeks earlier. Yet he waited to tell me at the last minute, “Oh by the way, we’re not getting legally married today.… Read More »

Awesome 2020 I’m so glad to see that wedding ceremony trends are taking on a more original nature AND meaning — that the setting, sentiments and elements are not just an ordeal to get through in order to get to the party. I attribute that in large part to the flexibility officiants and wedding professionals encourage these days. And the way free thinking is encouraged these days. A trend we hope will last! Stepping out of the stuffy nature of a wedding sermon is high on my list of preferences. Being unstuffy and unboring is freeing. To not be restricted… Read More »

Too many years ago, the way I wanted to own my moment on my wedding day, was to wear jeans and no veil. And my bridesmaids would be dressed in the colors of a political movement I supported. But that was again, way back when. FYI- My folks would have nothing of that plan (they’d have paid the bill) so not only did that design fail, but my boyfriend and I decided NOT to get married period. We’d keep living together. Which, BTW was a much bigger deal back then, than “cohabitating” is today.  Own Your Moment — What excites… Read More »

Break from perfection  I’ve seen it happen too many times:  Brides and Grooms want everything to be perfect. Then —  they get picky with each other. Demanding or even withdrawn from friends and family.  They may suffer from DIOMO (Do It on My Own) Loose sleep and precious time together that they’ll never get back.  Truthfully, the only thing I know of to avoid wedding planning tension and the stressful disconnect from loving each other is to elope and have a little wedding. But even an elopement must be thought through. Wedding blues Oh man, I love weddings, big, small… Read More »

There is a way Yep, there IS a way of seeing eye to eye with the people who have their own hopes and dreams for your special day. When your hopes and theirs don’t blend well, there are ways to smooth the wedding planning process. From the day you break the good news, “We’re getting married,” to the day you wave good-bye to take time for just the two of you, harmony can prevail. Conflict can be effectively managed and transformed. Seeing eye to eye …Boils down to YOUR clarity and YOUR compassion. (We can never control another person’s perceptions,… Read More »