Joyous Vows
Your Memorable Custom Ceremony in 10 Steps
When you select me to be your officiant, this is the process that I will follow to create and deliver your unique ceremony. I am all about flexibility, adaptability, and working with you to create exactly the ceremony that you wish. I welcome your ideas and creativity. Your ceremony is all about you. My goal to realize your vision. If you can dream it, I will do my best to make it a reality.
= Your part
= My part
1. Gather Information
First, I need to understand as many of the specifics as you can provide: dates, times, location, contact information, and your thoughts about what you want and don't want in the ceremony. We'll use the information gathered as a basis for our discussion and to begin our plan for your ceremony.
2. Meet and Discuss
It is really important that you feel comfortable choosing me as your officiant. Is there good chemistry? Will I provide the image, tone, and delivery that you desire? We'll meet face-to-face to make sure that I'm a good fit for your ceremony.
If at all possible, I like to meet both members of the couple so that we can all get to know one another. My preference would be to meet in person. We will typically meet at a coffee shop in a convenient location. Sometimes, our different schedules and locations make this meeting very difficult to occur in person. I am glad to meet by video on Skype or FaceTime and even by phone if necessary.
We will spend about 30-45 minutes getting acquainted and discussing your cermony. We use the information gathering document to frame our discussion. We share ideas and brainstorm how you want different parts of the ceremony to go. You get to know me and ask questions. I also start getting to know you as a couple so that I have some ideas when it comes to creating your unique couple's story.
3. Create the Ceremony Structure
Based on our discussion, I create a ceremony structure. This is essentially an agenda for the ceremony. For couples who have not attended many weddings, the ceremony structure is helpful to understand the sequence of events to help visualize how the ceremony will unfold on your wedding day. The following structure template is my starting point and I customize it to your desires.
4. Review Samples and Make Choices
For each of the major sections of the ceremony, I offer a set of sample wordings from which you can choose. Some samples have religious tone, others do not. I like to provide different choices so that you can select what works best for you. Of course you can mix and match phrases, add or subtract religious or other content and even pick something else that you have found on-line or that are your favorites from your experience or from other weddings, songs or movies that you really like. This is all about creating something wonderful that works for you!
5. Complete Couple's Questionnaire
To create your unique couple's story to share with your wedding guests, I need to gather some of your thoughts, feelings, stories and perspectives. I ask each of you to fill out a brief questionnaire. It provides me some insight into how you feel about each other and about marriage. There is a place to write down any interesting or funny relationship annecdote(s) that you wish to share with your guests so they can get to know you two better.
6. Create Your Couple's Story
I pull material from your individual couple's relationship questionnaire answers and from our discussions and create a part of the ceremony that is truly unique to you as a couple. I use your words to communicate what you feel about each other, what marriage means to you, and other topics like fun or interesting annecdotes. This part of the ceremony helps all of your guests to get to know the two of you and helps set a loving tone for your exchange of wedding vows.
7. Generate the Full Ceremony Script
Here's where everything comes together. I take information from the info gathering document, the ceremony structure, your choices, and your couple's story and create the master script that I will use for your ceremony.
8. Review, Update, and Approve
I will share with you via email all of the following documents: my edits to the info gathering document, the ceremony structure, your couple's story, and the master script. I ask you to review these documents for accuracy and to make changes as you see fit. I want to be sure that the final script is exactly what you desire and that the ceremony will provide you the wonderful and memorable experience that you deserve. We'll continue to iterate until the script is perfect for you and you approve it for me to use on your magical day.
9. Rehearsal
As they say, "practice makes perfect.". The rehearsal is where we get everyone who will be involved in the wedding ceremony together to walk through the ceremony. The rehearsal typically takes place on the day before the wedding. We want to ensure that everyone understands and is comfortable with their part. We make sure that the wedding party knows how they are entering and exiting, with whom they are walking, where they will be standing, what they will be saying, whom will have the rings, etc, etc. We also check the setup for candles, sand, roses, and/or other ceremony elements. We answer questions and everyone leaves confident that they will do well during the ceremony. My participation in your rehearsal is included at no additional cost. Please provide final payment for my services at the rehearsal if you have not done so already.
10. Ceremony
This is your big day. I typically arrive 30 minutes or more before the ceremony start time to set up, do microphone sound checks as appropriate, and take my place to facilitate your joyous marriage ceremony. Your job is to be radiant and amazing and enjoy being the star of your show! I will fill out and sign your marriage license and pose for pictures as you wish.
After the ceremony, I will provide you copies of pictures and videos if you desire. I will also ask that you take a few minutes to provide a review of my services to ensure that I have done a stellar job for you. Then comes your most important job: to live happily ever after together!