Alison was the perfect officiant for our wedding this fall at the Durham Museum of Life and…read moreScience. My wife and I interviewed a couple of other officiants, but felt an immediate connection to Alison. She was very thoughtful, and considerate, but never stiff or overly formal. Funny, but not reaching for any laughs or reducing the ritual of our ceremony. And also so organized and experienced in leading the type of intimate ceremony we were looking for! After assigning us questionnaires to fill out with our backstories, Alison weaved together a beautiful, elegant, heart-felt script that both brought the two of us to tears and forced the corners of our mouths up into grins. Several of our guests asked how long we had known Alison, and were shocked we only found her online. I truly hope this review inspires some other lucky couple to pick Alison for their wedding!

There is no shortage of great things i can say about Alison and the entire experience. We found her…read moreon referral from another officiant who was booked for our day. Alison got back to us within a day, we did our zoom intro and got down to business. She was extremely receptive to our wants and needs and tailored a ceremony that was perfect for us. Communication leading up to the wedding day was stellar and the process couldnt have been any easier. On the day of she jumped right in, asked all the right questions and helped me wrangle our guests and kept everything on track. She made sure we had the best ceremony for us and left me feeling stress free and very well taken care of. Afterwards she took care of our marriage license so that we could get packed up and fly out for our honeymoon. I couldnt have asked for anything more for our big day. Working with Alison for your ceremony would be one of your best choices in what can be an overwhleming process.

Kayelily was absolutely amazing to work with. From the moment we met her we knew she was the…read moreperfect person to officiate our wedding because she simply read previous weddings aloud to us and we had tears in our eyes not even knowing these couples but just feeling their story through her words. She was easy to email and willing to help where needed and made the ceremony creation and marriage license process a breeze. After the wedding my guests raved about her for weeks. I was told it was a wedding ceremony that was like no other and they almost wish it didn't have to end. I would highly recommend Kayelily to anyone!

Kayelily is an absolute master of her craft. If you are thinking of working with her, do it! She…read morehas done tons of weddings, and her experience makes for a seamless process and a beautiful ceremony. At the same time, she somehow manages to make you feel like you are the only clients on her plate. Throughout the entire planning process, no matter what time we emailed her, we got a response within several hours. I truly don't know how she does it. Kayelily knows the exact process of designing and executing a perfectly personalized and touching wedding ceremony from start to finish. She allows you to be as involved as you'd like to be. I remember reading in her reviews before we decided to work with her that many couples had gotten compliments from their wedding guests on the ceremony. I thought to myself how strange that was, I mean how often has a wedding ceremony stood out so much to you? Well, I have to say that the exact same thing happened to us! After the ceremony, wedding guests came up to us and said Kayelily was totally captivating and executed the most beautiful and personal wedding ceremony. Hire Kayelily! You won't regret it!

Father Christopher was an amazing officiant and friend throughout the entire course of my wife and…read moreI's wedding planning. He was extremely flexible and worked with us to develop a ceremony that was truly perfect. With my Catholic background, it was important to me to have a ceremony that had some religious meaning. However, my wife did not grow up with much religion in her life so we were able to make our ceremony distinctly unique. Father Christopher helped us with this entire process and had many options for us to use. He attended both our rehearsal dinner and wedding reception, and all of our guests told my wife and I how wonderful of a person he is and how much fun they had talking with him. He is a great speaker (no mic needed) and he followed through with all of the documentation. I would recommend him to anyone with any religious background as he will work with you to make your wedding both beautiful and meaningful.

From the owner: I create and officiate at Catholic and interfaith wedding ceremonies throughout southern Virginia…read moreand central North Carolina. The wedding ceremony that I create for you will be unique to you, honoring your traditions, your beliefs and your customs. Readings, prayers and rituals are selected and crafted to reflect and express your special story, bringing together an elegant mix of dignity, humor and solemnity. Whether your backgrounds, denominational ties and current affiliations are identical or vastly different, at the heart of everyone's faith are truth, love, and God, and that is the level at which your lives are joined. Therefore, my ceremonies have included prayers and rituals in Hebrew and in Spanish as well as in English, and draw from Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Native American and Buddhist traditions. Whatever your background, tradition, sexual orientation or marital history, whether your wedding is in a chapel or outdoors, I will create for you a ceremony that you will always look back on with great joy. Serving the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Triangle, as well as Apex, Burlington, Cary, Greensboro and Hillsborough.

We had a highly frustrating experience with Gwen Downs that ultimately led us to cancel her…read moreservices and find someone else for our wedding. From the start, she suggested a lovely outdoor location for our small ceremony. However, she insisted that she would not perform the ceremony if it rained, stating that she "reads from a binder and the pages would get wet." While we found this to be an unusual reason (especially since other officiants seem to manage just fine with simple accommodations), we tried to work with her and made extensive preparations to account for the weather, including purchasing umbrellas for all guests and renting a canopy per the venue's suggestion. Despite our efforts to reassure her that everything was covered, she continuously pushed back, sending curt replies like "Ok" and then following up later to say there would still be a problem. This back-and-forth went on for weeks, even though the venue and photographer had no issue with the potential for rain. Her unwillingness to adapt or provide a straightforward solution left us feeling uncertain and stressed in the days leading up to the wedding. The final straw was when she emailed us the day before the wedding, reiterating that she would not show up if it rained. At that point, we realized we could not rely on her, so we canceled and went with another officiant who was far more accommodating and professional. Though we cancelled on her, we still asked for at least a partial refund given the inconvenience and complete lack of any services rendered, but she never replied. If you're looking for an officiant who is flexible and dependable--especially when it comes to outdoor weddings--I would strongly recommend looking elsewhere.

I would not recommend her at all. She was very rude and unprofessional over the phone to me the day…read morebefore my wedding. I reached out to her 3 days prior to my wedding date to discuss whether or not we should plan a back up plan due to the expected rain and storms. She told me at that time that everything would be fine and we would be under the covered area. The day before she contacted the photographer to advise me to reschedule my wedding to the following day. That was not an option for me as we had already planned a reception. I found an indoor facility at a church to have the wedding at the original time and asked her if she could come there. She was very rude and disrespectful to me over the phone. She kept complaining and making excuses about how it would inconvenience her. I told her we cannot predict the weather and I had a lot of things to do prior to my big day as well. She replied "well it's YOUR wedding" and was not trying to accommodate me at all. She also texted me later asking why couldn't the minister marry me , which was completely none of her business. She is just very rude and unprofessional. She does not have the personality for this business. It turned out I had to hire someone else at the last minute to do our ceremony. I reached out to her a couple weeks later and expressed my concerns and requested a refund of the $275 deposit I paid. She has yet to respond and it's been a little over a week now.

We hired Reverend Bonnie for a quick and very informal (quick as in "we got our marriage license 2…read moredays ago and one of us needs to leave for Las Vegas in the morning", informal as in "we had to wait a few minutes for my wife to stumble out of bed and into the living room, still wearing pajamas") vow and ring exchange about a month ago. Her price was reasonable, she had no problem traveling to us, she took it in stride that my 90-lb dog stood between us during the entire ceremony barking his head off, and she didn't even raise an eyebrow with the whole pajama thing. Of course, I'm sure she would also do a great job officiating a regular wedding also.

Rev. Bonnie ROCKS. We live in FL and wanted our ceremony in Washington, DC. After reading reviews…read moreon several people, we chose Rev. Bonnie with NO regrets. She is amazing. She obtained our license for us to preclude us from having to come to Washington DC early and stay three days. She talked with us to get to know us better. When we arrived in DC, all was ready to go. Our friends and family raved about how the service was the most AMAZING they had ever attended. I recommended some friends to Rev. Bonnie and they expressed the same sentiments. If you want a personal, touching and professional service, then you can not go wrong by utilizing the services of Rev. Bonnie.