Pastor Tom was our officiant to wedding this year. We were worried that because he is a pastor,…read more he would have restrictions to how he would marry us since we were not religious. He said it would be no problem and for us to schedule some time to meet. We met with him for nearly 2 hours and it was well worth it. The meeting proved to be insightful in terms of guidance and planning of the the ceremony as well offering suggestions for things such as Unity Candle or Sand Ceremony. He directed us to some verses of the bible which I didn't care for at first but after searching the internet for the right "reading", it turns out they verses are still just words and proved to be a short but powerful message. He also gave us some homework to do - writing our vows and finalize the rough draft of the ceremony with a to-do list. It nearly blew me away how quickly we crossed off the planning of the ceremony with him. He definitely took away the stress from planning this part of the ceremony! He was professional, easy to talk to, available via email, and most importantly, available for our ceremony! He came dressed appropriately, arrived ahead of time, and mingled with our guest. We coudn't be any happier how he was well-spoken with just the right amount of funny, not to mention engaging the whole time. You won't regret meeting him!

Pastor Tom was just our officiant for our last minute wedding, and we were very pleased! He was…read moreawesome! We had a brief meeting shortly before the wedding at his beautiful home. It was very comfortable, and he made sure he met all of our expectations without any problem. Despite, hiring him only a few weeks before the wedding, we had so many compliments from guests, saying it seemed he's known us forever by his performance. It was perfect. We also had a recent death in the family shortly before the wedding, which he honored during the ceremony in such a sweet positive way. Both my husband and I as well as all the guests were very happy with him. What more can you ask for. I would definitely recommend him!!

Steve Beck was our officiant for our wedding in July. Rev Beck was very professional and patient…read more He helped easy my now-husband's fear of public speaking. We had the sand ceremony and our daughter participated. All of the guests loved it. The bottle is a beautiful souvenir of our ceremony. Thank you for making our day extra special!

Rev. Steve Beck officiated our wedding in April at Leal Vineyards and we could not have dreamed of…read morea more beautiful ceremony. Steve is truly gifted and experienced at what he does. Our ceremony was personal and emotional, filled with lots of love, tears, and laughs. Steve has the ceremony memorized, which allows him to be completely present in the moment. He does a wonderful job at connecting with the couple and the guests during the ceremony. The sand ceremony was a lovely element after exchanging our vows. It was a great way to include our mothers and add an extra personal touch. You also get a great keepsake to remind you of your special day. Steve went above and beyond to put us at ease and make our wedding day as stress-free as possible. From meeting with us the night before for the marriage license (so we didn't have to worry about it on the day of the wedding) to pouring the wedding party champagne while we were hiding away before the ceremony, Steve takes care of all the details. Steve is a personable, kind, sincere, and honest. He was a pleasure to work with and we are so grateful to him for helping to make our wedding day absolutely amazing.

We can't thank Naomi enough for the heartwarming, personalized, & thoughtful ceremony that we will…read moreremember for the rest of our lives! She officiated our wedding on 8/18/23 at The Sequoia Retreat Center and it was perfect. Our meetings with her were easeful. She was an excellent communicator. She provided an extensive questionnaire to prepare for the ceremony. She helped us with our vows. She provided deadlines for us so that nothing was last minute. And she gave us our ceremony after the wedding. The ceremony was beyond special & it was our favorite part of the day. Every word was meaningful, it was perfectly tailored to us & we loved how our guests were involved. We received so many compliments, many guests saying it was their favorite part of the wedding and the best ceremony they had experienced. It had us and our guests buzzing in a love bubble the rest of the day and night. I wish I could relive it over and over again. If your ceremony is important to you, I highly recommend Naomi!

We couldn't have asked for a more wonderful officiant on our special day. From the very first…read moremeeting, Naomi was warm, approachable, and made us feel completely at ease. She took the time to get to know us as a couple, incorporating our personal story and values into a heartfelt ceremony that was meaningful and beautiful. The ceremony flowed perfectly, and we received countless compliments from our guests about how touching and personal it was. We truly felt that Naomi went above and beyond to make our wedding day memorable. We are so grateful for her guidance and presence, and we highly recommend her to anyone looking for a kind, professional, and truly special officiant. Thank you, Naomi, for helping make our day unforgettable! You were truly the glue and peace of a busy wedding day. Love, Hannah & Whitney 09.21.24 Carmel Highlands Inn

We hired Donna / Honey In The Heart for our private elopement/wedding. Donna Rose Gardner was our…read moreofficiant, and Rebecca Stark was our photographer. Donna was amazing and took care of all the arrangements with Rebecca, so we didn't have to worry about coordinating, it was all handled for us. She checked out various sites until she found the perfect one that was exactly what we had wanted. She made sure we knew the process of getting a license ahead of time, organized the timing of arrival, ceremony, etc. She even dealt with rescheduling us twice due to rain, always with a smile and reassurance for us. Donna also provided many pre-written ceremonies and vows for us to choose from and let us modify them to make them our own. She even made gorgeous little vow booklets with our vows, for us to keep as mementos. Rebecca took stunning photographs, before, during, and after the ceremony. She made sure to get many different poses, candid and staged, and included the ocean view and cliffs that we had requested. We ended up with around 150 high quality photos, and she provided them in a gallery we could share with people, and also downloadable in hi-res for printing and sharing online. Donna and Rebecca helped us achieve exactly the wedding we had hoped for, and left us with keepsakes and photos to look back on forever; I highly recommend them!

We had a wonderful experience with Donna as our officiant for our wedding. We needed to find an…read moreofficiant somewhat last minute, and Donna was very accommodating and understanding. She laid out the process very clearly, and her rates are reasonable, too. She provided an opportunity for us to customize our ceremony and pick passages and readings that were meaningful to us. She helped us have a ceremony that was in line with our personalities and beliefs. We felt strongly about having a secular ceremony, and Donna honored and assembled a thoughtful ceremony reading based on our input. Before the wedding, Donna made time to have a rehearsal with out, which was really helpful. On the wedding day, she showed up on-time and worked with our witnesses to get our license signed. She delivered the ceremony beautifully, and we received several compliments on it. Overall, it was a great experience, and we highly recommend Donna.

We had a bilingual ceremony and Patrick was the perfect choice!…read more We decided to do a custom script and the Chinese translation was beautifully written. All our calls with Patrick are really fun and always went smooth! Patrick is a sweet and funny guy! He is also really professional and cares about how things are executed. Highly recommend choosing Patrick as your officiant! Our ceremony wouldn't have been a success without him!

We love Patrick!…read more Patrick officiated our wedding and did an amazing job! My wife and I wrote our own custom ceremony script, and Patrick was more than happy to accommodate! Patrick even took the extra time to prepare a Mandarin translation of our script, so that we could have a bilingual ceremony out of respect to our non-English-speaking guests. We had several over-the-phone rehearsals together, and Patrick was a great pleasure to work with. On the day of our wedding, everything went smoothly and Patrick was an absolutely amazing officiant. All of our family members and guests loved him, and we are so glad that we picked him for our special day! Patrick is so cheerful and optimistic, and we thoroughly enjoyed every single interaction with him. He's an incredibly humble, honest, and hardworking person, and we highly recommend him!

Aaron was an absolute fantastic officiant at our wedding. We were able to explain that I am…read morecatholic and my husband is not religious and he provided us with the perfect mixture! He was so professional throughout the whole process and had a good sense of humor with us. All of our guest were engaged in every word he spoke and we got a ton of compliments on how beautiful our ceremony was. I would highly recommend him!

Aaron was an amazing officiant. My husband and I didn't want a real religious ceremony, but we did…read morewant to incorporate some of the Jewish traditions. Aaron was willing to help us create a great ceremony that allowed us to customize it into something unique and meaningful to us. He was extremely professional and easy to work with. We would use him again in a heartbeat! ;)

Want to have a smooth and fantastic wedding? Work with LJ. It's that easy. She'll make sure you…read morecross your T's and dot your I's. She'll coordinate with the venue to make sure everyone is in sync. She'll make sure you day goes off without a hitch. She'll create gorgeous floral arrangements for your table centerpieces. She'll decorate the venue in ways that will leave you and your guests impressed. She'll even help you pick the right vendors. Here's the thing... your special wedding day will have tons of hiccups. It's normal and every event has them. The magic, though, is that LJ will make sure you never know. She'll solve everything behind the scenes before it ever makes it to you and THAT is what you want on your wedding day. Phoebe and I can't recommend LJ enough. She's worth every penny. Thank you LJ!

One of the best decisions we made around my 5/16/15 wedding was finding LJ of Lux & Jasper as our…read morewedding planner/day-of coordinator. Throughout the year plus of planning, she kept us calm, focused and answered every single frantic email and question we had. We're a bit of an uptight group so there were lots : ) LJ was a HUGE help as we sorted out our vision and what we wanted -- and then followed through flawlessly on bringing that vision to life. She has an incredible eye for design and was instrumental in creating a beautiful setting that matched our vision at both the ceremony and the reception. One of my favorite things about LJ is that she always shared her opinion when asked, and when she disagreed or thought another option may be better than the direction we were headed, she'd respectfully share her point of view and get us back on track -- but I always felt like she respected what we wanted and supported it. All the vendors she recommended were AMAZING. She was straightforward with cost and how vendors stacked up against the competition. Even though she had relationships with many people in the industry, I always felt like she had our best interest in mind and represented us incredibly accurately and well. We paid extra for her to serve as point person for several shuttle buses. This was well worth it in that LJ created and delivered the complicated schedule as well as communicated with the drivers on the big day. What a load off! LJ provided a range of suggestions to make sure we understood our options (for example, for the Groom's Cake she suggested everything from an elaborate cake from a local artisanal bakery to Safeway and everything in between!), but when we just wanted her to handle something and not be weighed down by choices, she executed things flawlessly (such as delivering our welcome bags all over the Monterey Peninsula the day before the wedding!). On the day of, we had nothing to worry about -- everything that was within her control turned out flawlessly. She also navigated tricky situations with our on-site venue contact, who was a bit challenging to work with, and did a great job at managing her to make sure we had the day we envisioned. I was constantly impressed by her positive and calming attitude, grounding presence, creative vision and her ability to manage complex and emotionally charged situations. She was patient and understanding when we had last-minute changes and always snapped into action when we needed her to. I would definitely recommend LJ as a wedding planner/day-of coordinator! We couldn't have done it without her!

My husband and I were inspired by high Yelp reviews to work with Reverend Rich for our Nestldown…read morewedding in September. That said, we are sad to be writing only a 3 star review based on our experience. HIGLIGHTS: 1) He was very quick to communicate and always friendly and personable on the phone 2) He was flexible with us changing our date due to the pandemic 3) He was very determined to say my husband's non American name correctly and he did! Thank you so much for that, Reverend Rich! DISAPPOINTMENTS: 1) Wedding day speaking was a lot more monotone and less energetic than what we had hoped for 2) The vows he read at our ceremony were NOT the same as the ones we confirmed in the "final vows" email. 2a) My husband and I both checked this before I sat down to write this review. At best, this was a lack of organization that left us surprised at the altar. Specifically, we removed "for the first time" when Reverend Rich would introduce us as "Mr. and Mrs." We had explained to Reverend Rich that because of covid, we had already been legally married for a year and I had been going by my new last name since then. So, it was not "for the first time" that I was "Mrs.". Some of our less close guests were left confused, and my husband and I had to hide our frustration at the end of the ceremony. Reverend Rich was also aware that we did not need to be legally wed (since again, we had already been legally married for a year at that point), as we discussed not having a marriage license for him to sign. 2b) He also had added "let's do that again" after my husband and I kissed. It wasn't clear if we were supposed to kiss again (which we did), or if the audience didn't clap loud enough to his opinion. The possibility of the latter left us somewhat embarrassed. TLDR; nice guy, but the word doc called "final vows" that we got was not in fact the same doc that he read at our ceremony

Don't hesitate, and book Reverend Rich for your wedding date! We had a consultation with him after…read moretalking to another officiant, and loved him. He is funny, kind, personable, and would've crafted a great ceremony for us. His fees are very reasonable, but we unfortunately hesitated due to his additional travel fees since our wedding is a bit far for him (in the East Bay). Due to the travel fees, we decided not to book him and thought we'd find a more local officiant. We talked to several others in the next few weeks and struggled to find one we liked as much as Rev. Rich. We decided he was worth the travel fees and gave him a call back, but he was already booked for our date (over a year out)! Even though he was booked, he worked hard to give us recommendations for other officiants and even offered help with writing a script if we decided to have a friend officiate.