About this vendor
Civil Wedding Officiant Services
A Simple Ceremony is a wedding officiant service located in Chelsea, MI that specializes in non-religious, LGBTQ, and couple-focused ceremonies. Whether you’re planning an elopement or a grand affair, officiant Stacey Swickerath is perfect for non-traditional and joyful celebrations. She is passionate about ensuring that every word of your script is meaningful and reflects who you and your partner are as a couple.
Stacey has been presiding over weddings since 2009 and believes that your ceremony should be profound and personal. She therefore provides fully customizable options, incorporates readings and poems you love, and gets to know you through meetings and a “Telling Your Story” questionnaire. When she’s not conducting moving and emotional exchanges of vows, this officiant can be found gardening, traveling, and exploring estate sales.
For your personalized script, you can choose from samples or create your own. Stacey offers unlimited phone calls and emails in order to tailor everything to your specific needs and desires. On the big day, she will fill out the marriage license, oversee its signing and mailing, and coordinate with your other vendors. This professional will also present you with a copy of the ceremony as a keepsake. In addition, A Simple Ceremony provides options for rehearsals, elopements, and tiny weddings at the venue of your choice.
Stacey has helped numerous couples plan pop-up weddings and elopements in a variety of locations. Backyards and kitchen tables, museums, botanical gardens, parks and restaurants are all fair game.
Details
Business Attributes
- LGBTQ+-owned Business
- Woman-owned Business
Ceremony Types
- Civil Union
- Commitment Ceremony
- Elopement
- Non-Religious Ceremony
- Second Wedding
- Vow Renewal Ceremony
Religious Affiliations
- Secular
Wedding Activities
- Wedding
- Ceremony
Pricing
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Reviews
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5
out of 5.015 reviews
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Just wanted to tell you how beautiful our ceremony was. I'm still getting compliments to this day about how authentic and genuine it felt.
One of our family members said they would watch our ceremony 100x over instead of attending 1 catholic mass. Just wanted to pass this onto you! Seeing your big smile at the altar was so comforting and reassuring for me to have you there.
We really appreciate everything you have done for us!
Oh my GOODNESS. Stacey has 5 stars for a reason. She did such an amazing job that guests were telling me throughout the evening how wonderful she was. From a guest viewpoint, she's a wonderful public speaker and reader. From a couple's viewpoint, she was organized and thorough leading up to the day, was friendly all the way from start to finish, and had the most beautiful readings and ceremony samples on her website. Due to my husband and I's religious differences, we wanted a non-religious ceremony, and Stacey was perfect for that. She made it clear from the first phone call that any religious readings were up to the couple or wedding party, which was exactly what I was looking for. Everything went so smooth and she made me feel so comfortable. I forgot my bouquet walking into the ceremony and panicked a little when I got to the front, and her casual nod, assuring smile and "it's okay" helped me realize it wasn't a big deal and nobody noticed. She carries such a positive and calm energy, and with all the anxiety a bride feels leading up to and at the ceremony, that was much needed. Stacey was truly amazing and I urge you to choose her as your officiant. So kind and great at what she does. Thank you for helping make our day even more perfect than I envisioned!
Response from the Vendor on 08/15/2022
Thank you so much, Cassidy, it was a pleasure helping you two with your wedding!
The ceremony she wrote for us was so beautiful I had guests asking me about it/giving compliments for weeks after. Booking and pre-wedding communication was smooth and easy, day-of she was kind, helpful and professional.
Any questions?
Can't say enough good things about Stacey. We went into the experience not really knowing what kind of ceremony we wanted. Stacey met with us over Zoom a couple of times to talk things through, and she helped us create a ceremony that would be meaningful to us. She wrote a beautiful script that seamlessly incorporated the readings and rituals we wanted to include. The ceremony went perfectly, and family and guests told us how much they loved it. We would absolutely recommend working with Stacey!
Stacey did an amazing job officiating our ceremony. We read through several of her ceremonies and ended up piecing a few of them together to fit our personalities. She had absolutely no problem doing that. We also had her help out with a rehearsal the day before. My entire bridal party was all men and she helped us figure out the best way to get 6 guys down the aisle without it looking corny. It ended up raining on the day of our wedding, so all the outdoor rehearsing we did had to be tweaked for an indoor ceremony, but once again, Stacey did a great job managing everyone. I really liked that she asked all the guests to silence their phones, pronounced both our names properly, and asked how we would like to be announced right after the marriage. She didn't just assume we wanted to be announced as Mr and Mrs Trower (which I absolutely did not want). Bottom line, Stacey is awesome at her job and is very willing to work with you to give you a beautiful ceremony.
Stacey was great, would definitely recommend. We did a Skype call to meet her (we lived far away), and felt comfortable that she would do a good job (this was after we chose to say no to a different officiant after meeting him). She was prompt, professional, and several people after the ceremony commented how well-run the ceremony was. She also came to our rehearsal and made sure everyone was prepared for the next day. She's great, especially if you're looking for a non-religious ceremony.
We are so happy to have found Stacey! She was easy to work with and created a beautiful ceremony for us. Everyone actually complimented us on how special and unique our ceremony was. It was definitely "us". Thanks Stacey!
Stacey did an asolutely beautiful job when she was the officiant for our son's wedding!
Rev. Stacey Swickerath was amazing in every way. When things needed to move along she helped organize the situation and motivated people so that everything about the ceremony went smoothly. In my mind it couldn't have gone better. Bravo Stacey!!
My husband and I got married in MI but planned out wedding from WI. We didn't have any friends in the area who had gotten married to give us any references. I found Stacey through a general Google search. She was very easy to get in contact with by both phone and email. She answered all of my questions prior to choosing her, and was very helpful throughout the planning process and even since the wedding.
I found finding an officiant to just be an awkward process in general... To have to find someone you don't know to preside over one of your most memorable days and to make it seem personable just felt uncomfortable to me. BUT I really liked Stacey for allowing us the ability to personalize our day as much as possible. She had 5 or 6 templates to choose from and you can make changes/suggestions as you wished. We read through each section in each template and just starred the ones we liked most and pieced it together from there. We sent her "our story" off of our wedding website and she weaved it in seamlessly to the ceremony. Her templates are also non-religious. She also gave us a copy of the readings.
She provided us with a lot of input for ceremony timeline. We also had our 4 month old son with us at the altar and she did very well keeping us at the center when the baby was making noises.
The $400 included the rehearsal and ceremony (I can't remember if it included travel or not) and she does all the licensing information for you after you pick it up from the courthouse! Very much worth the money. Wouldn't think twice about recommending her!
Stacey was fantastic! She was so professional and helpful to us in putting together our ceremony. The readings and resources she had available really allowed us to create a ceremony that felt like us. Her personal touches made it even better. Several guests commented how great of a job they thought she did with our ceremony. We're so glad Stacey was a part of our wedding day!
We were SO lucky to have found Stacy for our wedding day! She was everything we could have hoped for and more. She took all of our ceremony stress away, making us feel confident and relaxed (something that is needed when planning a wedding). Stacy honestly went above and beyond to make our day amazing. She even made maps from the wedding to the reception for our guests the night before! I don't know what we have done without her!
Thank you Stacy!!
Stacey was wonderful! She officiated my ceremony August 9, 2014. We had a backyard wedding with no sound system, but we didn't need it. Stacey speaks so well, everyone in attendance could hear her perfectly. The sample ceremonies and readings are great, and we easily found a mix and match ceremony that fit us well. I would definitely recommend her!
Stacey officiated our wedding July 19th, 2014 and we are so happy that she did! She is not only a wonderful person to work with, being very helpful and organized, but she made our ceremony so very memorable and special to us for the awesome readings and literature she had put together.
My husband and I are not religious and had discussed in the past while attending weddings that we want our readings and ceremony message to be something that actually has meaning for us. We knew we would not be getting married in a church, but all the ceremonies we had ever been to were religious and we weren't sure how to make the ceremony our own. Stacey did an AWESOME job helping us with this - she has several sample ceremonies and readings to reference on her website to help you piece together a beautiful ceremony that is all your own and that speaks to you and your spouse!
I would recommend Stacey very highly. She is a pleasure to work with and ensures you make the most of your ceremony and your big day.
Stacey was amazing. While still in the planning stages, she was so helpful, patient, and professional in dealing with a bride who was stressed and scattered. Her ceremony "Cosmic Love", personalized as it was to tell the story of my husband and me, was so perfect. When reading the rough drafts she sent to me, I would laugh out loud at the intense "That's IT! That's perfect!" feelings it inspired. I am also not a weepy kind of girl, but I teared up reading it, and when Stacey performed the ceremony, there wasn't a dry eye. The humor in the ceremony that leavened the sentimental bits, the references to both real scientists and science fiction, it was all so perfect for a couple of geeks who met on a silly game online, and had packed the room with nerds of a similar bent for the ceremony. I can't recommend her highly enough! If I could give her 10 stars out of 5, I would.
Contact
Chelsea, Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, More
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Meet the team
Stacey
Owner
I'm an avid gardener, artist, and parent of two teenagers. Twenty years ago, in 2004, I was ordained so I could officiate the wedding of a friend. I didn't imagine then that I would make a career out of it, but five years later I offered to perform my sister-in-law's wedding and she took me up on it. Things began to click into place, as I thought, can I be an atheist "minister" to the non-religious folks around here that need options for weddings? That's just what I did, and it still brings me joy being a part of each couple's happiest day.
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