Ceremonies by Joan

Joan was very prompt on communication and has great questions to ask the couple to better get to know them. She was very pleasant to work with and performed the ceremony with ease.

My husband and I can't say enough amazing words about Joan! She was an amazing officiant and woman to work with developing our personalized ceremony. She truly made our wedding day special. Everyone was very moved by the ceremony and couldn't compliment her enough. We found her through The Knot and couldn't be happier with her support, communication, and coordination with our photographer, DJ, and wedding coordinator. She developed a personalized ceremony diving into how we met and our relationship. She created exactly the type of ceremony we were looking for. All of our friends and family were very moved by her words and loved the stories she shared of us. I would highly recommend Joan to anyone looking for a ceremony made just for you. She made our day special and we will be forever grateful for meeting her.

Joan was very personable and professional throughout the entire planning process, as well as the day of the ceremony. She met with us ahead of time and asked thoughtful questions about our relationship and what we were looking for in our wedding and in our marriage. She helped prompt great discussion between us and wove our personality into the way that she delivered the ceremony. We felt like our guests really enjoyed the way that the ceremony was delivered (and we did too!). Joan helped us think through and craft each section of the ceremony, leading the process and sharing recommendations from her experience, but really allowing us to make it right for us. We especially enjoyed and appreciated the suggestion of having the two of us stand together, rather than having Joan between us during the ceremony. She was an excellent officiant. Her passion and experience shine through every step of the way. We would highly recommend her!

Joan was such a strong leader through our daughter's wedding ceremony. She knew the couple well after meeting with them and listened to all of their revisions and input. She had a sense of humor at the ceremony when their child started crying and got a laugh that loosen every one up! She prepared the betrothed well and we are in her debt! The wedding went perfectly!!

Joan was incredible to work with; so kind, attentive to all the fine details, and truly a master at ceremonies. We wanted something a bit more low-key at our home, and she worked with us to ensure it was special & perfect for us. Thank you very much for a lovely experience, we appreciate it and you greatly!

My wife a I used Joan Fergus for both a Commitment Ceremony and a Wedding. She was absolutely wonderful to work with! We were thrilled that she took the time to meet with us and understand our love story and journey together. The results were very personalized and heart felt ceremonies that were elegantly delivered. If you are looking for a very personal touch to make exceptional I would highly recommend Joan.

Joan was a wonderful person to work with. We met with Joan on a few occasions before the "I Dos" and each of our conversations were easy, thoughtful, and productive. Joan guided us through the ceremony, offered advice and options, asked meaningful questions, and truly got us excited for the day. I felt like she really wanted to make the day special for us and boy did she! The ceremony turned out perfectly and our ten guests thought the same! Thank you Joan!

We worked with Joan on our Vow Renewal ceremony. Not like some officiants who simply read pre-written scripts, she made sure to understand the couple and their love story. She will take the time to listen, understand the couple and host the ceremony in that way. She has good work ethic and pays attention to details. We had a really heartfelt ceremony. I would recommend Joan to anyone who is looking for a ceremony that is tailored to yourself!

It is clear to us that Joan truly is a master at what she does and is passionate and driven to give couples and all those that use her services the most personalized services and kind words. She was attentive to details and let us go through the ceremony several times, fine tuning and adjusting to fit the day while maintaining our personal style. She elegantly incorporated wedding advice from our parents and told our personal couple story, which was expertly stitched together from our anecdotes. Joan, you have truly found your calling. Thank you so much for being a part of our ceremony and helping to make it meaningful and memorable. Thanks again for all your effort!

Joan was absolutely wonderful. She was very responsive from the get go and I appreciated that while trying to book all of our vendors. She was attentive to the timeline leading up to our date and reached out to set up meetings accordingly. She really likes to spend time learning you and your partner as a couple and the story of how you met to where you are now going into marriage. She completely customizes and tailors a beautiful ceremony to your preferences. She provided all the needed guidance along the way. She was extremely helpful with running the rehearsal the night before the wedding and was on time and ready the day of. Our ceremony was a perfect representation of us and all of our guests commented on not only how much they enjoyed hearing our story and other beautiful sentiments but also on Joan's calm cadence in her delivery. We loved working with her! Thank you so much for officiating our wedding.

Joan did an amazing job with our ceremony! We heard nothing but glowing compliments from family members about how wonderful the ceremony was. Joan was great to work with; she took the time to meet with us several times before the ceremony to make sure it was perfect and to prepare us for the day-of. She is very detail-oriented which helped the ceremony run smoothly and exactly the way we wanted. She is highly talented and we would recommend her to anyone.

What a great experience! We contacted Joan with a rough idea of what we wanted and what our timeline was. We wanted something very low key--certificate signing only--in a relatively short period of time still TBD. She was so flexible with us as we worked out what, where, when and how. When we last-minute decided to add vows and ring exchange, she was quick to offer ideas to help us find the right words. The day of, she made our parents--who were victims of a surprise wedding!--feel special by hosting a ceremony that was quick and private but still very us. She's also just fun and nice to work with, and we couldn't recommend her more.

Joan did a fantastic job at officiating our wedding! She is very responsive and easy to communicate with. I loved the pre marital forms we had to fill out, it was such a great way to bond over creating the ceremony. Our whole family loved the ceremony and were impressed by how personal it was. Joan also did a great job of rolling with things as they came up (issues with venue, guests arriving late, etc.) which helped take the pressure off us. I highly recommend Joan for a wedding ceremony!

Joan was great! She is very personable and tried to make sure she really captured our love story the way we see it. She ensured our day ran smoothly and was very organized planning the ceremony. We had an amazing experience.

We found Joan looking for local officiants online. She spent the time to get to know us as a couple and create a wonderful and personalized ceremony that our friends and family all loved. She also had us complete a comprehensive form to get to know us individually and as a couple, and we had multiple calls with her to go over the details before our rehearsal. She helped us think through every aspect of our ceremony from vows to how best to arrange the seating. She also helped us incorporate our different cultures and traditions in a way that was very meaningful to us. I would recommend Joan to any couple looking for a unique and special ceremony!

Luckily my sister had Joan as her officiant when she got married and when it was time to find an officiant for my now husband and I, we knew we just had to have Joan as our officiant as well. Joan is the best. She provided guidance, knowledge, and ease to put together our ceremony. Joan takes the time to truly get to know you and your relationship and she turns it into a beautiful love story and ceremony that your audience will enjoy and comment on. One thing we loved working with Joan is that even though we didn’t get married in a church, despite my husband and I growing up Catholic, we were able to add religious elements to our ceremony. If you are trying to find an officiant for your wedding, look no further, Joan will not disappoint!

An officiant is a crucial part of any wedding ceremony, and Joan helped make our day so, so special. My wife and I come from different backgrounds, with her growing up a member of the Catholic Church and me without much religion in my early life. We wanted the ceremony to reflect our unique story and bring together our disparate upbringings. Joan not only took the time to learn more about each of us, but to capture the elements that meant the most to include. From our first Zoom call meeting (we live long distance from Joan) to our very first in-person meeting at our rehearsal, Joan proved to be a fantastic listener, an interested party, and an empathetic voice to share our story on October 8th. She helped guide us through the process, providing documents and resources to make everything a little easier — a luxury in the stress of wedding planning! What I appreciated most about Joan was her willingness to let us be us, to allow our individual personalities to shine through during our ceremony. That, plus her uncanny ability to synthesize our life stories into a 30-minute ceremony that left our guests tearful, thankful, and appreciative of our journey. I would recommend Joan to anyone getting married in Wisconsin. She is a kind, thoughtful, and genuine soul who helped bring our wedding vision to life in a way that I’ll never forget.

Joan lead an intimate ceremony for a large wedding I photographed on New Year's Eve. Before the wedding, she went above and beyond by reaching out to me via email and introducing herself + her plans for the ceremony time. She was very considerate day-of in asking if I needed anything from her, and being conscious of where she was standing in certain parts of the ceremony so I could get great shots of the couple. The ceremony was emotional and lovely! Would be happy to work with her again!

We were looking for.just a simple license signing. Joan made even the most simple of scenarios feel special. She put us at ease and made us feel very comfortable, which allowed us to soak in all the emotions of the day. She is experienced and makes the whole process very easy. We highly recommend!

Joan did a great job as our officiant. She made the process simple yet personal. We highly recommend Joan if you are looking for an officiant!

Joan was an excellent celebrant who I would recommend to anyone. My husband and I had very specific requests for the cadence of the ceremony and Joan attended to those requests so well. We appreciated her flexibility and guidance throughout the whole ceremony planning process. Our ceremony was personal, yet efficient (just what we wanted!).

Joan was great to work with! She listened to what we wanted and provided advice/suggestions when we asked. Guests commented on how well she told our love story. Would definitely recommend for your wedding ceremony!

Joan's tailored ceremony vows and structure were heart felt and exactly what my fiancee and I wanted. She was also very thoughtful and left us with a copy of our vows at the end of the event. We highly recommend her as an officiant.

Joan was such a wonderful addition to our wedding. She was able to guide us through the entire process of building a ceremony that felt personal to us. She was also effective in managing the crowd and wedding party for the rehearsal and day of. Our guests loved the ceremony as much as we did. We'd highly recommend Joan to any couple.

We met Joan at a wedding expo prior to our wedding and KNEW we had to hire her! She was great throughout the entire process. She made sure our ceremony was special and exactly what we wanted! She really got to know us to ensure nothing was missed. I’ve had many friends and family members tell us that our ceremony was incredibly sincere. Our ceremony was extra special, and with Joan your ceremony can be extra special too!

Joan was amazing to work with! As a local wedding planner, I know the importance of working with good, quality vendors and Joan was so friendly, professional, and detail oriented. She had amazing communication both beforehand and on the wedding day to make sure the ceremony ran smoothly. She also really tailored the ceremony to include the couple's love story and highlighted the unique aspects of their relationship which made the ceremony so personalized, fun, and interesting to listen to. She really gets to know the couple ahead of time which makes all the difference. I would highly recommend Joan and look forward to working with her again on future weddings!

We had such a lovely experience working with Joan! She officiated a wedding at The Legend at Bergamont in Oregon, WI and brought such joy to an already happy day! She reached out ahead of time to introduce herself and to share her ceremony outline with us so we would know exactly what to expect. Her communication is amazing. Joan is detailed, kind, and such a warm soul. We cannot wait to work with her again!!

We cannot say enough great things about Joan! She spent multiple sessions getting to know us and crafting and editing a ceremony that perfectly fit the kind of day we wanted to create. Her ceremony was beautifully written - earnest, true to our personalities, and with some humor to keep it light. She was a great speaker and made us feel comfortable throughout. We were nervous but she was very good at cueing us and ensuring we didn’t miss a detail. We loved working with her and highly recommend her!

Joan is truly a gift. She made our ceremony so personalized and heartfelt. Almost all of my guest commented about how Joan's words brought them to tears and how beautiful the ceremony went. She really took the time to get to know us and walked us through the whole process. I could not be more thankful for her presence on our special day.

Joan was great to work with, and we were lucky to have her involved in our daughter's wedding and vow renewal ceremonies. She was professional and organized. She met with them to help them write vows and then created a very personalized touching ceremony. Many of our guests at the vow renewal ceremony commented about how wonderful the ceremony was. I would definitely recommend contacting Joan for your wedding.

We would like to thank Joan for her help to officiate our wedding, from the first message in TheKnot till the last moment of our ceremony. We appreciate that she got to know us and helped make our day so special and memorable. Her words were so touching and beautiful and they surely act as the philosophy for our marriage life. Thank you Joan.

Joan created the most personal, touching, funny and completely cherished ceremony for our September Wedding. We loved working with her- she was incredible approachable, responsive, and attentive to the little details. We couldn’t recommend her enough.

Joan is warm, professional, and exceptional at her craft. Our ceremony was unrehearsed and yet could not have gone more smoothly. She assisted us through every step of the planning process and is full of wonderful ideas to incorporate in your wedding ceremony. She is also very keen on customization to make this special day feel unique and personal to each couple and their family. I HIGHLY recommend Joan. The entire experience was just a blessing.

Joan performed the wedding ceremony for our son and daughter in law last weekend and it was phenomenal! The time she spent getting to know them and incorporated their story of falling in love, growing in that love, and their future full of love, into the wedding ceremony was so special, specific to them as a couple and so meaningful to everyone in attendance. I can't count the number of guests that made a point of telling us they felt it was the best wedding ceremony they have ever attended because it was focused on the couple and their life together . In addition, Joan's tone of speaking, inflection, and overall professionalism for both the rehearsal and wedding ceremony was outstanding. I would recommend her so highly!!!! Our son and daughter in law hired Joan from reading other reviews on the knot and I wanted to do the same for future bride and grooms. Joan was absolutely fantastic!

We are so unbelievably happy that we chose Joan to officiate our wedding!! She was professional, on top of everything, and really went out of her way to make sure everything about the ceremony was exactly the way we had envisioned it. Our custom love story she created was beautiful and we wouldn't have changed a single thing about our ceremony with her. We would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a wedding officiant!!

Joan was so great to work with! After a 5-minute conversation we knew that should be perfect for our big day. She invested time getting to know us and our story so she could really tell it on our wedding day. We got so many great compliments from our guests about how great she was. The best part was that Joan was really the calming influence we needed during the rehearsal and ceremony. Her professionalism and experience helped eliminate any stress we had so we could just enjoy. We would highly recommend Joan to anyone; she will make your day magical!! -Joe and Lyn

Joan was absolutely amazing! She did a great job really getting to know me and my husband and it translated really well in our ceremony. Joan was so great at having the ceremony run smoothly. She was a great director during the rehearsal and helped to make sure everyone felt comfortable. Joan was understanding, kind, and knowledgeable. I would highly recommend Joan for your future wedding! She was very easy to communicate with the entire time too which help relieve a ton of stress!! Thank you for everything Joan!

Joan was amazing! She was so helpful and in consistent communication from beginning to end! She was easy to talk to and open to our ideas for planning! We really enjoyed working with her and we got many compliments on how beautiful our ceremony was. We would choose her all over again if could!

We SO recommend Joan for any and all kinds of weddings! We found her on the knot, and she was the first thing we booked - knowing we wanted her a part of our day. She was one of the top 3 things people talked about at the wedding - guests thought we had known her for a long time, her ceremony was unique and special to us, and mid ceremony she has us stand next to each other - knowing we were fidgety and realizing before we did that it was the perfect transition. We get so lucky to have her!

When we first spoke with Joan over the phone to get to know each other and decide if we were a good fit, she brought tears to my eyes just by describing parts of the ceremony she would like to include. I knew right away we made the right decision in choosing her to be our officiant, she sent us a questionnaire with thought-provoking questions that facilitated important conversations between my now husband and I-- she really helped us to look past the craziness of wedding planning and focus on why we were getting married, what we love most about the other, and what marriage means to us. She answered all of our questions, got to know us and our families through pre-wedding meetings, and stayed in touch throughout the wedding planning process. She was so wonderful to work with and we received compliments from nearly every guest about how beautiful and personal the ceremony was. She made our wedding day so special!

Joan was such an important part of our wedding day and ceremony! She wrote us the most beautiful ceremony and made it one of the most memorable parts of the day for us. She is truly such a special person and values her time with the couples that she works with. She puts great thought and care into capturing what makes the two of you special and shares that with the group in attendance at your special day. We would not have chose anyone else to work with or have had anyone else marry us. Joan is amazing!

Our wedding ceremony was so special, and we have Joan to thank for it! She went above and beyond to make sure each piece of the ceremony was "us". We have gotten so many compliments. In fact, a few of our guests have asked if Joan was a friend of the family because the ceremony was so "us"! She wasn't before, but she certainly is now. Thank you, Joan!

Joan was wonderful. We were struggling with our wedding plans amid the pandemic and she helped ease our anxiety as soon as we met her. She really got to know us and incorporated so much of both of our personalities and personal stories into our ceremony. My aunt was supposed to be our officiant but the pandemic and cancer (she's ok!) had other ideas. Joan worked with us to figure out how to still incorporate my aunt into the virtual ceremony and even had her on FaceTime on her cellphone for the opening message. We are so grateful to have found her and she was such a calming aspect of our crazy pandemic wedding.

Joan went above and beyond to make our ceremony special. She took the time to meet with us and learn about us as individuals and as a couple to create the perfect ceremony. We couldn’t have asked for anyone better!

Joan was absolutely amazing! We had originally planned to have a 100 person wedding in Grafton, but due to Covid we had to completely change our plans and have a small wedding 3 hours away in Sparta. Joan was extremely flexible and helped us plan our ceremony virtually. I was nervous that we had never formally met until the day of the wedding, but she was such a calming presence that really set me at ease. Our ceremony was beautifully written and I wouldn’t have been happy with anyone else. Truly exactly what we needed to make our day super special.

Joan made our - middle of the pandemic not so perfect wedding - a PERFECT WEDDING. She was the calm of the day and we couldnt have been happier to have her there with us.

Joan was amazing from start to finish, she can either create the ceremony on her own or you can be as involved as you’d like and she makes it so much fun along the way.

Joan was a complete God send! When our first officiant fell through, we were lucky enough that Joan was available for our date with just a month or two left before our wedding. She was so quick to respond, was incredibly detailed orientated and kind. We were truly blessed to find such an amazing officiant last moment. Joan really made sure she got to know us us, our relationship, and made the ceremony truly perfect for us. She sent us the ceremony outline to get our thoughts/approval, and it took very few adjustments because it was already so perfect. The rehearsal dinner went smoothly only because Joan jumped in, took the lead, and ensured that everything was in order. The day of the wedding it was the same thing, she was in complete control, was calm and performed the ceremony incredibly beautifully. She made us feel so comfortable, and the ceremony really reflected our values and who we are as individuals and a couple. We can't rave enough about Joan, she is amazing, if you can snag her, I highly recommend you do!

Joan gave us such an amazing ceremony!! We felt comfortable with her right away and she was able to make our ceremony feel so personal and sweet. Numerous people after the wedding made its point to say how much they loved Joan. She really listens and it sounded like she had known us for years. I would highly recommend her!

I found Joan through The Knot and was worried about connecting with an officiant since we were planning our wedding out of state (we live in NC). Joan immediately took all my worries away from our first conversation to the wedding day itself! When we first spoke it was pre-COVID and once that hit we weren't sure what our plans would be. She was extremely accommodating throughout the entire process and kept reassuring that we would make it work and figure it out. We were also pretty picky on what we wanted in our ceremony and she did a great job creating that for us. She met with us to learn more about us as individuals and a couple, and in turn created a beautiful love story that all our guests raved about. We felt that she really captured who we are and we are so thankful for all that she did during the planning phase and the day of at the actual ceremony. I look forward to staying in touch with her and letting her know where our journey take us!

My now-husband and I have nothing but good things to say about our experience working with Joan as our officiant. When the pandemic took over our original wedding plans, Joan was continuously flexible will our what seemed like never-ending changing of plans. She offered us support when we needed it, and when we were stressed out, she reminded us why we were planning a wedding in the first place - to become husband and wife. Leading up to our wedding, Joan worked with us over video calls, where she would ask us questions about our love story and our expectations for our marriage and translating this information into a truly customized ceremony script. Joan even had worksheets and examples for us to refer to when it came to vows, ring words, and the marriage address, so we could choose wording and passages that resonated the most with us and our personal style. Joan ended up officiating our ceremony in an intimate outdoor setting with our closest family and friends. At the end of the ceremony, each of our guests told us they loved and appreciated how personal the ceremony felt and what an excellent job Joan did! Because of the unusual circumstances, we will now be holding our postponed reception in 2021, and we plan on working with Joan again to put together a "vow renewal" type of ceremony for all of our friends and family who were unfortunately unable to be there to witness our vows this year. We are already looking forward to another opportunity to work with Joan!

My husband and I were a little nervous about finding an officiant for our wedding. Every wedding that we had been to in the past involved someone the couple knew or became extremely religious. Our goal was to find someone who would seek to understand us and could tell our love story in a beautiful way. Joan exceeded our expectations! We talked over the phone to get to know one another and enjoyed how approachable and friendly she was. She shared some of her background with us and inquired about our relationship. Speaking with her felt easy. I didn't know what to expect when we were told to complete paperwork about our thoughts on marriage and our love story. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience (even though it intimidated my husband a little bit haha) and it made us feel valued. We met with Joan in person to go over all of the details and she helped guide us in the right direction. She had a large selection of excerpts to be used and the ceremony seemed to write itself! My husband and I had quite the tale to tell and Joan worked incredibly hard to put everything into an intriguing story for our guests to hear. We couldn't be more pleased with all of her efforts to prepare our ceremony and execute our matrimony. Everything about it was truly lovely and I'm told that our guests were very touched by her words as well. If you're looking for someone to add a personal touch to your ceremony, Joan is right for you! She pays attention to all of the little details and will give you the unique experience that you deserve. We thank you for everything that you did for us and wish you all the best! :)

Joan officiated our August wedding after we found her online when searching for an officiant. We met with her once before the wedding and she was timely and wrote a beautiful ceremony. On the day of the wedding she was understanding through any changes or delays.