Custom Ceremonies by Michele Zipp

When you are planning your wedding you have decisions to make, people to hire. Hiring Michele as our officiant was hands down the best decision we made. The whole point of a wedding is two people coming together and celebrating their love. Michele helps you craft the perfect ceremony that is completely unique and tailored to each couple she works with. She offered many different possibilities and was even open to ideas I had. She was so helpful in talking through different ideas and how to make things happen. She also sends a questionnaire for you and your partner to complete. She uses those answers to tell your love story in the most beautiful way possible. Michele was so beyond incredible and actually did two ceremonies for us. First she did a private ceremony for us in the forest then went to my reception venue and did a second ceremony with friends & family. She even made both ceremonies feel and look different. I could truly go on forever talking about how incredible Michele is. I promise hiring Michele will be the best decision you make for your wedding!

After meeting Michele, we had no doubt we wanted her to officiate our wedding. She is personable, warm, well spoken, and a little magical. The questionnaire she provided and conversations we had enabled us to reflect on key moments and aspects of our love; and provided the insight she needed to craft a beautiful ceremony for us. The process was deeply enjoyable and meaningful, and the result was even more perfect than we had imagined. We discovered handfasting through Michele’s offerings and are so happy we were able to include that ritual. The ceremony book and handfasting cords she made are beautiful and sentimental pieces that we’ll always treasure. Michele had all the logistics covered and her guidance throughout the planning process and day were invaluable. Michele has a positive and calming presence, and set the perfect vibe for our day. Many of our guests shared a variety of positive feedback about Michele and her ceremony; and we feel the absolute same. Wholeheartedly recommend booking Michele for your special day.

Michele was so wonderful throughout the entire process. She wrote a personalized ceremony about our relationship and experiences together, as well as providing us with a beautiful crystal grid. She has such a positive and caring vibe, and our guests felt that during the ceremony. She gave us a copy of what she wrote for us, so we will always have that to remember that day. I can't recommend Michele enough, she was fantastic!

Michele was the absolute best! We got married in New Paltz in July of this year. Michele was recommend to us by the venue owner. Once we spoke to her, we knew she was the right fit, we didn’t even bother looking for anyone else and we’re glad we didn’t. She did the most beautiful job you could imagine. Everyone thought she was a family member of my husband’s because she really got to know us and learn our love story and shared it as if she was family. I cannot say enough good things about her. She was so professional and I wish I could relive that day over and over again, and she was a big part of that. Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts, Michele

If every couple is unique, why are so many wedding ceremonies the same? From our first conversation with Michele, it was clear that she understood how to create a ceremony that reflected who we were as a couple: who we are, how our love came to be and what kinds of traditions mattered to us. Over the course of a few calls and emails, Michele crafted a unique and truly wonderful experience that shared our special love story in a deeply moving way. She was also delightful to work with, naturally collaborative and happy to answer any questions we had along the way. Afterwards, we received a ton of compliments from friends and family who found our ceremony moving, delightful, and representative of who we are.

Michele was amazing to work with. She was extremely responsive. She created such beautiful questions to ask us to form our love story for our ceremony. The minute we saw her we felt like we’ve know her for so long. She has such a calm presence about her. She really made us live in the moment and fall in love all over again. The rituals she offered really completed our day and she gave us so many items to take away with as memories. I can not thank her enough for creating such a magical day and giving us a book complete with the entire ceremony so we can relive it over and over again.

Booking Michele as our officiant was the best decision we made. My husband and I were looking for a non-denominational officiant in the Hudson Valley when we came across her, and it was perfect. We loved how she curated our ceremony around the questions she provided us. It was extraordinary to hear what she wrote for us. Our guests talked about how love radiated and how peaceful everything was. There was not a dry eye in sight. The rituals that she provides are also unique. Do not hesitate to book her she is wonderful.

Michele is the best officiant ever! We looked forward to our ceremony the most because we just knew how special Michele was going to make it. We were so blown away by how beautifully she put together our answers to questions. She had such an amazing understanding of us as a couple that our guests thought she actually knew us on a personal level. Everybody said it was the best ceremony they have ever been to. If Michele is available on your wedding day, do not hesitate to hire her to make your day extra special and magical. We will never forget how special our wedding ceremony was.

I don't even know where to begin to describe Michele-- so many of our guests were positively effusive about her work after witnessing our ceremony. My godmother was so impressed by our custom ceremony that she said if she were to ever be married again, she would fly Michele out to Michigan for the event. If our GUESTS were that impressed, you can imagine what an absolute dream she was for the bride and groom to work with. Through two years of postponements, Michele was consistently supportive and reassuring, sticking with us and radiating light and wellbeing every step of the way. I will treasure our custom ceremony keepsake and the hand-woven handfasting cord that she created for us. Hire Michele to craft the words that will set the tone for your special day, it's the best decision you'll ever make :)

Michele is a dream! She made every aspect of our ceremony special and indicative of us as a couple. Our ceremony was nothing less than beautiful. Michele is perfect. She is exactly what we were hoping for in an officiant and more. The time, love, and effort she put into our ceremony was seen by everyone. Thank you for making our ceremony so incredibly special!

We booked Michele for our wedding ceremony after finding her here on the knot. Michele Zipp is an amazing human being. She is warm, kind, thoughtful, and even lets you in on her silly side. Michele instantly makes you feel like a friend. Her process of writing ceremonies is very personal, and a great way to reflect on why you are choosing your spouse amid the chaos of wedding planning. Michele is a story teller; she made our very average story seem like the most magical love story ever seen. And to us, it is the most magical story, so to have our feelings being portrayed so beautifully to our family and friends made our ceremony beyond meaningful. Michele also performed multiple rituals for us, including a smudging, a crystal grid for our rings, and a handfasting. All of our guests came up to us at the reception and were blown away by how beautiful and unique the ceremony was. Michele also makes a little booklet of the ceremony and gifted it to us along with the crystals from our grid and sage (that she grows herself). Michele is so amazing, and I cannot recommend her enough if you are looking for a meaningful ceremony.

My family is catholic & for me to not get married in a church was a HUGE DEAL. MICHELLE Was amazing she delivered, spirituality , uniqueness and love to our ceremony and we loved every second. My guests were blown away.

Michele was beyond amazing! She did an amazing job sharing our love story with all our guests. Our guests spoke about how much they loved the ceremony all night long! It was our favorite part of the whole day too. A thousand times recommend!!!

Planning a micro-wedding during a global pandemic is probably the polar opposite of what I would call fun. But we honestly could not be happier with the way our day turned out, largely because of Michele. Throughout the processes, she has been kind, professional and responsive. She has such a warm energy and is a beautiful writer. She crafted the most intimate and unique ceremony with custom rituals that felt right to us as a couple. She was able to weave in our personal stories and readings to make a ceremony that felt tailored perfectly to us. Everyone came up to us after to say how wonderful and personal it was. We will cherish the memory forever and we HIGHLY recommend Michele to anyone looking for an officiant!

My husband Joe and I feel so grateful to have had Michele officiate our elopement ceremony. She is kind-spirited, open-minded, accommodating, and so thoughtful. She wrote the most beautiful script for us and really captured our love story perfectly. Plus, she put together the burned sage bundle, gorgeous ceremony book, ribbons from the handfasting ceremony, and the candles we used to have as keepsakes forever. She truly exceeded all of our expectations. Working with her was such a breeze, and I would highly recommend her to anyone!

For our wedding this weekend, my husband and I wanted something a little bit different and very special. We both come from different faiths, so we decided to go with a non denominational ceremony for our wedding. We came across Michele while searching online and met with her shortly after. Michele is warm, loving, and so happy to be doing what she is doing. She really listened to us and wrote such a beautiful ceremony for our wedding. We were so touched by the way she chose to tell our love story - it really felt so personal to us and it was just perfect! All of our guests were so impressed with her and really felt that the ceremony was so special. We loved working with Michele, she was so wonderful and is so talented in the job that she does.

My wife and I feel so lucky we were able to find Michele for our ceremony. She asked thoughtful questions about us as a couple and wove our answers into a beautiful story she told at our wedding. The unique rituals including the handfasting made the day so special. Our families were deeply moved. Michele is incredible to work with - we cannot recommend her highly enough!

Michele delivered the most beautiful ceremony for our wedding - truly exceeding all of our expectations. She was communicative through the process, answered our questions, and worked with us as we changed locations last minute. We feel so lucky to not have had to worry at all about knowing the ceremony would be great, as Michele was so professional. Our guests are still talking about how wonderful our ceremony was, and how personal it was to us as a couple! Many shared that it was their favorite wedding ceremony they had ever been to. We wish we could get married again to have another opportunity to work with Michele.

We were married last August and couldn’t be more pleased with Michele as our wedding officiant. The ceremony was absolutely our favorite part of the day, and many of our guests as well! I couldn’t imagine a more custom, more unique, and special way to tie the knot. Michele spoke to us every step of the way, creating custom vows and incorporating beautiful non-traditional customs into the ceremony. At the end she presented us with our vows in a book she made, and sent us dried flowers used in the ceremony grown from her own garden. Everyone was blown away by her professionalism and her personalized approach to weddings that we have even family members who want her to officiate their wedding! Couldn’t recommend more.

Michele gave my husband and I the absolute perfect wedding day, and for that I will be forever thankful! So many people came up to us after the ceremony asking about our friend the officiant, not knowing that we only met once and enhanced a few emails. Michele is able to flesh out an entire love story of your relationship by a short questionnaire, and even my husband and I were amazed at how well she got us down! Michele was beyond easy to work with, and was nothing but kind and thoughtful through the entire progress, helping us from the rehearsal to the wedding. Our ceremony was behind beautiful, and everybody raved about the uniqueness behind the ceremony and rituals that encompassed it. If you’re considering using Michele as your officiant, say yes ASAP!

Michele was recommended to us by Hasbrouck House in Stone Ridge. We are so glad to have had her as our officiant. She is a warm spiritual person. She clearly takes an interest in making the wedding special. She is well organized and attentive. Our wedding was small and intimate. We connected with Michele by phone and email. We never met her until the day of the ceremony! (That was just the way it worked for us). But we connected with her along the way and were confident she was the right choice from the questions she asked, her sincere interest, and obvious experience. She took our suggestions and incorporated them beautifully into a very meaningful ceremony. At our ceremony, we did an herbal handwashing, a crystal grid for our rings, read our vows, did a Ketubah signing, and had a breaking of the glass. Everything was very well prepared and flowed smoothly. It was a brilliant day and Michele was the perfect person to officiate. It is a pleasure to write this review for her!

Michele was a dream to work with! We couldn’t imagine having anyone else officiate our wedding in June. Michelle was kind spirited, open minded and really helped personalize our wedding ceremony. An absolute pleasure to have met her!

It can always be nerve racking choosing a stranger to help express your love for your significant other but I can tell you, there’s nothing to worry about when you choose Michele!! From the very first phone call there was a sense of warmth and connection with her and we knew immediately she would be perfect to officiate our wedding. The ceremony is one of my fav memories of our wedding it was made just for us and Michele was there to help us mold and make it better than we could’ve imagined! Thank you!

Michele is the best! I’m so happy to have found her. She is so sweet and really takes time to get to know you. Her ceremony was fully customized and included a telling of our love story along with fun rituals we picked together like singing bowls and reiki. She also has the best speaking voice and goes with the flow (like winging it when the mic died). Couldn’t recommend her more highly!

This was everything I hoped for. Michele and her team were not only professional and prompt, they put such thoughtfulness and emotion into our ceremony that made my heart swell. i cannot thank them enough.

Michele is absolute magic! She crafted the most lovely and personal ceremony for our private elopement. She is easy to talk and connect with. As well as very open to our ideas and offering her expertise to make things flow flawlessly! Michele brought so much joy, creativity and peace to our wedding day!

Michele was a beyond amazing officiant! She is not only lovely to work with but crafted the most emotionally powerful ceremony for us! She sent us a seemingly simple list of questions to answer separately in the weeks leading up to our wedding. However, the way in which she asked these questions allowed my husband and I to really express how we felt about each other and why we had decided to get married. When we met her the day of the wedding, it was if we had known her forever. She took the words we sent her and wove them into the perfect depiction of our love story. So many people approached me after the wedding asking if she was a friend of ours as she had spoken about our story with so much personal detail and love that the guests could feel it! The ceremony was my absolute favorite part of the entire day. I remember it vividly but she also gave us a copy of her words so we can relive it in case time makes us forget. She is so special and you would be so lucky to have her as part of your big day!

Michele was absolutely amazing! She went above and beyond our expectations and really helped make this a memorable day for us. From the beginning until the end she was completely invested. After our wedding my wife and I actually had multiple conversations on how great she did, I would highly recommend her to anyone!

Michele is incredible! My husband and I were looking for someone to officiate our ceremony that would really showcase our love. Michele surpasses any expectations I could have had for the most important moment of our lives. She told our love story in such a beautiful comprehensive way that truly allowed us to reflect and appreciate one another while letting our guests in to our world. We did a unity candle ceremony, reiki for rings, and a crystal/botanical grid for the rings. Michele made us a beautiful ceremony book which includes everything she spoke. She also gave us a gift bag which included the botanicals and crystals from the ceremony as well as a handwritten note. She made our special day even more special than we could have imagined.

Michele is an angel! That’s the only way to describe how she can be so utterly good at what she does for those who start out as strangers to her and end up as friends for life. She takes such great care to truly understand her couples, from initial connection and leading up to the wedding, and craft their most special and sacred ceremony moment that is perfectly unique to them. It’s incredible! She is in incredible! Leading up to our wedding, my husband and I knew that although we were both raised Roman Catholic, because were are not so religious as we are spiritual, we did not want to hold a traditional ceremony in a church. For our parents this was hugely upsetting. However, fast forward to our wedding day... our parents, families, and friends could not stop talking about how beautifully touching and “us” our ceremony was. In fact, we still have guests talking about it now, months later! And our parents!!! For us it was important to incorporate into our ceremony all the love and well wishes of our guests in witness. Michele helped to develop our suggestion of a ring warming, where our rings would be passed through each row of our guests so that they could bless our rings. Together with Michele we, also, worked to incorporate a crystal mandala for added blessings of our rings and of our marriage, a unity candle lighting, reiki, and a couple readings which we asked family members to read aloud, and an intimate vow exchange sans microphone. Michele managed to fit everything we were hoping to say and do into our ceremony program so smooth and effortlessly. Our ceremony was beyond magical and mystical and love-filled and unforgettable. For my husband and I and for all our guests. It was simply put: perfect! To add to it all, Michele so thoughtfully put together a beautifully handmade ceremony book for us to have as a keepsake of our wedding day. She gifted it to us with purposefully selected crystals, herbs, and flowers for a blessed marriage. So special. If you want a ceremony that feels like YOUR unique love, with an officiant who is capable of delivering an unforgettably heartfelt experience like no other, choosing Michele should be a NO-BRAINER! Thank you Michele for being beautifully you! We love you! :)

Michelle gave us just the ceremony we were looking for. Although we had only spoken once and emailed a few times, she still made it very personal. We were looking for a spiritual / natural ceremony and Michelle helped guide us in the right direction while also accommodating any of our requests. It was wonderful.

My wife and I had our spiritual ceremony about a month after our City Hall wedding. Michele had a beautiful set of questions she asked at the beginning of our correspondence, and those questions actually helped me to write my vows. After our City Hall wedding (which Michele was not involved with), she reached out to talk more about the types of rituals, if any, we wanted to have in our ceremony with her. (We wanted all of them ;)) Anyway, Michele was so thoughtful and present throughout the process, and the ceremony itself was amazing. I don't know if she does this with everyone, but we did some Reiki, we 'tied the knot' (the ancient way), and we exchanged crystals. We had no idea how meaningful this would be for us and we are so grateful to Michele for guiding us through the process. The words that she prepared for us felt so special they made me cry. Additionally, we got to take with us a beautiful book with all of her words, the props for all of the rituals, and some amazing memories and photos. Thank you Michele!

When searching for an officiant, it was incredibly important to my fiancé and I to find someone whose personality resonated with us/who felt like an old friend, but that would also make our ceremony feel sacred and spiritual. Michele brought the perfect balance of these things to our wedding day! We were both raised in catholic/christian homes, and while we're both spiritual people in general, neither of us personally identify with either practice. That said, we still wanted to maintain a certain level of non-hokey-ness for our families, who we thought might get a little weirded out by our need for palo-santo and lack of a priest. That said, we loved all of the options and ideas that Michele offered us, and she easily guided us through several ritual options until we agreed upon what felt right for us. Next, she guided us individually through questions about our relationship/each other and used this information to design our ceremony. What she was able to put together based on just a few conversations with us and a short questionnaire was nothing short of magic. Her ceremony style was relaxed, warm, humorous and heartfelt - everyone laughed and cried and it truly felt so - us - that it set the perfect tone for the rest of our celebration. We received the most compliments about how special and truly meaningful our ceremony was and we couldn't agree more! I am truly so thankful to have connected with Michele and highly recommend her!

Michele’s gift and presentation will last with us a lifetime. Beyond special! Every part of it. The smells, feels, herbs, cords and her words are so individualized. I was welled up reading the card last night and she radiates with her smile and energy in her photos with us. Again, thank you for being there and making it all the more special and unique. Everyone should be so lucky to have a ceremony like that. ♥️♥️♥️♥️

Michele doesn’t just do weddings. She celebrates love!! I’m not very romantic so I didn’t plan anything for our wedding. We hired Michele and met in the park. Michele made our ceremony so special and personal. She took the time to get to know our love story and told it back to us in a way that made us and the 10 people at our wedding cry. It was special and full of love. We didn’t have a big venue, I didn’t wear a big white dress, no flowers, nothing really. Just Michele!!!! ❤️❤️ (And my awesome husband of course)

Michele wrote the most perfect ceremony for us. It was very personalized and many of our guests commented on how great it was! Michele was so helpful before and during our day. I highly recommend working with her!

Michele was absolutely amazing as out officiant. She took the time to get to know us, learn our story, and was able to develop the most beautiful ceremony. Her attention to detail was second to none. We received MULTIPLE comments from our guests saying how it was one of the best ceremonies they have ever seen. If you have reached this review, look no further, Michele is the only way to go!

Michele was absolutely amazing as out officiant. She took the time to get to know us, learn our story, and was able to develop the most beautiful ceremony. Her attention to detail was second to none. We received MULTIPLE comments from our guests saying how it was one of the best ceremonies they have ever seen. If you have reached this review, look no further, Michele is the only way to go!

I highly recommend Michele Zipp as a wedding officiant. She did a beautiful job crafting us a personalized, romantic, and meaningful wedding ceremony. She was extremely kind, detail-oriented, and professional. We were so happy.

Michele was incredible! Her hands on approach as well as the care and consideration she put into discovering who we are as people, as well as a couple, made us feel so confident and ready leading up to the big day. Her abundance of positive energy made us feel so at ease and eager, and it carried all the way through the nuptials. We loved the personalized bound book of our vows and readings, and the crystals and herbs Michelle incorporated into the ceremony and then gave us as a gift. We received so many compliments on how personal and unique our ceremony was. Michele truly went above and beyond the call of duty and put so much care and consideration into making our vows and ceremony breath taking, we can’t thank her enough!

In April 2011, Michele officiated at our wedding. Since my husband Leathen lived in England at the time I had to pull our wedding together in 6 short weeks with the help of some friends, family and most of all the help and support of Michele and I couldn't have done it without her. Michele to say the least, helped to make our special day, extra special. She was thoughtful, caring, funny and worked with us to help make the ceremony completely personal and helped to create a celebration that reflected who we are as a couple. On the wedding day which was highly emotional and unpredictable, Michele for both Leathen and I was a source of serenity and strength. We all laughed, some shed a few tears and overall had the most beautiful ceremony that was beyond what we had imagined. We are forever grateful and blessed to have had Michele marry us. Thank you Michele!

When we got engaged 8 years ago we knew pretty quickly that we wanted Michele, as one of our most trusted friends, to officiate our wedding . She was instrumental in helping us put together a Brooklyn bar room ceremony that represented us perfectly. I was very reluctant to include any traditional elements, but she encouraged us to include some parts that would pull things together and make a lasting impression on everyone. Without her I don't think we would have been able to pull off such a special day.

Working with Michele was incredibly wonderful! We couldn't have asked for a better officiant to make our wedding so beautiful and truly ours. We knew we did not want to have a traditional wedding and Michele worked with us to form our ideas into a beautiful ceremony. She used home grown flowers and sage for a hand cleansing ritual, we brought our birth flowers to braid together and Michele created a beautiful ritual, describing the significance of the flowers. At one point she asked everyone in the room to close their eyes and set intentions for the couple and word from our guests, everyone actually did! She asked us questions and got to know us and used our answers to create a beautiful ceremony, crafted so personally, for just the two of us. Guest's couldn't sing their praises loudly enough about how literally magical, romantic, and unique the ceremony was; They said they've never attended a wedding as specially tailored to a couple, and formed around love as ours was and may never again. Having many religious folk on both sides of our family (and us not being so), they personally recalled the ceremony as the best they've ever experienced. Michele gifted us the flowers and sage used during the ritual as well as a hand made book with the text of the ceremony. I've already gone back and re-read it many times :) Thank you so much, Michele! We almost skipped the ceremonial part of the wedding (i was wanting something short and to the point) but I am SO glad we did the research and found you and we opened our hearts to a much more meaningful and romantic ritual. The day would not have been the same without your sweet and caring soul guiding us into marriage!

Words cannot describe how incredible Michele is. We were originally going to have our friend officiate the wedding but things didn't turn out as planned and we started our search to find someone special. For us this was one of the most important pieces. We met with Michele one evening and knew right when we started talking with her that she was perfect. She has so much passion and love for what she does and you can see it shine through her work. Every detail, our correspondence up until the wedding, and all our interactions with her made us feel at ease. Not to mention she went above and beyond her officiant duties and offered to help day of if anything came up. Michele made our ceremony the most beautiful moment and more than I could have ever dreamt of. She was able to capture who we were as a couple, and even though we didn't know her before you would have never known - the way that she captured our love through the ceremony was unbelievable. Don't look anything further if you're on the search for an officiant and reach out to her to set up a time to talk. She'll make your day perfect!