Daybreak Ceremonies

Rev. Jim DeKornfeld did an amazing job. He kept in touch with us beforehand to really get to know us before the ceremony. He gave us both questionnaires to complete that he then used to weave both of our stories into a personalized ceremony. When we read the first draft over dinner we were both so touched on seeing the story of our journey through our relationship and our love that we were both tearing up. He was even able to accommodate a smattering of references to games the two of us had bonded over, and a Chinese tea ceremony. He checked in to make sure we had every say in how we wanted the ceremony to go, not only in the script, but also including the music, processional, and recessional. He directed our wedding party during the rehearsal so that they would know what they were doing and when for the ceremony the next day, and also had the great idea to get the marriage certificate signed during the rehearsal instead of during the hustle and bustle of a wedding. After the ceremony, numerous people came up to tell us how they loved the story he told of us, and the tea ceremony and exchanging of vows were for some their favorite part of the wedding.

We were so blessed to have Jim officiate our wedding ceremony! He not only worked with me beforehand to fine tune the details of our ceremony to perfectly fit my husband and myself but then executed the delivery perfectly. We had numerous guests comment on the heartfelt and truly personalized ceremony. I would tell anyone looking for an officiant to look no further! Jim is your man!

Jim was not only extremely professional, but proficient as well. He wrote a ceremony that made everyone present feel the emotions that I had wanted. It was absolutely beautiful and is something I will remember for the rest of my life.

Jim was an incredible officiant for our wedding. He worked with us months in advance to get to know us better and provide the setting and tone for our wedding that we desired. The day of the wedding it was raining, however, he was professional and accommodating in providing a memorable experience under umbrellas. He is a true professional who really goes out of his way to make your wedding ceremony a personal and beautiful event. We will be recommending him to others who are looking for an officiant for their ceremonies.

From our first meeting, we knew that Jim was the guy for us. Now, looking back at the months of planning and ultimately the wedding day, we are very pleased that we found him. He guided us through the entire process and in the end, he delivered an incredible ceremony. After the ceremony, several guests told us that the wedding ceremony was the best they had ever heard. Jim truly did a great job of personalizing the ceremony to tell our story. We couldn’t be happier. Thank you, Jim you were amazing!

Jim created a beautiful custom ceremony for us and it was everything we could have wanted and more. He told our story in such a wonderful way, plus made us feel comfortable and relaxed every step of the way. He was wonderful and I would recommend him to anyone.

Jim was absolutely wondeful. Working with us to meet and tell our story to him was extremely helpful as we navigated a very busy time ahead of our wedding. Jim went out of his way to insure our ceremony was exactly as how we envisioned and helped my bride and me craft a ceremony that matched our love perfectly. Thank you Jim and I would, without reservation, recommend Jim to anyone planning a special day.

My husband and I were celebrating our 10th Anniversary in our favorite place on earth - Pinehurst, NC. As part of the celebration we were bringing our parents and best friends and planned on renewing our wedding vows. The Resort recommended several officiants and the first on the list was Jim DeKornfeld of Daybreak Ceremonies. We didn't look any further! From my first conversation with Jim, I felt like he was the right choice for us. We filled out our questionnaires - separately, of course - and Jim turned our responses and our conversations into a lovely ceremony celebrating our past, present and future! It could not have been any more perfect and appropriate for us. Thank you Jim for giving us the best ceremony we could ask for! Can't wait to renew our vows again in 5 years!

Let me first start by saying we had a tough time at the start of wedding planning after finding out my parent's home church was no longer officiating weddings. We had no idea where to begin searching for an officiant especially with my now husband and I living out of town from where we were getting married on our wedding day. We are SO thankful we found Jim & Daybreak Ceremonies! Throughout the entire process Jim was so genuine and caring and his goal was to make our ceremony the best it could possibly be and shed light on us as a couple; we were able to personalize the ceremony and truly make it our own. From the moment we completed our couples questionnaires to the finalized ceremony, we knew Jim was the right pick for us. He is passionate about officiating weddings and creating a memorable ceremony for the bride, groom, and guests. We didn't ever feel like we were just another couple or check when working with him, we always felt like he genuinely cared about us and our wedding! Jim was extremely open to any and all suggestions we had and encouraged tweaking any parts of the ceremony to better fit our needs - he was a joy to work with through the many months leading up to our wedding day! Jim is an excellent communicator and checks in as needed to ensure the ceremony is as perfect as can be leading up to your wedding. Our guests continue to rave about how beautiful our ceremony was and how personalized and special it was. Thank you Jim for making our rehearsal and wedding ceremony so special! We are so grateful to have found you! ~Katy

Jim officiated the ceremony for my husband and I on September 10th, 2016. We informed him of how we met and he did a fantastic job of putting it together to come up with the wording, listening to any changes we wanted to make. He kept the ceremony light with some funny moments like I wanted. It was an outdoor wedding and he spoke loud and clear. I would definitely recommend Jim to others.

Jim married my wife and I on June 5th 2016. Neither of us had ever been to a same sex wedding and were not sure as to how the ceremony should go. Jim helped us to create a beautiful, meaningful and intimate ceremony which felt every bit our own and was more than we could have imagined. He was very open to incorporating different cultures, faith and traditions. He was really easy to work with, responding quickly, very organised and it always felt like he was really invested in our day. It was wonderful to have Jim be part of our wedding!

We were married by the Rev. Janet Kenworthy in the garden of the Given Library in the village of Pinehurst. We wanted to comment about the beautiful ceremony that Rev. Janet planned for us, especially the words she spoke. We would very much recommend her services -- she provided us a very memorable ceremony for which we are very grateful.

We had to look for an officiant for our wedding about two weeks before the big day, and were really fortunate to find Jim and Janet from Daybreak Ceremonies! In that short period of time, they managed to put together a beautiful customized ceremony script that was very personal and reflected exactly the tone we wanted. For this they use couples questionnaires that you have to fill separately, and working on them was a great experience for both of us as a preparation for the wedding day. They were also super flexible to make any change we suggested in the final script, which included adding a bilingual text! The day of the wedding, Janet did a great job as our officiant, and many of our guests complimented us on how beautiful the ceremony was and how it reflected well our relationship. Like probably many couples, we wanted our ceremony to be the most special part of our wedding day, and Janet and Jim made this really possible.

A wedding is supposed to be about the Bride and Groom, yet that rarely happens. Everyone tries to make it about them instead, causing stress and frustration for those who this day should be about. That is not the case with Jim DeKornfeld and Daybreak Ceremonies. Jim made our day so special and made it about us. He started off by sending us both a questionnaire to get to not only know us better, but to know our love story as well. A couple days later he emailed us a rough draft of the script. I was blown away by how gifted Jim was in his writing and about how the whole ceremony was catered to what we wanted, instead of something basic and traditional. Jim was so accommodating and made sure that the ceremony was exactly what we wanted. So many of my guests told me afterwards that they thought the ceremony was beautiful and very well written. I highly recommend Jim DeKornfeld for your wedding needs. He will not disappoint!!

Jim Dekornfeld and Daybreak Ceremonies were just what we were looking for!! We couldn't be happier with all of the help, and services he provided on our "special day". Jim is professional, but very easygoing and thoughtful. He did a great job at 'custom-creating' a ceremony & script, and a feeling in the atmosphere just as we had invisioned. I'm so glad to have come across Daybreak Ceremonies, and will highly recommend their services every chance I get!!

Jim D. is the best. He went through great efforts to be sure that we got the ceremony we were wishing for...low key, lots of laughs and good clean fun. Thank you, Jim. You helped us bring smiles to everyone in attendance. You rock.

Jim did a wonderful job of taking my thoughts and incorporating them into our ceremony. He was an integral part of everyone having a great time.

Jim created a beautiful ceremony that truly reflected our love story. Several guests commented on the ceremony and how much it spoke to us specifically. We appreciated Jim's flexibility in making small tweaks to the ceremony and his responsiveness (especially planning a wedding from far away). He even took the time to meet me for coffee on one of my brief stays in town to discuss logistics. Excellent service!

Contacted Daybreak because we knew we wanted to craft our own ceremony that felt just right for us. We wanted it to be personal and inclusive for all in attendance. Jim guided us through the daunting task, delivering everything we wanted and more. He was in touch through countless emails, phone and FaceTime in the months leading up to the wedding (even though he was traveling for much of that time!) He also met with me in person when I visited from out of town, even though he wasn't available to officiate for us. Janet Kenworthy, one of Daybreak's celebrants, ended up officiating our wedding and we loved having her - she is a free-spirited and genuine human being that spoke with clarity and heart. We met with her about 3 months prior to the wedding, which I highly recommend. It's nice to get familiar! Many of our guests commented on how touching the ceremony was and how much they enjoyed it. My feeling is that you can't go wrong with Daybreak Ceremonies, based on our wonderful experience.

We worked with Jim in coordinating, booking, and writing our ceremony script and it was a real delight! Jim was very thoughtful in everything he did as well as organized. He has these questionnaires that the bride and groom fill out (separately) that asks about your history as a couple, the story, feelings, preferences, etc. Based on this questionnaire he put together a draft ceremony and I cannot reiterate how “on spot” he was with EVERYTHING! It was really amazing…as my husband and I were reading through the draft, we were shocked at how well he nailed it…it fit us perfectly (short and sweet, meaningful, with a slight touch of humor). Jim organized the officiant who was available for our wedding day (Janet) and that was that. Janet was very timely and considerate (checking with us on preferred wardrobe); we received so many compliments on the ceremony from our guests and how it was “so us”. Jim also worked with our coordinator on a little surprise that coincided with our story of meeting (fortune cookies with our names and wedding date inside). I would highly recommend Daybreak Ceremonies and Jim for any and all wedding ceremony services!

Let me start off by saying that Jim DeKornfield was friendly and responsive and tried to make my experience pleasant. He, however, was unable to officiate and gave the responsibility to Rev. Fenton Wilkinson. The communication was awful, I had to get back in touch with Jim 2 or 3 times to get Fenton to make the first contact with me. NOT exactly what a stressed out bride wants. Jim helped me craft the ceremony, and was attentive to my requests. Rev. Fenton Wilkinson was asked to use a microphone and REFUSED!!! I am so glad that I spent the money renting a PA system for him to refuse to use it. He said he would bring his own on the day of, after our rehearsal, and when that didn't work, he PRETENDED to use the microphone without it on. And the only thing he asked me on the day of rehearsal is if I wanted him to wear dark or light color for his suit. I said dark would be better, and of course he showed up in a light color. I did not meet either of the officiants prior to rehearsal. I do not recommend not meeting your officiant prior to the day, no matter how much of a time constraint you have. UPDATE: Since posting this review, I have received contact from Jim. As noted above, he did try to make my experience pleasant from the beginning. It was just an unfortunate series of events that was disappointing and affected the day. Jim has gone out of his way to apologize for the problems, so for this reason I have changed the service to 5 stars. He was aware that there was some initial difficulty in contacting the officiant, but was unaware of the other issues that came up. I DO believe he would have done anything he could to rectify the problems had he known. He is a genuine person who would have helped in any way he could, had I reached out. His service and friendliness was the reason I chose Daybreak in the first place.

Janet Kenworthy made the ceremony for my brother and his wife so personal. It was a perfect day and we cannot thank Jim and Janet enough!

This was our very first wedding and Jim was more than just the Reverend that performed it. Not only do we consider him a friend but he is a father figure that took on both of us as his daughters. Every moment from our special day will forever be cherished. So once again, we say thank you Jim and thanks to your lovely wife!

First of all let me say it was the most beautiful moment with the perfect wording of our vows written by Jim . He found us a fabulous minister to perform our wedding since he was out of the state at the time but he did an exceptional job. We were totally lost when we contacted him for help , since it was going to be a marriage equality wedding in a state that we didn't know anyone let alone how we would be treated . But after putting everything in his hands it al came out fabulous.no hitches or glitches. Mr Dekomfeld of Daybreak ceremonies was just the best .one could ask for , we have asked for a better planner or honest one .

Jim was absolutely fantastic. Such a genuine guy. Very good with communication. The ceremony he prepared was spot on. We have had so many people make a point to tell us how much they loved the ceremony. You really will enjoy working with him! Cody