I love weddings because I love stories.
A wedding is the one place where a love story gets told out loud, with words, music, vows, and atmosphere all working together. Getting to stand in the middle of that and help tell it well is one of the great honors of my life. That is why I do this.
How we start...
Before we ever meet, I send you a questionnaire, and I read your answers before I see your faces. I want to walk in already knowing something about you.
Then we sit down and talk. I almost always start with how you met and what your first dates were like. People laugh at that part. They interrupt each other, they argue about whose version is right, and somewhere in the middle of it the room warms up. That is when the honest conversation starts, and that is where your ceremony comes from.
Whose day this is...
I officiated a wedding once where the bride knew exactly what she wanted, and her family was just as certain she should want something else. The rehearsal dragged on for two hours. I watched her get quieter and quieter, until I stopped the room and said plainly that this was her day and my job was to honor what she had asked for. The rehearsal took about ten more minutes. She got her wedding.
I tell you that because it is the part of this work you cannot see in photographs. I am not only there to say the words. I am there to hold the room steady, to keep the day calm, and to make sure that when you look back on it, it was yours.
A little about me...
I am an ordained minister with a Master of Divinity from United Theological Seminary and nearly thirty years of pastoral ministry. I serve as a preaching minister here in Reynoldsburg and teach as an adjunct professor.
Practically, that means two things for you. I am at home in front of a crowd, and I will not make your ceremony about me. And if you want faith woven all the way through your ceremony, I can do that with some depth rather than a few borrowed lines.
Whatever kind of ceremony you want...
I officiate religious, interfaith, and non-religious ceremonies. Traditional weddings, elopements, second weddings, commitment ceremonies, and vow renewals. I am glad to include family traditions, cultural elements, and children from an earlier marriage. If you would rather keep your ceremony warm and not religious at all, say so. You will not get a lecture from me.
If the marriage matters as much as the wedding...
I also offer premarital sessions covering communication, conflict, money, family history, faith, and expectations. This is the part of the work I love most. The wedding lasts an afternoon. I would like to send you into the rest of it prepared.
I am based in Reynoldsburg and serve couples throughout central Ohio, and I am willing to travel.
Tell me how you met. I would love to hear it.