Donna Forsythe and the Lehigh Valley Celebrants

e Donna was the celebrant, and we were so impressed with her storytelling, unique perspective, and enthusiasm, Lehigh Valley Celebrants was the first and only company we looked into when we got engaged soon after. We chose Cely (we wanted to choose someone different from our friends’ celebrant!) based on her thoughtful bio, and from the first meeting until day of, Cely was nothing but a true wedding professional—she was knowledgeable, warm, kind, and helpful. Cely walked us (more like held our hands) through every step of the process, from the outline of our wedding, to what we wanted the overall vibe to be, to how to speak, walk, and kiss during the ceremony, to how to obtain our marriage license. She gave us a detailed questionnaire that allowed her to build a personalized ceremony program for us catered to what we wanted to talk about. We felt like she really understood who we were as individuals—as well as as a couple—after just a couple of times meeting over zoom. She gave us tips and tricks only someone with the experience she has could give, and even calmed our nerves and checked in on us in the week prior to the wedding. She also made it easy to work through a pandemic reschedule.The process was easy, fun, and meaningful, and we are so grateful that we had Cely be a part of our team. Cely was incredibly prepared on the day of our ceremony, and coordinated effortlessly with the venue, the band, and our photographers—she knew we would be distracted, and handled everything on her own perfectly. Our wedding guests couldn’t get over how personal and unique our ceremony was, and we were so happy with what she came up with for us. Our friends also didn’t believe us when we said our wedding day was our first time meeting her in person! Working with Cely truly felt like working with a friend. If we ever have a vow renewal, we know who we are calling! 10/10 we would recommend, you will not be disappointed.

wedding. We got so many rave reviews from guests that all loved the ceremony! Don’t look elsewhere !

ly and uniquely captured our values and styles. We knew we could trust her from the start with her strong speaking ability, her organizational skills, and most importantly, how her kindness made us feel so at ease. We had several meetings to talk about what we wanted our ceremony to feel like and got to be a part of the planning process. When we previewed what Laura wrote for us it felt as if she had been there throughout our entire relationship, and after the ceremony we had so many guests ask how we knew her and how she knew us so well. We are so truly grateful to have had her there to guide us, encourage us, and to articulate so well our story and the feelings we had for each other. She not only wrote our ceremony but helped us remember why we were getting married in the first place and helped us to bond over all we had been through as a couple. The ceremony is the most important part of the wedding day and choosing Laura to write and perform is what made it my favorite part.

d funny, but her ability to craft a meaningful, fun, and eloquent ceremony was beyond anything that we would have expected. Amid the chaos brought on by COVID-19, Kiera was communicative and understanding and provided a level of personal connection and professionalism that made us glad to be working with her. The vast majority of our communication was remote, as my wife and I live in Upstate NY, with Kiera down in Pennsylvania, but by the end of the process felt like we'd known her for years. At this point, we cannot count how many times our wedding guests have spoken to us and told us that our ceremony was the best and most unique that they had ever been to, and as beautiful as our site and decorations were, the humor, intimacy, and narrative that Kiera weaved into our ceremony is such a huge part of memories of that day. We would recommend Kiera to anyone who wants a new best friend to prepare a Best Wedding Day Ever-caliber ceremony. You and your guests will laugh and cry in all of the best ways.

ed Irene write the most beautiful ceremony. She was able to represent our relationship perfectly and encompassed every part of our love. My husband is Dominican, and many of his family members are primarily Spanish speakers. We wanted to have our ceremony in both languages so everyone could understand. Irene was able to translate nearly perfectly, and was open to suggestions on certain phrases that may have made more sense to the Spanish speakers with a Dominican dialect. Irene spoke with a perfect cadence, sweetly and with passion, in both languages. I could tell she was excited to celebrate our love, and she put a lot of effort into making the perfect ceremony. I'd recommend Irene and the Lehigh Valley Celebrants to any couple!

e was a family friend already, so of course we trusted her. We still managed to underestimate just how lucky we were to have her be our celebrant. There are so many things that made working with Kiera a wonderful experience. I'll try to point out some of the highlights without writing a novel. To start off, Kiera as a person is a delight to work with. She is interested, and personable, and above all professional. From minute one you can tell that she loves what she does and takes pleasure in doing it well. Kiera understands how much this moment means for you, and joyfully does everything she can to make your wedding ceremony as special, personal, and individual as possible. Kiera is able to do this thanks in part to the process she follows. My wife and I were given questionnaires to fill out individually. My wife and I chose to keep our answers secret from each other so we could be surprised later. The questions included some of the obvious things. How we met, what we liked about the other person, what we enjoy doing together, but that was just the start. The questions became more specific and insightful beyond that. It was a little daunting at first, but once my wife and I dug in, we found ourselves really enjoying the memories it brought up, reliving some of the stories the questions asked for. By the end, Kiera got to know us and our story almost better than we did ourselves. This close knowledge of who we are and what matters to us informed the tone of our ceremony, and together Kiera helped us choose what beats to include, a union ceremony, and accommodated our own particular needs for the ceremony. We wanted to stream our wedding, so one of the things we asked for was a way to include our friends and family at home, and to make the ceremony engaging to watch. Kiera provided resources for example vows, different kinds of traditions and ceremonies, and was always quick to answer any questions we asked. Closer to the wedding, we were sent a draft of the ceremony. We walked through it with Kiera so we could tweak it to fit just perfect. She was willing to write 3 separate drafts of the ceremony for us, and I'm sure she would have done more if we wanted them. The actual ceremony was performed with such joy and care that you could hear it in her voice. She was engaging and clear in her delivery, and was perfectly comfortable being recorded for our stream. After the wedding, we received so many compliments on the beauty and fit of our ceremony. I'll say here what I told everyone that gave us that compliment. It's thanks to Kiera. Without her our ceremony wouldn't have been half as magical. Thank you, Kiera. From the bottom of our hearts.

ng over the draft. At this time I requested we cut NUMEROUS sections as a lot of it was repetitive or irrelevant to us as a couple (some of it coming off as an advertisement for the celebrant in hopes she’d book some of the guests). In making these requests, it was obvious the celebrate was annoyed. She constantly asked if we were sure we wanted to remove each section & attempted to assure us that the ceremony was only 15 minutes despite my telling her I read through it aloud (quickly might I add) and it took roughly 25 minutes to get through. On rehearsal day, the celebrant yelled at my young cousins (flower girls & ring security), telling them to go elsewhere because they were playing and talking (as kids do because they don't understand what is going on) while she was giving the rest of the wedding party information and instruction, much of which was irrelevant to the task at hand as it was just her talking about love in general. Long story short, my cousins were then crying because a random woman yelled at them. It was obvious she is not good around kids despite telling everyone after the ordeal that she was a kindergarten teacher at one point in her life…Needless to say I felt forced to keep my mouth shut and just deal with all of this along the way because we needed someone to marry us and we spent a lot of money to have her personalize the ceremony and perform it, but I would not recommend this specific celebrant to anyone. We had heard good things about this company, but was let down with the woman assigned to us.

y responded to any questions we had. The result of her hard work was a powerful, personalized ceremony on which many guests positively remarked. The ceremony was reflective of our personalities and our relationship and evoked exactly what we were hoping to feel at such an important moment in our lives.

s ahead of time and managed to put all of the beautiful craziness into our vows with her own special words... It made us both cry!! Many, many thanks to you, Kiera!! You are truly a beautiful soul!!

tter for our wedding day.

all, through creating the ceremony, to the day of. She made us feel comfortable and took the time to explain our options and the pros and cons of different decisions we could make. She offered up ideas we never would have thought of ourselves but that made our wedding ceremony that much more personal and special; it could not have been more perfect. Her delivery of the ceremony was stunning as well, it felt more like a close was friend marrying us than someone we had only met on zoom a few times! If you’re looking for a celebrant to make your ceremony feel like you, she’s it. Thank you, Kiera!

nted how wonderful she was. She has a heart of gold and is the sweetest person. I can go on all day!!

tep of the way. Our ceremony was beyond amazing, our guests loved how heartfelt and personable Laura was. From the first time reading our ceremony I had butterflies in my stomach because it was absolutely perfect. I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to officiate our wedding & I am so grateful we had Laura on our big day.

autiful message. Also, Donna is so sweet and incredible to work with! She made the process seamless with simple questionnaires and lots of examples and tips! We loved chatting with her on zoom leading up to the wedding and finally meeting her in person at the rehearsal. She was able to corral our wedding party to make sure the ceremony went flawlessly, and it did. I could not imagine our wedding with Donna, she was just perfect!

to our Wedding with a video call where she was able to better meet us and learn about our relationship. From there, Laura put together a detailed 12 month plan involving personal questionnaires for us to complete to assist her in putting together her ceremony. As we came into the final few months and weeks with Laura she provided us with an edit of the ceremony for us to review, along with recommendations on preparing our vows. You can tell that Laura put the time and attention into every aspect of the ceremony and left no stone unturned with ensuring the ceremony met our expectations. On our Wedding Day, Laura really delivered. She did a phenomenal job in leading the ceremony and helping us as a couple feel in the moment. We received many compliments from our guests and were told it was one of the best ceremony's they have been a part of. We would absolutely recommend Laura to any couple who intends to really put deep thought into their ceremony and not afraid to go the extra step to make everything more than perfect. Thank you again, Laura!

nning to the end (a 2-and-a-half-year process), she was responsive, organized and helpful! She checked in with us often and was so kind and wonderful to work with. She was detail oriented and really crossed all t’s during the ceremony planning and prep process. Although prior to planning, we had never met Laura, she wrote a beautiful and personalized ceremony for us. She was able to get to know my husband and I and our relationship through phone conversations and a detailed questionnaire. The first draft she wrote of our ceremony blew me away! It only needed minor changes and was near flawless! She captured our relationship in her words so perfectly. We were able to fully personalize all the details of our ceremony — from the readings, the ring exchange, opening and closing remarks, etc. However, we never had to start from scratch — Laura gave us informed recommendations and offered great insight along the way. After our ceremony, on our wedding day, I had so many friends and family tell me how beautiful the ceremony was! I couldn’t believe it because I feel like now-a-days, the ceremony’s fly by and aren’t always super memorable, but truly so many guests couldn’t say enough how sweet it was! It really captured my husband and I and our story so well. Laura spoke well and made us feel so comfortable while we were standing up there in front of everyone. I can’t recommend Laura enough — if you’re looking for a short (25ish minutes), sweet, and beautifully written ceremony, look no further!

essional, kind, and cheered us on during the entire process of writing our story. We absolutely loved how the ceremony turned out, somewhat like a storyline of our relationship. It was so intimate, personable, and customized to my husband and myself. I would have not changed a thing! Donna also took the time to lay out step-by-step how the ceremony would go, and she provided a rehearsal timeline for my wedding coordinator. She took the time to contact my other vendors so the day would go as smooth as possible. She went out of her way to make our day SO special! Myself, my husband, and my guests absolutely loved her and the ceremony. We cannot thank you enough!! The day was perfect. As a reviewer with any hesitations, this is your sign to book Lehigh Valley Celebrants!

t she shared our story so beautifully and authentically. From day one, Irene will work with you closely to design a truly memorable and customized ceremony. She takes time to understand your individual personalities and what you value as a couple—even though we had never met before, it was as though she had known us for years and we were totally comfortable every step of the way. Religious or not, Irene could speak to everyone in the audience and connect them with our story. And all the while, she was patient and understanding as we navigated covid challenges and made last minute adjustments. We are so grateful for her and can’t wait to meet again for our vow renewals!

an our wedding ceremony exactly how we wanted. Our guests are still raving about how unique, personalized, and special our ceremony was, which was exactly what we wanted! Laura made the planning easy and truly helped us create a magical day!

eremony! Multiple guests commented on how heartfelt the ceremony was. Irene was responsive if we had any questions along the way. We honestly couldn't recommend her more! She made our wedding extremely special.

years. I wanted our guests to feel the same way. When I reached out to Donna at Lehigh Valley Celebrants, I was elated to hear that Irene was available for our wedding date! From our first interaction, I knew our fully personalized ceremony was going to be dream come true! Irene has the sweetest personality - you can tell she just loves love, and she truly invests herself in her couples. She immersed herself in our passions, laughter, upbringing, and captured all of that for our loved ones. When she shared our story with our family and friends, they couldn't believe how well it described our relationship and everything that made us who we are today. The ceremony was jovial, genuine, and romantic. My husband and I are thrilled with our experience with Irene, and not only did we have the most incredible day thanks to her, we feel like we met a lifelong friend! Heartfelt is an understatement - Irene is a remarkable gem.

ful every step of the way. She wrote us a ceremony script that felt so unique and personal to us, and helped us incorporate special moments into the ceremony - she guided us through writing our own vows, and inspired us to incorporate a Celtic handfasting ceremony that turned out to be really special. We received so many compliments from our guests about the ceremony. I told Irene I wanted people to be laughing and crying, and the mission was accomplished! It ended up being one of our most favorite parts of the day. Irene was always such a nice, calm presence even as I stressed about last-minute details - she always made us feel like we were in good hands! Can't recommend enough.

was more than we could’ve dreamed and so personalized to us and our family. We had a microwedding and were able to include everyone in the ceremony and it was just the most special day. I absolutely highly recommend!

and focused on our overall vision for our wedding. We weren't totally sure about how to proceed (did we want personalized vows, quotes, etc.) Kiera sent us pages and pages of different options to choose from. She also included tips for writing our own vows. To help Kiera grasp our story we filled out a few different surveys about our likes, interests, etc. She was interested in learning about us individually and as a pair so that she could best tell our story. Our time together (either in person or via phone) was never rushed and she was always available to discuss any changes or updates throughout the planning process to our vows. Reading over the written ceremony for the first time was such a treasured experience for my husband and I. Kiera captured our story beautifully with sweet childhood memories, funny moments, and wishes for the future. On the day of the event, Kiera arrived early to meet with us and our wedding party to do a run through of the ceremony. We made a few last minute changes and Kiera was very confident and handled the changes, making us feel at ease. The ceremony itself went so smoothly. All of the guests loved Kiera and commented that she told our story perfectly. Even our bridal party said that she mentioned key points from their own toasts! The whole experience was better than we could have imagined and turned out beautifully. I would absolutely recommend Kiera as your wedding celebrant.