5 out of 5 stars and 41 reviews
5
(41)Santa Cruz, CA, Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur , Yosemite
About this vendor
Your ceremony should be as amazing as the love that the two of you share. I offer ceremonies that are performed with warmth, a sprinkling of humor, and honey in the heart that naturally flows with your love. She believes that when the two of you cross the threshold into a deeper commitment through marriage, you're bringing more love into the world. It's an honor to be a part of helping you do this!
Since 2010 - Donna has performed over 400+ wedding ceremonies. Her genius is creating a unique and personal ceremonies that reflects the one-of-a-kind love that you share. Her deepest desire is to offer incredible experiences to as many couples as possible while keeping their love and commitment as the cornerstone in the ceremony. She has trained and coached a team of officiants who perform ceremonies that she writes with the same heart felt passion that she does.
Services Offered: Donna can be of service to help with Elopements, Intimate Ceremonies and Weddings with Large Gatherings. You have a choice of wedding ceremonies that range from civil union, interfaith, non-religious, to modern spirituality. Couples from all beliefs, cultural/ethnic backgrounds, and LGBTQIA+ are embraced.
Here's a description:
Keep it Simple Please - You want an easy, simple and sweet ceremony. We talk about your beliefs, and I perform a beautifully crafted pre-written ceremony that comes from my heart! You can bring your own vows to read to each other or choose from samples that I provide.
Sweet and Easy - Your desire is to have a ceremony that’s filled with an honest simplicity that allows you to be fully present in the moment. You can choose from a variety of pre-written ceremonies that give you the perfect words that convey your love. I have several ideas for additional components that you can add such as hand-fasting, using an Oathing Stone for your vows, and a Wine Ceremony. Samples are also provided for your vows, or you can write your own and I’ll make keepsake vow booklets for you to read from.
Bespoke - Your unique love story will be woven into your ceremony to make it even more personal. The offerings in the Sweet and Easy Ceremony are included. I’m open to including additional elements, that you’d like to include or having edits that you may want to make.
We Want the Whole Package – Perfect for an Elopement with 20 or fewer in Attendance
This package includes the Keep It Simple Please Ceremony, plus a professional photographer. You can upgrade to the Sweet and Easy ceremony.The photographer is there for one hour starting with your ceremony and staying afterwards to capture more beautiful memories. You receive the photos in a downloadable format - you own them!
There are many romantic spots that I know of in the Redwood Forest, or you can say, “I do's” while overlooking the beach at sunset. I also offer an exclusive elopement package in collaboration with Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton at their beautiful private setting in the Big Trees Grove.
Details
Business Attributes
- Woman-owned Business
Ceremony Types
- Civil Union
- Commitment Ceremony
- Elopement
- Interfaith Ceremony
- Non-Religious Ceremony
- Religious Ceremony
Planning
- Se Habla Español
Religious Affiliations
- Interfaith
- Pagan
- Spiritual
Wedding Activities
- Wedding
- Ceremony
Awards and Affiliations
3-Time 'Best of Weddings'
2023.2022.2021.
Best of Weddings
The Knot independently assesses vendors for this award—it’s never self-reported. We base it on firsthand experiences from real couples and guests, and they must have a 4.5-star average across 7+ reviews in the qualifying year.
Reviews
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5
out of 5.041 reviews
We hired Honey In The Heart team for our private elopement/wedding. Donna Rose Gardner was our officiant, and Rebecca Stark was our photographer. Donna was amazing and took care of...
all the arrangements with Rebecca, so we didn't have to worry about coordinating, it was all handled for us. She checked out various sites until she found the perfect one that was exactly what we had wanted. She made sure we knew the process of getting a license ahead of time, organized the timing of arrival, ceremony, etc. She even dealt with rescheduling us twice due to rain, always with a smile and reassurance for us. Donna also provided many pre-written ceremonies and vows for us to choose from and let us modify them to make them our own. She even made gorgeous little vow booklets with our vows, for us to keep as mementos. Rebecca took stunning photographs, before, during, and after the ceremony. She made sure to get many different poses, candid and staged, and included the ocean view and cliffs that we had requested. We ended up with around 150 high quality photos, and she provided them in a gallery we could share with people, and also downloadable in hi-res for printing and sharing online. Donna and Rebecca helped us achieve exactly the wedding we had hoped for, and left us with keepsakes and photos to look back on forever; I highly recommend them!
Donna was lovely to work with! She legally married us on 10/19/24 and performed our ceremony on 11/02/24. Our legal marriage was so casual and intimate at her dining room table and...
really took some of the edge off. The ceremony was so beautiful and really set the scene in the redwoods. She allowed space for humor, laughter, and lots of love. Donna knows how to set the tone of the kind of wedding you a lot and gave us PLENTY of options to puzzle together our perfect ceremony. We highly recommend using Donna.
My partner and I were faced with an urgent problem when our original officiant had to cancel last minute. Donna was our saving grace! She took the time to get to know us and was ex...
tremely thorough with making sure our ceremony was exactly how we wanted it. She made our ceremony bespoke to us and even incorporated out-of-the-ordinary additions at the last minute that we wanted to include. Thanks to Donna she made sure our day was special and one to remember. We would highly recommend Donna!
We called Donna about one month before our wedding. Yep if you guessed it by now, we’re not good planners! We had previously spoken to other officiant’s, and or blown away by their...
prices. Donna is is professional got back to us on the same day and overall just a kind hearted person. Her pricing is reasonable. Our actual officiant was Dayna who is truly an amazing person to work with, she really went above and beyond for our special day. Thank you to the both of you. I highly recommend this vendor.
We had the privilege of having Donna Rose Gardner as the officiant at our outdoor wedding which took place in the serenely beautiful backdrop of the Redwoods at the Waterfall Lodge...
this past October. She spent a good amount of time getting to know us, which was beautifully reflected in the words she chose for our ceremony. On the day of the wedding, Donna spoke with an elegance and clarity that resonated with our hearts, and the personal anecdotes she included made the ceremony feel incredibly intimate and special.
We couldn’t have asked for a better person to officiate our marriage, Donna made sure our love story was told in a manner as beautiful and unique as the setting we were in. We highly recommend Donna for anyone looking to have a heartfelt and personalized wedding ceremony.
Donna is an amazing officiant. To start, she is the most kind-hearted and genuine lady that seems to truly love being in the presence of real love. We liked her so much that we had...
her marry us twice; once for the paperwork and again recently for our big ceremony and reception (9 months later).
She does an amazing job with incorporating a love story and any traditions you may have into the ceremony. We chose an Oathing Stone to be added (along with our personalized love story) and Donna’s delivery and conduction was flawless.
Not only is she very comfortable with her work and speaking in front of crowds, but she also came to assist/direct us at the rehearsal the day before. We had no idea how things traditionally go, but Donna did a great job with mapping it out for us.
Months leading up to the event, Donna takes the time to ask the questions (to both bride and groom) to personalize the ceremony. She has a questionnaire for each person, so that she can see each point of view. Donna also has about SIX different ceremony options (if you don’t have verbiage of your own to use). She will also provide different ideas for the traditions (mixing of sands, oathing stone, prayer stones incorporating guests, etc). For our first ceremony, we opted to use some of her suggested vows that she had pre-prepared; however, for our bigger ceremony, we wrote our own vows.
Overall, Donna made it so easy. Whether you are more religious, spiritual, cultural, or none of the above, Donna can fit and perform your ideal wedding ceremony. She is super easy to work with, VERY responsive (quick too), and willing to assist any where she can. We highly recommend her for your special day, or days in our case!
Donna is amazing! She worked with us so well and helped us put together a wonderful, meaningful, loving ceremony. I cannot thank her enough for all the help and work she did for us...
. She helped make our day so special. Highly recommended!
I don’t think anyone better could have officiated our ceremony, Donna made it better than we could have ever imagined. From the first meeting to the big day, she put so much though...
t and care into our ceremony that made it truly special. I loved how many options she gave us for our ceremony, we loved choosing the various parts (like the opening words and ring exchange) and we went with a Celtic handfasting ceremony since it felt like the perfect thing for myself and my husband to seal our vows.
We also really enjoyed the love story questionnaire that Donna had us both complete. Even though we didn’t show them to each other until after the wedding, it was fun to do and talk about and brought us closer together in the months leading up to the wedding.
Donna also made us little vow booklets that I will cherish forever. I am so grateful to Donna for making our wedding day something we will remember forever.
Donna was such a pleasure to work with guiding us through the process of creating a ceremony that reflected our love story. She really made our wedding special and unique with her ...
delivery and sense of humor. All of our guests were laughing and crying tears of joy. Also, the book she made for us that has our full wedding ceremony and vows is very special. We highly recommend her and want to express our deepest gratitude to Donna for helping to make our wedding so magical.
We are so very grateful that Donna was available to officiate our small backyard wedding. After describing our "style", she immediately knew what kind of ceremony we were looking f...
or, and everything was PERFECT, from start to finish. Donna communicated very clearly throughout the process. She has a very loving, genuine and kind manner. At the same time, Donna projected her beautiful voice loud enough for our guests to hear without a microphone. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!
Donna provided the framework for our ceremony and personalized it with our preferences and wishes! It was truly our ceremony and full of love! Thank you!
Donna went above and beyond our expectations for our Ceremony. We had a Celtic ceremony. Although she has not performed A Celtic ceremony before, we told her the traditions we wan...
ted included and she put it all together perfectly. We received many compliments from our guests.
Donna was just amazing!! She was so easy to communicate with and understood everything that we needed for the wedding. She is a lovely person and will help you every step of the wa...
y. We had some weather issues on the wedding day and had some last-minute changes to which she was so flexible and made it easy for us. I would recommend her 100%
Donna was such a wonderful addition to our wedding, we couldn’t have hoped for a better officiant. She was very communicative and really was open to any and all suggestions about ...
the ceremony. In our case of our dear friends wrote the ceremony and Donna enacted it marvelously. If you’re looking for an officiant, look no further than Donna. She would be an amazing addition to any wedding ceremony.
If you want a completely personal and meaningful wedding ceremony then you have found the perfect fit with Donna! Donna crafted our ceremony in a way that both told our story while...
keeping it engaging. We heard so many compliments after our ceremony about how great it was, with my grandfather-in-law even saying it was the best ceremony he had ever heard (and he has been to many & does not give compliments just to give compliments)! Donna provided amazing samples and guidance on how a ceremony flows while allowing us to insert details special to our relationship. She provided a questionnaire to get to know our "love story." This not only incorporated "us" so well into the ceremony, but provided a fun pre-wedding activity for us! She recommends you to fill them out individually, so after it was a fun date night to get to read each other's answers over some wine. She made the process easy & enjoyable. She took care of everything with the marriage license after the ceremony-- taking it with her and submitting it so we didn't even need to think about it after. She also gave us a copy of our ceremony in the binder she used with our personalized vow books that she printed and thoughtfully strung together with a ribbon of our wedding color. This is a wedding keepsake that we will treasure forever (& have even decided to read each anniversary). You can NOT go wrong by hiring Donna! Donna-- thank you so very much for making this experience amazing, and our ceremony completely unforgettable. You deserve all the best things.
They were just amazing to work with from the beginning to the end. They made the process so easy and filled with love. Every step was assisted with heartfelt suggestions and helpfu...
l thoughts. Being able to make it as personal as we wanted was the most amazing. Thank you for all the keepsakes and making our day beautiful and unforgettable. Just a God sent you were. Thank you. ♥️
I cannot say enough great things about Donna and her talents!!! Not only is she a wonderful, sweet, kind, caring person, but her way with words is exceptional. We had many wedding ...
guests give high praise and said it was the best ceremony they've ever attended. Her communication was impeccable, and she truly cares about giving you your perfect wedding. We loved how she took the time to get to know us a little beforehand, and was always immediately responsive when we had any questions about the process. She's extremely flexible and gave us so many choices to help curate the ceremony that was perfect for us. We chose to write our own vows, and she typed them up and created beautiful booklets that matched our color scheme and are now special keepsakes. Through her, we were even able to book a great photographer, Mike Danen, who was also wonderful! I will be forever grateful to Donna for giving us a beautiful wedding and memories of the perfect day that we'll cherish forever. I very highly recommend this beautiful person to officiate your wedding! There aren't enough stars for the rating I wish I could give her!
Donna did a fantastic job as our wedding officiant! She provides first class service and communication and enabled us to personalize every aspect of the ceremony. She added her per...
sonal touches which made the ceremony even better. We highly recommend Donna!
Donna Rose Gardner was a pleasure to work with throughout the process of planning our small wedding ceremony on the beach in Pacific Grove, and she performed beautifully at the cer...
emony. We had contacted Donna only a couple of weeks before the ceremony date after our original wedding plans had to be changed, and from our very first phone conversation Donna was helpful, reassuring, and competent in her knowledge of where and how to perform the ceremony that we envisioned. Donna connected us to a talented florist and photographer, and offered a range of options for the blessings, statements, and vows that we could select for our ceremony. When we met with Donna on Zoom before the ceremony, her extensive experience as an officiant and passion for her role were apparent, and her grounded presence put us at ease right away. During our wedding ceremony, Donna’s warm energy and heartfelt presentation offered a moving and memorable experience for everyone who was present. We would highly recommend Donna Rose Gardner as a wedding officiant for all types of wedding ceremonies and we are grateful that Donna was able to officiate at our special day!
She is the best ever , very calm and friendly and professional .
Donna and Dayna were so wonderful to work with! Donna worked with my fiancé and I to write a beautiful ceremony that was unique to the two of us-it even tied into our venue! Dayna ...
performed our ceremony and she did it flawlessly. She was professional and truly cared about us and our vision. I highly recommend Honey in the Heart to write and carry out a perfect ceremony for you and your partner! <3
Donna is an angel. She was so kind, warm, and helpful for months leading up to our wedding. She was consistent and timely in all our correspondence, and generous with her knowledge...
and resources. She wrote a beautiful ceremony for us that we will cherish always. We couldn’t imagine having a more wonderful officiant for our elopement in the forest. We highly recommend Donna, and are ever grateful to have found her.
Donna with honey in the heart was the officiant for our wedding, and I have nothing but amazing words for how she facilitated our ceremony. Everything was absolutely perfect. Her c...
ommunication was spectacular from the beginning to the end. The booklets she provided were absolutely beautiful, and she was prepared with everything. Even down to after the wedding, with her providing us the information on the marriage certificate.
Donna, brandon and I are forever grateful for how amazing you were throughout this entire experience, and we are so happy that we picked you to be our officiant. Thank you!!!
We worked with Donna on our elopement. Before we even finalized the ceremony, she helped us pick our dream wedding spot, tucked away on a local beach. Donna shared multiple, custom...
izable ceremony options, which helped us immensely to pull together our celebration. Donna was such a pleasure to work with and helped make the day feel so special. Thank you Donna!
Donna officiated my husband and my elopement in Mount Madonna and she couldn't have been more perfect. She was kind on the phone and so responsive. She let us customize our ceremon...
y to fit us and made it all feel so important and personal. Her words were so perfect for the occasion. We'd recommend her to anyone, but especially quarantine couples. Even though we weren't able to have our families with us Donna made it feel like we were surrounded by love. Thank you for a perfect ceremony Donna!
Donna was wonderful to work with. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Being one of the couples who had to change their wedding plans due to COVID-19, Donna was unders...
tanding, flexible and open to anything that could make our special day happen. We knew that Donna really cared for us and making our journey into marriage just what we wanted. We highly recommend Donna to help others in this very important step.
Donna is thoughtful and kind from the get go & very professional. She is helpful and responsive and very much a part of the process. She has a wide variety of ceremony choices to ...
choose from & you are free to add or subtract wording to personalize them. She also creates booklets for your vows & leaves you with a lovely folder as a keepsake. A nice touch.
Also, she can create a package with a florist and photographer if you choose, which can really simplify the process. She is also very reasonably priced!!!
It was a lovely ceremony( even in the time of Covid!!) and she lends a very personal touch. I highly recommend her!
Donna officiated our very small ceremony a couple of weeks ago, and the experience was just wonderful. Donna is so sweet, honest, and easy to talk to. You can tell she dearly loves...
her work! As we prepared for the ceremony, she provided us structure along with plenty of options, and gave us the space we needed to figure out our vows, while also always being available when we had questions. On the big day right before festivities began, Donna checked in with both of us separately beforehand - it was great to get a little pep talk amidst all the nerves, and to touch base with her in person after lots of emails, phone and Zoom calls (pandemic times!). The ceremony turned out beautifully thanks to Donna's earnestness and support. Several guests told us afterwards to pass along how much they enjoyed Donna's beautiful, emotional words. As we were able to review the ceremony she'd put together beforehand (minus our vows, which we were keeping secret until the big day), we were able to stay in the moment and really take things in, and we are so happy to be able to have the ceremony binder and vow booklets as keepsakes to remember this day going forward. Thank you so much, Donna! We can hardly express our gratitude for all that you did to make us feel comfortable, supported, and to create such a meaningful experience for both us and our guests!
Donna performed our ceremony it was so beautiful. The ceremony was so heartfelt and wonderful after haveing to re-schedule the date and then re-pick a venue it was nice to have the...
ceremony go so smoothly. I received many compliments on how lovely the ceremony and Donna were. I would definitely recommend Donna to anyone getting married or for a vow renewal.
Donna is simply the best. We are so thankful and grateful to her for her warmth, kindness and loving demeanor. When our wedding was postponed due to COVID she offered us a small el...
opement ceremony in her beautiful home. It was everything and more than we ever could have dreamed of. She truly encompasses everything you could want or need in a wedding officiant. I would get married 100x over just to have her preside over our love. Thank you Donna!
We had to plan our wedding in less than a week and she was not only flexible but understanding of our special situation.
The minute we talked to her on the phone, we knew she had s...
omething special: she was very proffesional, organized and most of all kind.
She was able to create a ceremony with all the spiritual elements that we asked for, and made it memorable.
We're gald we chose her and that she is now part of our story as a married couple.
Silvia & Patrick
I cannot be more glad to have chosen Donna for our special day. Her daughter Christa was our officiant and an absolute godsend and delight. She was so lovely and made our special d...
ay that much more. Thank you times a million for the love, support and communication. Meant the world to me and us. I'd recommend anyone who crosses my path to her.
I highly recommend Donna! She was amazing, calm and accommodating ,
Donna performed my daughter’s wedding ceremony this past summer. She truly takes the time to get to know the couple and tailor the ceremony to them directly. If you are looking for...
a personal touch and a ceremony that reflects you as a couple look no further then Donna.
Donna is a wonderful officiant! From our first phone call with her we knew that she was the one who should marry us. She crafted a beautiful ceremony and told our story perfectly. ...
I would highly recommend using her for your ceremony!
Donna is simply the best! From the moment that we jumped on a call to see if she was a fit we knew it instantly. She has such a great calming energy that really carries throughout ...
the entire ceremony. Being a high anxiety person myself I was at such ease to have this around me. I cannot express how thankful we are that we were connected with her! If you use Donna you will not be disappointed!
I highly recommend Donna as your officiant if you want your wedding to be a special and a perfect one! Donna is very nice, patient, and she speaks very clear English. She asked us ...
questions and was willing to listen to our love story. What surprised us was that she wrote a page of unique story and introduction for me and my wife. I am very appreciated for her effort on our big day!
Donna was wonderful to work with. We reached out to her only a month before our wedding and she was able to get everything done well within our timeline. We received many complimen...
ts from our friends and family about the ceremony. Thank you Donna for taking the time to get to know us and giving us a beautiful, personal ceremony.
From start to finish Donna was amazing! We felt a connection with her the first time we met. She was very intuitive of our needs. She was so kind and helpful throughout the whole p...
rocesses. Communication was easy. Her flexibility allowed us to be creative with our ceremony. It was like she could see what we were envisioning and then ran with it! So many guest told us that our ceremony was the most beautiful they had ever witnessed! Thank you Donna!
Donna was so sweet. We met her in her home and really connected with her. She immediately recognized the uniqueness of our story and retold it beautifully at our ceremony. We wante...
d to bring a religious element to our outdoor wedding, and when we proposed having a Unity Cross, Donna was very enthusiastic. She was willing to incorporate it into our custom ceremony even though she was not yet familiar with what a Unity Cross was. She made our special day even more special with how she spoke so eloquently. We would highly recommend her! P.S. The honey from her hive is amazing!
It was really easy to work with Donna from booking our date with her to having our signed marriage licensed mailed after the ceremony. She walked us through planning our ceremony a...
nd it was a beautiful day that ran smoothly. We appreciate all that Donna did for us on our special day!
Contact
Santa Cruz, CA, Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur , Yosemite
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