Chicago Officiants + Premarital Counseling

First Step Ministries - Pastor Brandyn Simmons

Chicago city and suburbs

About this vendor

I want to give you a memorable, compliment-filled, and stress-free wedding. I want you to be able to relax and enjoy your ceremony! I am a seminary-educated church-ordained pastor who has had the honor of officiating at over 2000 weddings in the Chicagoland area. This does not mean that you need to have a religious wedding, but rather gives you peace of mind that you are getting experience as well as that when I sign your marriage license, it will be legally binding. We can host your wedding at our church if needed at Christ Church of Chicago in Rogers Park. As reputation is everything, I am honored to have received Minister of the Year awards from 2010-2015. You can also get an idea of my presence/speaking style here on YouTube: https://youtu.be/RSlk4ETYNxs. Pastor Brandyn

Details

Ceremony Types

Civil Union
Vow Renewal Ceremony

Religious Affiliations

Buddhist
Christian
Catholic
Interfaith
Jewish

Wedding Activities

Wedding
Ceremony

4.5

out of 5.0

12 reviews

Search reviews

8/03/2017 • Alexandrea C

We loved working with Pastor Brandyn! He did an amazing job during our ceremony. He took time to meet with us before and answered all questions we had. He was great at getting ba...

ck to us quickly whenever we called, texted, or emailed him. He was such a nice and caring pastor! We are so thankful to have him officiate our special day!

6/03/2016 • Kristy M

We could not be happier with how Pastor B officiated our wedding! If you want professional and eloquent, this is your man. He met with us several months before the wedding to go ov...

er how things would proceed on the big day and ensured us that it would be classy, short, and sweet. He absolutely delivered on that promise. The ceremony was just beautiful. We received many comments during the reception about how wonderfully he officiated and how perfectly he encapsulated us as a couple, having only met with us once before. I would recommend him for any wedding. Thank you Pastor B!!!

6/15/2015 • Katy H

Pastor Brandyn was wonderful enough to officiate our wedding, however, it was only 10 minutes before our wedding that he informed us that he would not be staying for the reception....

As many of you know, by that point you have already paid for a meal for the officiant and have already planned on them giving a blessing. Despite paying Pastor Brandyn for his services, we were also out a meal. Still had a good ceremony though.

1/03/2015 • Anonymous

Pastor B was incredible and did a perfect job for us. He's funny, caring and intelligent and settled our nerves before the wedding. He is affordable and gets the job done with pro...

fessionalism and heart. Thanks Pastor B we appreciated your service. ' Be sure to at least give him a call.

6/11/2014 • Jennifer

I cannot recommend Pastor Brandyn enough. We just had him officiate our ceremony this weekend and he was fabulous. I was a little nervous because we only met with him once prior ...

to our wedding and it was a good 4-6 months before the wedding. From that meeting, he developed a rough outline of how our ceremony would go and we waited until pretty close before the actual day to plan the details. The wedding went without a hitch and everyone commented about how great Pastor B was. He was well spoken, had a great ceremony planned and we couldn't have asked for anything better. He is inexpensive, effective at what he does and you don't have to worry about how your ceremony will go. I will be sure to recommend him to anyone getting married.

12/09/2012 • Kim H

We booked with Pastor B online and after a few phone conversations. We were married in October 2012 and Pastor B did a great ceremony for us. We had a very simple ceremony and he...

provided us with the perfect fit. Everyone commented on how nice the ceremony was.

10/18/2012 • Erin W

I felt very good when we first booked with Pastor B, and when we sat down to discuss our ceremony he was very receptive and very nice. It was very important to me that I felt comfo...

rtable with the person who was marrying me. I set up another meeting with him about a month prior to my wedding to go over final details, and he arrived about 15 minutes late. Nevertheless we went through the ceremony, and he continued to assure me that it would go very smoothly, even though I was a nervous wreck. I had requested that he come to the rehearsal to help us run through everything just to calm my nerves a little, he claimed it was unecessary, but he agreed to come. About 2 weeks before my wedding I got a short little email from him claiming he has to leave the country and he wouldn't be officiating my ceremony, but he passed along my phone number to this other man. Trying not to panic as I am a week out from getting married I scrambled to set up a meeting with this new Pastor who lived over an hour away. My wedding turned out okay with my substitute officiant, but I was very disappointed in how unreliable Pastor B turned out to be.

9/10/2012 • Melissa C

Pastor Brandyn was wonderful! He was so helpful with planning our ceremony and made everything so much easier. I was a pretty disorganized bride and he never complained once. He he...

lped remind me of important topics for our ceremony and was very early for our ceremony and helped make sure everyone was where they needed to be and felt comfortable. He respected our wishes for a short ceremony and still made it so personable. Our guests loved him!!! Very affordable and flexible too!! Thank you Pastor Brandyn!!!!

10/10/2011 • Michelle P

Pastor B was so great to work with. The minute my husband and I met him for the first time we knew that he would be the perfect person to officiate our wedding. He was nice, perso...

nable, funny and easy to talk too. I loved the fact that he was so easy to get a hold of when I had questions and would respond so quickly. All of our guests thought that he did such a good job with the wedding ceremony. It was quick, ran smoothly but defnitly covered all bases. He even recomended doing a wine capsule ceremony during our wedding ceremony and that was so neat. I had never seen anyone do anything like that so it was really cool to do something so unique and different at our wedding. Pastor B is a great choice for a wedding officiant!

7/06/2011 • Amy C

What a great guy to do our ceremony. He was charming, funny, and did just what we asked. Thanks so much for being part of our day.

11/10/2010 • Anonymous

Pastor B was so much fun! He got us right from the getgo and was with us every step of the way. He knew exactly was to say and was completely on his A game throughout our experie...

nce with him. I HIGHLY recommend him.

9/27/2010 • Katie B

Pastor B did a great job! We couldn't have been more pleased with him. He followed our wishes for our Baptist/Lutheran ceremony vows. He has a good personality with a sense of humo...

r. I would definitely recommend him!

Contact

6047 N Rockwell St, Chicago, IL | Chicago city and suburbs