4.6 out of 5 stars and 36 reviews
4.6
(36)North, Central , Southern California, Yosemite and Sequoia
About this vendor
From the Heart Ceremonies by Jess is a wedding officiant service based in Ivanhoe, CA. Owner Jessica Gutierrez is an ordained minister and notary public who designs meaningful and memorable ceremonies. Whether you are looking for something short and sweet or personalized and romantic, Jess is happy to be a part of your special day.
Jess earned her ordination from Open Ministries, and she also has certifications from American Marriage Ministries. She has worked with more than 400 couples throughout California as they celebrated their love for one another. She collaborates with each engaged couple to incorporate meaningful details into their ceremony. Her goal is to create a warm and loving experience to engage both the couple and their guests.
From the Heart Ceremonies by Jess can coordinate everything from short elopement ceremonies to longer formal nuptials. Jess is happy to create a streamlined experience if you are simply looking to coordinate the legalities of the marriage. Alternately, you can avail of a full-service ceremony with personalized rituals like unity candles or sand blending. Jess will get to know you to design an experience that highlights who you are as a couple.
And when it comes to performing your ceremony you have 2 friendly and talented women, Jess and Bella, each ready to deliver that special ceremony Jess created with the focus, professionalism, and emotion to leave you and your guests feeling those butterflies in your stomach all over again.
Details
Business Attributes
- Hispanic or Latinx-owned Business
- Woman-owned Business
Ceremony Types
- Civil Union
- Commitment Ceremony
- Elopement
- Interfaith Ceremony
- Non-Religious Ceremony
- Religious Ceremony
Planning
- Se Habla Español
Religious Affiliations
- Christian
- Catholic
- Mormon
- Orthodox
- Protestant
- Quaker
Wedding Activities
- After The Wedding
- Newlywed Life
- Getting Engaged
- Premarital Counseling
- Wedding
- Ceremony
Awards and Affiliations
3-Time 'Best of Weddings'
2022.2021.2020.
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.
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Reviews
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4.6
out of 5.036 reviews
Review photos
Showing slide number 1 out of 4
We had communication issues with Jess from the start. I immediately sent a deposit but yet it took months of constant emailing to actually have the contract sent over. I sent many ...
messages and many were not replied to.
After I signed the contract, it was radio silence again. We had a change in our ceremony location and I contacted her to ask if she was good with that change. No reply to this email. At that point I couldn't rely on her actually showing up, so I cut my losses and booked someone else.
About a week before our ceremony she emails me saying she was ready to go. not one acknowledgement about the previous email. I was floored. at this point it had been something like 6 WEEKS since I sent the venue change email. I told her that her lack of communication was unacceptable and we moved on to someone else, because her behavior here did not let us believe she'd actually show up.
She replied, saying she was out of town getting married herself, and that I should have contacted her some other way when I hadn't heard from her. Yeah no. We hired her and it's the vendor's responsibility to let the client know if they are going to be unable to be contacted. I'm not wasting my time trying to track you down especially if you've already created a history of communication issues to begin with. Every other vendor we had let us know if they were going to be offline.
We didn't even get our deposit back. Terrible.
Jess officiated our elopement in Sequoia recently, and she did such an amazing job that we cannot imagine our special day without her! She was kind and thoughtful, flexible and sup...
portive, arrived on time, and expertly guided us to make sure that our license was filed properly. She was the perfect officiant for us and she made our day even more perfect than we imagined!
We couldn’t have asked for a better officiant than Jessica. From the moment we filled out her relationship questionnaire, we knew we were in good hands. She took the time to truly ...
understand our love story and wove it into the ceremony with such grace and authenticity—it felt deeply personal and meaningful.
Jessica led the entire ceremony with confidence and care, transitioning seamlessly from our vows to the ring exchange and that unforgettable kiss. She was a calming, grounding presence during such an emotional and exciting moment, helping everything flow beautifully. We are beyond grateful for the warmth and professionalism she brought to our special day. Thank you, Jessica!
Jessica did such an amazing job!! Made our special day that much better and highly recommend! Thank you so much!!
I was so nervous on my wedding day, but Jess made it so stress-free I love the way she did my small ceremony. It was perfect. I will recommend her 100% and she did my ceremony in S...
panish and it was great thank you so much again.
She canceled the day of my rehearsal and said she would make it to the wedding but canceled a few hours before. She pretty much ghosted me and was so hard to reach and get a respon...
se from her, but she reluctantly gave me my money back after almost 2 weeks. Caused me so much stress the day of my wedding and after worrying about if i was getting my money back. Be careful who you book!
Zero stars but it wont let me leave a review unless I select at least 1 star. Never heard back from her and never received our money back. We contacted her the day prior rehearsal ...
and no answer. Called and texted, no answer. Don't book with her unless you want to get ghosted the day prior to your big day.
My wife and I recently had a Sequoia National Park elopement wedding with a small group of family members. After reading the reviews, Jess initially seemed like a good fit, but aft...
er our wedding, it was evident she was actually the PERFECT fit! Jess is absolutely incredible. Very professional, personable, communicative, kind, accommodating, and humorous! Our wedding was made so much more special thanks to her. My wife and I are sooooo happy we said 'Yes to Jess!' We highly recommend her for anyone's wedding!
Please hire Jessica for your wedding! You won’t regret it! We hired her as a day of coordinator and as an officiant and she was AMAZING! As an officiant, she made both my now husba...
nd and I feel comfortable. She was able to successfully tell our story even if we didn’t spend a lot of time with her. She was running around making sure everything is perfect and it honestly was! She tweaked things with the decorations that looked so good! She has an eye for this and the words to tell beautiful love stories! My guest loved her, and my husband did too! We definitely are glad we hired her! She did our ceremony in both English and Spanish and provided some alternatives to things we didn’t want to do, like the garter toss. Absolutely loved her! She’s so sweet and definitely knows what she is doing! You won’t regret hiring her!
We had such a great experience with From the Heart Ceremonies! We originally spoke with Jess about my wedding and she did an amazing job not only using the poem I wanted in my wedd...
ing reading but going a step further and saying beautiful words interpreting it that brought tears to my eyes (and I'm sure everyone else's too). We had Bella as our actual officiant and she did a great job projecting (we didn't have a microphone) and had a great cadence that felt warm and happy, not too rushed and not too slow. We actually had multiple people ask us where we found our officiant because she did that great of a job! Great communication throughout the whole process made everything stress free - Highly Highly Highly recommend!!!
Jess did such an amazing job!! We wanted a light hearted but spiritual ceremony and she made it happen! she had everyone laughing and embracing the lord all at once! We had a bili...
ngual ceremony and she seriously went above and beyond what we expected. We will definitely be recommending her to all our friends! Thank you so much Jess!
Our wedding ceremony was absolutely PERFECT because we had Jessica! We loved how she made sure to highlight all of the things that were important to us but also threw in some fun s...
urprises!
It was everything we had hoped it’d be: intimate, centered on God, full of love, laughter, positivity, and catered to the needs of both our families.
Thank you for making our wedding day so special Jessica! It would not have been the same without you!
Lots of love,
Eden and KC Arreguin ❤️💍
Look no further! If you want a one of a kind officiant who is professional, friendly, and does great work. I can’t say enough great things about Jessica. I couldn’t have asked for ...
anything more. I recommend getting her services for the rehearsal as well because she helped guide my wedding party. She made our special day run smoothly.
Jessi was so incredibly professional and made our ceremony exceptionally special. My husband and I were blown away with the way she officiated our ceremony, it was magical.
My husband and I are beyond happy with how our wedding ceremony turned out! Jessica, you were so professional and kind since the beginning. Thank you for being part of my special d...
ay!
Jessica was fantastic! Very professional on time and was able to adjust on the fly due to time restrictions. She also customized our ceremony to our likings. I would definitely rec...
ommend Jessica to others.
Jessica was amazing! I think it’s crazy to think she’s a full time professor and does this as well because she is such a natural and so so good at it. I was really big on finding v...
endors for our wedding that we genuinely got along with because it makes the day smooth and I didn’t want any awkward encounters and I was so blessed to find such awesome vendors which included Jessica. Everyone comments on who my officiant was and where can they contact her because she’s that good! I let Jessica take the reigns on our ceremony because i haven’t been to many weddings so i wasn’t one to make crazy demands and I am so glad I did our ceremony was So perfectly personalized To us and was better then anything i could ever think of writing. She made me tear up with her words and I am so thankful we chose her for our big day!
Let me just start out by saying that everything that could’ve went wrong during my wedding planning process, went wrong... Except for this absolute angel named Jessica! My husband ...
and I were truly blown away by how heartfelt and special she made our ceremony feel. She performed a beautiful bilingual ceremony for us, which our family so appreciated, and it had personal touches from our love story. I couldn’t have dreamed up a more perfect ceremony. I have a few friends that recently got engaged and have recommended to all of them to have Jessica as their officiant! We thank you, Jessica, from the bottom of our hearts for making our big day so special and perfect!
I found Jessica Gutierrez on a website when I decided to get married, and from the very start (not to mention that I wanted the wedding in short order) she was very helpful and ver...
y professional. We agree to meet each other and she was right on time for our meeting at our home, and at the day of the wedding she was also on time and ready to perform the ceremony which happened as scheduled and went without a hitch. It was a pleasure doing business with Jessica.
Couldn't have asked for a better Bilingual Officant! From the sneak peek pictures of the special day she took to the smile on her face while doing the ceremony. She kept me calm th...
rough the ceremony and checked in on me before walking down the aisle. We had some last minute changes and she handled it no problem!
Jessica was amazing. Things always go wrong at weddings and she just rolled right through the punches and adapted to changes flawlessly! She didn’t skip a beat. Even during rehears...
al, she was extremely helpful and organized! I feel like I’ve known her for years not just for hours signing a contract. She so fun but still professional. Highly recommended!
Jessica was extremely helpful not only with providing bilingual ceremony but also working with us in what we needed. She went to Yosemite for us and also us being with our 3 kids a...
nd all the packing we had forgotten our marriage license. she was so nice and met with us after the ceremony to sign it. Thank you so much for everything you did for me and my husband Carlos 🖤
My husband and I loved our ceremony! Jessica added a sweet and personalized touch to our special day. We received many compliments from our guests on the lovely job that she did. S...
he was also easy to communicate with throughout the planning process. Jessica truly is such a sweet person and it shows how much she loves what she does. I definitely recommend!
Jessica is an amazing officiant that goes above and beyond. If you are looking for a flexible, good-humored, and just great officiant, Jessica is your go to person. You will not re...
gret it.
We got married back in April. Our officiant really made sure to listen and make the ceremony what WE wanted it to be. It was very personal and she really got to know enough of us t...
o really be able to tailor everything just right. It was sweet, funny, and quick! Highly highly recommend!!!
Jessica is the best officiant! We were in search of a bilingual officiant for our April 2019 wedding. When we met Jessica we instantly knew that she would be perfect to perform our...
ceremony. At first I was nervous as to how our bilingual ceremony would turn out since my family only speaks Spanish and my husbands family only speaks English, but I had nothing to be worried about because Jessica did an amazing job! She is so nice and down to earth. She is always available to answer any questions day or night. She is truly a professional and is great at what she does. If I could go back and plan my wedding all over again I would still choose Jessica in a heartbeat! Thank you Jessica for making our ceremony extra special!!
Jessica was professional, friendly, amd accommodating. My original officiant has a family emergency and couldn't fulfill his position as an officiant for my wedding and we found Je...
ssica 3 weeks before our wedding. She asked questions and made sure that our wedding ceremony was catered to our special relationship. I appreciate how she asks questions and not only give suggestions but also listens. We started a few minutes late due to photography and videography setup and Jessica communicated with me via phone while we were waiting. Overall, Jessica was amazing, guided us through the wedding rehearsal and made sure everything was right. Definitely reccomend Jessica if you need an officiant! She's sweet, friendly and makes sure that your wedding ceremony is special to your relationship.
WOW! What an amazing experience we had with Jessica. She was very professional, and was there whenever we needed her. We were nervous because we did not know much about the process...
and Jessica handled everything so easily! She much a moment that we will remember for the rest of our lives better than we would have imagined. She really did go that extra step to ensure that this day was a day that we would remember for the rest of our lives. I am so happy we were able to have Jessica a part of our special day. Thank you so much!!!!!!
Jessica was the absolute best officiant!! My husband and I reached out to her and immediately heard back for a meeting. She customized our ceremony exactly how we wanted it and act...
ually helped me husband to surprise me at the rehearsal. Everything flowed so smoothly and the guests at the wedding even said that it was the greatest ceremony they had attended. My wedding ceremony was perfect and we have Jessica to thank for that. ❤️
Having Jessica officiate our wedding was a real blessing! From our first contact to the last, Jessica was friendly, caring, professional, detail oriented, and communicative. She al...
ways made us feel comfortable and made us feel like we were with an officiant who really cared and enjoyed celebrating this occasion with us. When it came to the special day, she was there on time and touched base with us to make sure everything was good. We did our ceremony in both English and Spanish and Jessica made everything run seamlessly and smooth. When when I asked her last minute to remind our guests to blow bubbles when we walk down the aisle, she incorporated into her ending speech with ease. Since the wedding, I’ve had several people ask who she was and they were surprised to know that we hired her because they thought she was our friend from how friendly and comfortable she was with us. We are very grateful to have had Jessica officiate our wedding and can’t recommend her enough! If you’re looking for someone who is reliable, appreciates how special a moment this is, and does an amazing job, book with Jessica! You won’t be disappointed.
My fiancé-then and I planned a to get married in small simple civil ceremony. We contacted Jessica at the last minute about a week and a half before the planned date. And she was ...
quick to respond and explain the process to us. We felt comfortable to go ahead with her as our officiant. Once the day of the wedding came she went above and beyond our expectations. We asked for a ceremony in Spanish and just asked to follow her lead in saying out I-dos. But I was blown away in all the words that flowed from her mouth as I held the hands of my husband and made my commitments to him. I was beyond satisfied with the ceremony. Jessica was profesional, personal, caring and we couldn’t have had a better officiant to guide in this new step.
Ceremony was personalized and wonderful, definitely made the wedding special ! Highly recommend !
Are you looking for THE BEST officiant out there.? Well look no further Jessica is your girl.! She heard mine & my wife’s ideas, seen our vision, brought it to life, and exceeded ...
our expectations.! Everyone still talks about how heartfelt our ceremony was not to mention how much people cried because of how beautifully put it was.! Thank you so much again Jessica.! You will always be the one I recommend when anyone is in need of an officiant🙌🏼
Jessica was amazing starting Day 1 when I inquired information from her. She is very accommodating. Jessica performed our wedding ceremony in Spanish and in English which is someth...
ing you really don't hear of with many other officiants. Overall, I am so glad that I had Jessica as the person who married me and my husband.
I did not think I would find someone who could perform our ceremony in both English and Spanish. She had a great balance of both that made the ceremony flow perfectly and not only...
did Jessica perform flawlessly she was detail oriented and very organized. Thank you for making our ceremony what I envisioned.
Jessica made me wish I could get married again! She wrote a custom script that was so beautiful and brought tears and laughter to everyone. We couldn't have picked a better person ...
to marry us!
Contact
North, Central , Southern California, Yosemite and Sequoia
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