About this vendor
Graceful Ceremonies is a wedding officiant service based in Santa Rosa, CA, and owned by warm and friendly celebrant Taffy Dugan. With over 10 years of experience performing diverse public ceremonies and rituals, she's able to create the distinctive wedding of your dreams. She especially loves to weave cultures, traditions, and values into beautifully crafted ceremonies that will showcase your gorgeous story.
Taffy's skill at listening and years of experience have enabled her to gain a deep understanding of what you want for your special day. Her gracefully crafted ceremonies are sure to inspire and create lasting memories with your friends and family.
Graceful Ceremonies offers a variety of unity rituals, specializing in handfasting. Handfasting is an ancient Norse and Celtic marriage custom involving ribbons or braided strings being wrapped around the couple's clasped hands as a symbol of their unity. Whichever type of ceremony you choose, Taffy will ensure it perfectly reflects your unique love and unending bond.
Details
Business Attributes
- LGBTQ+-owned Business
- Woman-owned Business
Ceremony Types
- Civil Union
- Commitment Ceremony
- Elopement
- Interfaith Ceremony
- Non-Religious Ceremony
- Religious Ceremony
Religious Affiliations
- Christian
- Interfaith
- Pagan
- Secular
- Spiritual
- Unitarian
Wedding Activities
- Wedding
- Ceremony
Reviews
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help
you make those big decisions with ease.
5
out of 5.07 reviews
Taffy was fantastic! She gave us a packet of pre-made ceremony options so we could pick and choose the parts we wanted (we didn't want to make our own from scratch). Anytime I reac...
hed out to Taffy, she responded quickly and we set up Zoom calls as needed.
Taffy introduced us to the idea of handfasting and we loved it; our guests loved it too! I would highly recommend Taffy to everyone!!!
Ours was a queer wedding on a wild north coast beach with an
intergenerational, interfaith group of guests. We needed someone who could understand our
story and hold space with gra...
ce and power, and she did all these things and more. She
provided creative suggestions and thoughtful questions during the planning process; drove a
long way to be on site on time in our wilderness setting; and officiated expertly. All of our
guests felt included and moved and we ourselves felt fully recognized and reflected. We are
eternally grateful
Taffy exceeded all expectations, and we are so grateful to her for performing Our Handfasting Ceremony.
We Are Starting Our 2023 Year Off Right! :D
From the first moment we met fo...
r our coffee/consultation, she listened closely to the story of our 15 Year Relationship, and talked about ways she could include Our Love Story to help personalize Our Ceremony.
And then we just kept talking! She is very easy to talk to and just makes the whole process a comfortable one.
From how and when we met in 2008 to getting Engaged while performing "If I Were A Carpenter" by Johnny Cash & June Carter Song for a Lip Sync Battle at his Company Holiday Party in 2016.
And then onto the October 2017 Fires that caused us to postpone Our Original Wedding Plans; to my Father in Law and our Best Friend/Officiant both passing away unexpectedly the year prior and everything in-between.
Taffy was kind & patient and she brought several creative ideas, and adepth of knowledge to the whole ceremony that we wouldn't have had otherwise.
My now Husband 🥰 is a Rustic/Non-Religious Man and I am Witchy/Spiritualistic Woman and our guests ranged in varying degrees of Faith. Taffy took all our ideas and needs and created a Ceremony that moved everyone regardless of their Faith with its emotion. All our friends & family loved her.
My Husband & I cannot recommend Taffy's services enough. She is a beautiful Spirit and a Wonderful Person.
We Will Remember This Day Always.
Thank You & Blessed Be;
From Mr & Mrs. Melton.
Taffy exceeded all our expectations, and we are so grateful to her for facilitating our handfasting ceremony. What a gem! Right from the first moment on the consultation call, she ...
listened closely to the story of our relationship, taking thoughtful notes so she could personalize the ceremony. While we invited Taffy to officiate a ceremony of our own design, she also stepped in (respectfully and with our invitation) as a collaborator in the overall event. Taffy came ripe with creative ideas, a depth of knowledge, and a facility with holding ritual space. On the day of the ceremony, she showed up with professionalism and warmth. The circle she cast was strong, creating an arresting presence and space for the Divine to enter the space to be with us and our guests. Initially, our choice to invite a Pagan Priestess felt precarious, since our guests were a mixed crowd: we wanted the ceremony to be inclusive of all guests but without compromising the sphere of sanctity. She pulled it off beautifully, and even -- we later learned -- left all our guests swooning (even the secular ones)!
We cannot recommend Taffy's services highly enough. Besides being a beautiful presence and a lovely person, she is an incredible officiant. We will remember that day for a lifetime. Thank you, Taffy!
Taffy was seriously the BEST part of our wedding, aside from my beautiful bride of course. She came highly recommended from a Facebook group, and I absolutely understand why. She w...
as thorough, communicative, and very involved leading up to the ceremony. She wrote a beautiful ceremony for us and checked in throughout the process to make sure we were happy and gave us the opportunity to add or remove anything as we wanted. The ceremony itself was magical, and I get teary eyed just thinking about it. She stood in the pouring rain and didn’t rush through anything, and instead embraced the blessing and didn’t miss a beat. She is LGBTQ+ friendly, affordable, handled all the paperwork, was happy to travel, and even checked in with us the following day to see how we were doing. If you are looking for the most sincere, thoughtful and downright amazing officiant, Taffy is your person!
My fiance and I knew that we did not want a religious officiant, but someone unique who would understand us and help us come up with the perfect wedding ceremony. Taffy definitely ...
fit this bill! We met her through a friend and made an appointment to sit down and talk. We talked about how we met, our favorite things about each other, and other tidbits of info. She came up with the perfect ceremony and on the day of the wedding, everything went so perfectly. She is so sweet and kind and really made the day amazing for us. We didn't have to worry about how it would go, honestly, because we had so much confidence in her. I highly recommend Taffy!
We really didn’t know what we wanted for a ceremony beyond wanting to be married. My family is very Catholic while his is Mormon and neither of us practices the faith we were raise...
d in. We wanted a ceremony that fit our more Nature-based spirituality without offending either side. Taffy worked with us to build a unique, customized ceremony that was perfect. I can’t imagine doing it without her help. When the day arrived, she was so professional but still very warm and approachable. Her confidence helped everyone involved feel more at ease about the ceremony. She wore a beautiful robe that looked perfect in the photos. She spoke so eloquently making the words we so carefully crafted come alive. Both families were so impressed. Our friends were impressed. Most importantly we felt that the ceremony spoke to us and fit us. What a beautiful way to start our lives together. – Madeleine B
Contact
Sonoma, Napa, Northern California
Graceful Ceremonies's photos