Gwen Downs, Wedding Celebrant

e ceremony ran so smoothly. I highly recommend her for any wedding ceremony, big or small!

ur story” that she wrote, and share more about the early days of our relationship with our guests that might not have known all the details. She was super helpful in providing examples of readings and wedding rituals that resonated with us. She is extremely well organized and efficient and thought of every detail. I highly recommend working with Gwen!

utdoor location for our small ceremony. However, she insisted that she would not perform the ceremony if it rained, stating that she "reads from a binder and the pages would get wet." While we found this to be an unusual reason (especially since other officiants seem to manage just fine with simple accommodations), we tried to work with her and made extensive preparations to account for the weather, including purchasing umbrellas for all guests and renting a canopy per the venue’s suggestion. Despite our efforts to reassure her that everything was covered, she continuously pushed back, sending curt replies like "Ok" and then following up later to say there would still be a problem. This back-and-forth went on for weeks, even though the venue and photographer had no issue with the potential for rain. Her unwillingness to adapt or provide a straightforward solution left us feeling uncertain and stressed in the days leading up to the wedding. The final straw was when she emailed us the day before the wedding, reiterating that she would not show up if it rained. At that point, we realized we could not rely on her, so we canceled and went with another officiant who was far more accommodating and professional. We paid $400 for standard, non-religious vows and a ceremony that would have lasted at maximum, 15 minutes. Though we cancelled on her, we still asked for at least a partial refund given the inconvenience and complete lack of any services rendered, but she never replied. If you're looking for an officiant who is flexible and dependable—especially when it comes to outdoor weddings—I would strongly recommend looking elsewhere.

lovely compliments on her "love story" ceremony, our guests and us really enjoyed how she made it so unique and personal to us. Gwen's role in our big day was everything we wanted and so much more!

could not be more pleased. Highly recommend!

ceremony. She’s the best!

ceremony. We loved the warming of the rings as a part of the ceremony because it engaged our guests in such a meaningful way.

anization of the processional. Would recommend!

usband (feels funny to say that now) and I are still raving over how special she made this moment for us.

ve story and making it into a beautiful ceremony with plenty of smiles and laughs. Thanks to her, I didn't even ugly cry like I expected to, I just smiled and laughed the whole time. I see other reviews talking about her price point and I will absolutely say that she is worth every cent we paid. Gwenn was very responsive and helpful during the planning stages and was very open to our wants for the ceremony. She is very professional and will make your wedding unique, NOT BORING and so memorable. I had so many people compliment our ceremony afterward saying they'd never been to a wedding like that before and they appreciated hearing our love story. I would use Gwenn over and over again if I had the opportunity. Very highly recommended!

inting the love story of the couple. She was super organized and communicated directly with our party members to gather the information she needed to create such a personalized ceremony. I would highly recommend Gwen if you are looking for an officiant.

heard everything we said and made sure our requests were honored. We chose to write our own vows which we provided to her in advance and when one of us had longer vows than the other, she told us (without sharing the specifics) in case we wanted to make any edits which I found incredibly thoughtful and intuitive of her. She asked a lot of questions over the course of the process and our wedding workshop covered things we had not even considered but she is a pro and made sure to point these items out. She was always responsive and communicated all the timelines to us in advance so there was no confusion. One of my favorite details is she steps out of the way after "you may now kiss the bride" (or however you want her to say it, she will accomodate) so she doesn't appear in the first kiss photo which I really found to be incredibly considerate. Overall, we were incredibly satisfied with Gwen and were honored to have her officiate our wedding.

iously. She is also very thorough and insightful. We are so thrilled with the outcome. If you want to have a memorable ceremony, hire Gwen!

great online tool which helps setup for the day. On the day of, everything was on time. Very punctual. We asked our ceremony to be non-religious and she delivered. The words she had for us at the ceremony were just amazing. She made it about our love and togetherness which we really liked. I would recommend her to everyone reading this review.

loved the hand ceremony that she performed. We highly recommend Gwen!

e story until the ceremony which made for the perfect suprise, and she nailed it. Made us laugh and cry. We highly recommend Gwen!

t that's our main regret now, given how much we loved our ceremony. Not only did Gwen create a super special ceremony for us, she was also very professional in every step along the way--meeting us, getting all of the details about how we met, running the rehearsal--everything was just perfect. If you're looking for someone you can trust to give you the ceremony of your dreams, you need to hire Gwen (and a videographer!).

nk you Gwen!!

y, and I would highly recommend it because it makes the ceremony so much more personal to include details that you and close family and friends shared in the big day. We got a lot of compliments! From start to finish Gwen was professional, punctual, and personal and we would highly recommend her for your ceremony.

story perfectly during our ceremony. We HIGHLY recommend Gwen to anyone who is looking for an officiant!!

dance to plan our wedding. Gwen helped us with not only the ceremony but with making sure we had all the correct information for it to be official. The set up process was fun and creative. She was very professional and relaxed during the ceremony and we are very happy with how it turned out.

ery friendly I was very very pleased with her services.

ons and made sure everything was done in a timely manner! Thanks a million!

of the wedding process. She made the ceremony very personal, and helped make the experience something we will remember forever!

of personal that we were looking for. I highly recommend her for your wedding!

n.

r love story based on our questionnaires of each other. She even added in a little zen moment, which we (and our guests) loved. Everyone commented on how lovely the ceremony was. She is quick to respond & easy to communicate with. Thank you Gwen!!

ony.

sm. We chose to work with Gwen and she wrote our ceremony to our style. Her final product synced with our wedding perfectly! Many of our guests commented on what a great job she did. Gwen made us laugh, cry, and feel the love that everyone in the room shared. It was beautiful. I highly recommend Gwen as your wedding officiant.

d found Gwen. Overall (as the 3 stars indicate) she was "pretty good". She was very responsive and communicative. Her questionnaire was perfect for the quick turnaround we needed and we felt we were in good hands! In the end, Gwen provided the service we needed and she was pleasant to work with. Our only criticism would be the price point. We chose Gwen because she had raving reviews and assumed that extra cost would translate to more attentive service. In the end, for the service we received, we felt the price could have been reduced. For other couples, I would suggest checking out her vows in advance. We waited until the week of which didn't give us enough time to make substantial edits. The vows were sweet and simple which is nice but again, I think we were expecting something a little more eloquent due to the higher price point. (our fault for not asking to see them sooner) I would also suggest paying the extra cost to have her go through a little rehearsal with you. Even if it's only you and your family, it's nice to have that figured out in advance. We did our rehearsal without Gwen to save money but when it came to the actual ceremony there were some awkward moments and miscommunication. At one point I reminded my fiancé to remove his mask when I got to the alter but Gwen thought I was talking to her and removed her mask. It didn't bother me or my fiancé but the guests later told us they weren't happy about that. AGAIN, I say our experience with Gwen was "Pretty Good". We definitely could have done more on our part to ensure we got the service we wanted. Even for a small wedding there is a lot to think about and it's easy to overlook things. We put so much effort into decorating, food, etc that we didn't spend enough time with the actual ceremony and vows. Gwen was very helpful in making sure we remembered our license and all of the paperwork we needed so that was very helpful and appreciated.

that you blessed our journey with. Sincerely, RC and TU

, communicative, and amazing from the day before to the day of. I was able to customize the ceremony and approve it the night before as she sent me a document that contained the exact words she’d say during the ceremony. There were so many customizable choices in regards to deciding details of the ceremony and I could not have asked for a better woman to marry us. Gwen, you rock!!!!

ur research and having a meeting with Gwen about a year out, we knew we wanted to work with her. Two months before the wedding, the process began with Gwen via email and eventually meeting with her in person. She went over every possible detail of the ceremony and combined our needs with hers to make an amazing script/ story for us. My husband is not the most comfortable with being the center of attention, and she eased his mind and chose readings for our ceremony that were perfect for both our personalities. She is very easy to communicate with, quick to respond, and helps ease any stress you may have regarding the ceremony. We would definitely get married by Gwen again - perhaps renewal vows :).

s as you wish was perfect. I honestly didn't know where to begin when it came to finding someone so diverse. I've only witnessed weddings with preachers reading from the bible. So when I met Gwen I instantly knew she was "the one" LOL. I love the creation of our story she told our guests to give them an inside perspective on us as a couple, we got plenty of laughs and 'aww's'. It was great having something so catered to us <3 Thanks Gwen!

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dd ceremony requests we had. Gwen was well prepared and the ceremony went off without a hitch. Both of us are so grateful for the care she took when putting the ceremony together and it was exactly what we hoped for and more.

was raving about how fun and unique our ceremony was, and that was all thanks to Gwen. She also makes sure things are in order, so people know what they are doing, where to be and when, and that took so much stress off of us. We are truly thankful we found her, and we HIGHLY recommend her. She's simply the best.

d made sure our kids were mentioned in the vows. When we met her in person, we were very pleased with her friendliness and calm demeanor. She was there to do a job but she made you feel like she was a friend stopping by to be part of your special day. Thank you again Gwen!