Justice of the Peace Michael Backer

the whole process feel very special and unique to us. During the rehearsal, he was incredibly prepared and organized. On the wedding day, he brought the perfect balance of humor and heartfelt personal touches to our ceremony. It felt genuine, meaningful, and truly reflected us as a couple. We received so many compliments from our guests afterwards about how nice our ceremony was. We highly recommend Michael Backer to any couple looking for an officiant who is professional, thoughtful, and able to create a ceremony that feels completely your own.

he suggested!

replies. There was never a doubt in my mind that we would have Mike do our wedding. I've been to several others that he officiated and I loved his sense of humor, playfulness, and also his ability to get deep into the emotional side of the day. Our ceremony was the most special part of our entire summer, and probably of our lives together as a couple. Thank you, Uncle Mike, for your deep care for your work. It was evident on our wedding day. Love, Aaron and Katrina.

ies they have ever attended. His level of organization and professionalism was outstanding. We would highly recommend him.

ny, and charismatic he was. Highly highly recommend!

ess from planning to the day of our wedding. We had been worried about what we would do for our vows. We felt that the standard vows would be too generic and not feel like "us" and on the other hand we were too stressed with everything else happening to be able to write our own self-made vows. With Mike, we were able to able to make our own vows from a set of templates which let us make our wedding, ours, without having to write our own vows from scratch. On top of that, he was flexible and managed our rowdy bridal party at the rehearsal quite well and we were incredibly happy with how he ran the ceremony. He also took the time and care to get to know us ahead of time. We really appreciated this, as he was able to add unique to us details in our ceremony to the point where after the wedding, we had both friends and family come to us shocked to find out that Mike was not a close friend of ours. We absolutely recommend Michael Backer for your wedding! Thank you Mike for making our day everything we could have imagined, and more!

eremony. So many of our guests pulled me aside to tell me how much they enjoyed the officiant and I could not agree more. Cannot recommend him enough!

the ceremony and we still re-watch the video ceremony every year.

great ideas to help us make it unique and truly our own. The ceremony was beautiful and so many people thought he was actually one of our uncles because of how personalized our ceremony was and how friendly he is. He truly was amazing to work with and I would recommend hiring him to anyone!

cial day very memorable. I would highly recommend his service!

d he had lots of personal touches that made it really special - we would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a Justice of the Peace for their big day!

it couldn't have been more perfect, he clued in to our personalities very fast. Thanks, Michael!

to make sure that he was the right fit for what we were looking for. He gave us a huge binder of options for the ceremony, which made it so easy to choose how we wanted it to go! On the day of, he made our ceremony incredibly personal and added so many nice touches and funny stories. He had everyone laughing, which is exactly the vibe we were going for. Mike was great every step of the way, and I highly recommend him!

ker. My husband and I wanted to find someone that would work with us on creating an individualized ceremony. We wanted a ceremony that would capture who we are as individuals and a couple and would truly reflect our relationship. Mike made crafting our ceremony a breeze. After meeting with us and having us fill out questionnaires, he was able to create a ceremony that spoke to who we are as a couple. Family and friends commented after the ceremony how much they liked the ceremony and how they felt it captured us. I am pleased we went with Mike as our officiant. We would recommend him to any couple looking for a Justice of the Peace for their upcoming nuptials.

his good humour! Mike provided us with a huge binder full of many options to suit all needs based upon your ceremony type, religious beliefs or any other possibilities you may have. Due to being located in the UK, we didn’t get to meet Mike until after our decision was made to have him as our officiant however there was constant contact and Mike never left us guessing if we had questions as his email contact was great and he always gave quick responses. Quite late on, we realised we were able to have a rehearsal at our venue the day before the wedding and Mike made sure he was available and was there to give us a full run down on what to do and what to expect. This was great as it’s a nerve-wracking enough day as it is so with a rehearsal down and the finer details explained, it made the day itself more enjoyable. Guests had nothing but good things to say about Mike and he truly did make the ceremony memorable. -Lauren & Bill

our ceremony while adding in a ton of personal touches. Mike was easy going and added a touch of humor. The ceremony was great and our friends and family enjoyed Mike as well!

tiful ceremony and I HIGHLY recommend Mike!

s of putting together our ceremony and was so accommodating with all of our requests. Plus, he's hilarious (if you want him to be)! We wanted some humor in our ceremony and Mike definitely delivered. I also loved his process of sending a questionnaire to each partner separately and then incorporating the responses into the ceremony. This made it so personal and it was really touching to hear each others candid responses during the ceremony. 11/10 would recommend!

the perfect balance of serious and funny during our ceremony! Kept our guests engaged!

pectations! Our wedding date changed 3 times due to COVID and Michael pivoted with us even with a change of venue and went above and beyond. His planning guides are so helpful and he made thoughtful suggestions that resulted in such a meaningful ceremony that we’ll remember forever. During the rehearsal the morning of the wedding, Michael put our minds at ease and walked through every step of the ceremony and gave great direction. Michael spoke clearly and has a great sense of humor and even got my dog, the ring bearer, involved which could have been tricky but worked out perfectly! Our friends and family were very complimentary of how he conducted the ceremony. Thank you for being such an important part of our wedding day – we’re so grateful!

ing. And add in trying to select an officiant during a pandemic and well, we just felt lost. And then we found Michael. He had amazing ratings and we had to wonder, "is he real?" I can assure you he IS real and he was a joy to work with. Michael's experience as a justice of the peace was invaluable and reassuring. He allowed us to plan our ceremony with as much or as little help as we wanted. He had such amazing resources and suggestions. He was incredibly helpful in all regards, and this includes being hands-on right before our ceremony. Our wedding day was warm and windy and we had a wedding trellis that was a bit less than stable. Mere minutes before the music began, a gust of wind blew the trellis over, damaging it. Michael was right there to help keep everyone calm and figure out a quick solution. I helped a little too. Wedding day disaster averted. And then, once the ceremony began, it was exactly what we wanted. He added his own personal touches and made my wife and I, and our guests, feel relaxed. His sense of humor and support were invaluable. His professionalism unmatched. We thank him for helping make our wedding the success that it was.

e special things for our friends.

ng the ceremony he was funny, calmed my nerves, and personalized the ceremony. I could not recommend him enough!!

et with him to discuss our needs and expectations for our ceremony and from the beginning he made us feel comfortable and had a great sense of humor. We decided to move forward and have us officiate our ceremony. He provided us with a binder to use as a tool to help choose vows and everything you could possibly need to help him create a ceremony special to us. He also provided us with a questionnaire which was used in the vows to make it even more unique to us. The day of the rehearsal Michael helped our coordinator and provided us with tips and recommendations for photos. The day of the wedding was excellent he was very professional and made us feel relaxed. Following the wedding he provided us with a folder containing our vows as a keepsake. I would definitely recommend Michael Backer to anyone looking for a justice of the peace.

l service for my wife and I that everyone at the wedding loved. Michael was incredibly organized throughout the entire process and made sure the ceremony was something we didn't have to worry about. He was also incredibly helpful during the rehearsal practice and day of the wedding. I cannot recommend working with him enough.

I couldn't have asked for a more special day :) Thank you for being a part of it Mike!

im to anyone.

uch appreciated. He's a great and personable guy. If you're looking for a JP to add love, warmth and humor to your wedding then I would strongly suggest booking Mike.

ts of choices for each part of the ceremony, and all you have to do is pick what you want - this makes it so you know what's coming, but you can choose the parts that resonate the most with you. He also sends you a questionnaire about your spouse so that your ceremony is even more personalized. He was in touch by email to check on the final touches, too. Our wedding day, although capped at 15 people including Mike and our photographer, was awesome--a lot of that was due to Mike's professionalism and ability to project his voice so that our Zoom attendees could hear, too :) We would definitely recommend him!!!

l & then a phone call. We did not get a chance to meet in person prior to the wedding, but the day of the service he arrived before the ceremony, explained everything in detail to Darryll and was lighthearted and fun during our ceremony! Our guests were very pleased & entertained by his presentation of the ceremony and we highly recommend his services! Thank you Michael for adding our special day on such short notice to your calendar of events :)

ely helpful and we're happy to recommend him highly!

mmediately and we made plans to meet him in person. He was personable and kind and put us both at ease. I appreciated his thoroughness at explaining and offering any options we had in mind for our ceremony. And he made sure to send us the draft with any changes requested quickly. On our wedding day, he kept the mood light and respectful and put everyone at ease! Highly recommend him!!

with us at his home office. We can’t stress enough how well Michael dealt with the ever-shifting plans we had due to the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions being enacted; as we postponed our large ceremony a year, our “minimony” consisted of different readers, a different audience, and a different location, all of which he handled superbly. In terms of personalization, Michael does an excellent job of getting to know the couple. We initially discussed what the feeling of the wedding was going to be; he captured our “traditional, but not stuffy” request perfectly. Michael also had us each fill out a two-page questionnaire to answer. He was able to pull bits from the responses, and sprinkle them in to create a level of personalization in the ceremony that felt like he was a longtime friend who was presiding over the ceremony.  In terms of customization, Michael offers an unbelievable amount of choice. His approach is to offer a plethora of options for each part of the ceremony, all contained in a binder to be pieced together to form the ceremony. The selections in the binder span a huge range of traditions (Celtic, Norse, Native American) and religions and he was happy to incorporate readings that we found online and small changes to wording throughout the ceremony. He was very open to cracking an inside joke at the beginning of our ceremony and was mindful of all the wording we requested (we did not want any references to the bride being given away, etc.). We submitted an outline and Michael promptly sent back a complete draft ceremony for review. At our wedding, he brought us a commemorative copy of the ceremony, had printouts for each reader, and took care of mailing in our license very quickly. Overall, we would not hesitate to recommend Michael as an officiant and we look forward to working with him again next year for our vow renewal!

on, MA and booked Mike as our officiant based off the recommendation from our coordinator at Cyprian Keyes as well as all of the recommendations online. My husband and I live in Virginia and Mike was able to skype with us, mail us his binder (more on this magical book later!), and work with us to meet in person once before the rehearsal when we visited Massachusetts. Mike is personable, professional, and made us both feel at ease when thinking about our ceremony. We knew that we wanted an outdoor ceremony by a justice of the peace (we’re from two separate religions and this was a good way to compromise on our families’ traditions), but still wanted the ceremony to be special, last at least twenty minutes, and be personal to us as a couple. Mike sent us a magical binder that is literally the best thing in the world – seriously you can spend two weeks googling ideas for your wedding ceremony and get stressed out or you can use Mike’s binder and be actually happy. We took our binder with us to dinner one night and read through it, circling everything we liked over chips and guacamole. We sat down again with it a week or so later and narrowed down to the sections that spoke to us the most and sent the choices to Mike. He made some suggestions to add a few more things and re-order a few things to make sure it was the length we had in mind and flowed well. We loved the rose ceremony he recommended and decided to write our own second reading with Mike’s encouragement that this was our wedding and should be exactly what we wanted. We wrote our own vows and had two readings done by our sisters – Mike printed out what we each were going to say in big font and had it laminated so we didn’t have to worry about having notecards or anything and our sisters didn’t have to worry about carrying anything except their flowers. Mike was in charge for our rehearsal the evening before the wedding and walked us and our wedding party through what was going to happen. We were ready and excited, and just when it couldn’t have been more perfect, it was – Mike had had us both fill out questionnaires about ourselves and our relationship (separately) and send them to him. He took our words and our stories and put them in our ceremony. I had so many family come up to me after the ceremony and tell me that it was so beautiful, and they felt like they actually knew my husband and I better after listening to our ceremony. Mike gave us a take-home keepsake of our ceremony as well, which is beautiful and something we will be able to take out and read on our anniversary. I cannot recommend Mike enough and so thankful that he was a part of our wedding day.

wouldn't know that from the personal and engaging ceremony he performed. Michael takes the time to sit down and get to know you before committing to anything. His ceremony options are extensive and we felt like our ceremony was truly unique to us as a couple. I really appreciated the efficient and involved dress rehearsal; we felt prepared and excited for the big day. After the ceremony we had guests tell us we had one of the best ceremonies they had ever seen. True to mine and my husband's personalities, Michael kept our ceremony light with jokes and laughter and he kept it moving along. Michael was also very quick and responsive with our email communication, I never had to chase him down. I would go back to Michael in a heartbeat (though hopefully I won't have to!).

ely amazing and everyone raved about his ceremony. We would recommend him without a DOUBT to couples, especially people who want to custom but don't know where to start! He provides a HUGE binder of all types of ceremonies and works with you to create the perfect ceremony for your special day!

well-organized binder that allows couples to customize a ceremony out of a selection of various passages and templates. For the rehearsal, Mike was flexible and helpful in ensuring everyone knew where they should be and what they should be doing. During the actual ceremony, Mike had just the right blend of sincerity, humor, and thoughtfulness that made our wedding unforgettable. When the maid of honor fainted during our first kiss, Mike handled the situation gracefully and I'm very glad he was our JP during what could have been an awkward situation. I highly recommend that you consider Mike for your wedding!

de it feel more personal. At the rehearsal he was calm and made us feel at ease. Our ceremony was perfect with just the right amount of humor. Several guests commented on what a great job he did. We highly recommend Mike!

t and smart. He is a very down to earth guy and adds the perfect amount of humor. He can do all sorts of different ceremonies as well. We had compliments from the guests about him. I can definitely recommend Michael to anyone thinking about hiring him. Awesome all around!!

the binder he provides for you) Many of our guests asked us if we knew Mike personally because he added such a personal touch to our ceremony. Mike also added a bit of humor, which eased our nerves! I would highly recommend Mike to anyone!

first minute. Not only is he funny, but he also takes great pride in making sure that you have the ceremony that best fits you. He is thoughtful about each choice and suggestion that you make whether religious or not.

r it was our very first meeting together or our rehearsal the night before the wedding. We had no idea where to start when doing a ceremony, but thankfully Mike gave us a binder full of information and ideas and let us create something that was special and unique to us. Mike was always there whenever we had questions and he made sure we knew exactly what was going on and how things worked. My husband and I both felt extremely comfortable talking to Mike and expressing what we would like and Mike made sure things were done exactly how we wanted them and made sure everything flowed smoothly. Mike was wonderful and professional to work with and made the whole experience relaxing and fun! After the ceremony at our wedding, we had so many guests come up and tell us how much they loved our Justice of the Peace and how that was the best ceremony they ever sat through! We are so thankful we found Mike and can't express how much all of his hard-work means to us! Thank you for making our big day even better, you were the absolute best!!