5 out of 5 stars and 108 reviews
5
(108)San Luis Obispo & Santa Barbara counties
About this vendor
The Central Coast's Premier Officiant, Paul draws from nearly 1,000 weddings and conversations with marrying couples as well as decades of study and insight into relational dynamics.
In crafting these wedding ceremonies, Paul has developed a profound skill to uncover the core of your love, what unites you and forms your bond. He listens closely to how you describe each other and your relationship and he seamlessly integrates the foundation of your love into your wedding ceremony.
For your best guest experience, Paul is a seasoned Master of Ceremonies and Public Speaker, skillfully including every critical detail of a wedding ceremony, especially the important parts that are missed by those less experienced.
And with inspiration from a rich history of past weddings he's conducted, Paul offers you a wealth of unique options and fresh spins on any wedding tradition.
The Focus is you and your love:
Paul creates your entire ceremony in the context of your relationship, love and what's behind your marriage.
Vows:
Paul arranges a variety of personalized choices and versions of how you can say "I do" to one another.
Love Letters:
If you are considering writing your own vows (Love Letters), Paul will provide you with detailed guidance to help you best express your deepest sentiments.
Special Ceremonies and Traditions:
Paul can incorporate or reframe traditions so that they are even more meaningful to you or present new ideas you've never seen before.
Readings:
Paul can provide you with a unique selection of marriage and love related readings and will suggest creative ways to blend them into your ceremony.
The Marriage License
Paul will give you precise, easy instructions on how to obtain your license anywhere in California. He carefully supervises the witness requirements and process your license with the appropriate County Clerk/Recorder office.
Rehearsal coordination
If you need a rehearsal, Paul is very skilled at organizing and directing everyone so that your ceremony unfolds smoothly and I work with all planners.
Vendor partners
Paul has worked with countless other wedding services professionals and is happy to give you any referrals.
Contact Paul right now, as his calendar books up early!
Details
Business Attributes
- Veteran-owned Business
Ceremony Types
- Civil Union
- Commitment Ceremony
- Elopement
- Non-Religious Ceremony
- Second Wedding
- Vow Renewal Ceremony
Religious Affiliations
- Buddhist
Wedding Activities
- Premarital Counseling
- Wedding
- Ceremony
Awards and Affiliations
8-Time 'Best of Weddings'
2025.2024.2023.+5 more.
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.
Hall of Fame
Earned by winning 'Best of Weddings' four or more times.
Reviews
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help
you make those big decisions with ease.
5
out of 5.0108 reviews
Review photos
Showing slide number 1 out of 9
Paul is an incredible officiant! If you are looking for someone who will create a ceremony based on you and your partner, this is the person you want.
We had a call with him a few ...
months before the wedding to get to know each other. He asked us very specific questions about our families and ourselves, like what we admired in each other and what we learned about relationships from our parents. He was easy to talk to (coming from a socially awkward person, this was a big deal!). He listened to our wants and helped us to tailor our ceremony to what fit our personalities. We wanted to do traditional vows, but throw in a few personalized vows. He sent us examples to help us figure out what we wanted to say. He also sent us different styles of traditional vows and readings, so we could pick out the format we liked best.
At our rehearsal everyone had compliments for him. He made everyone feel at ease. During the ceremony itself, he was great. He made us and the crowd laugh. I never felt nervous, thanks to his easy going and friendly demeanor. He threw in phrases directly related to the things we had said in our call, about our feelings for each other and about our families.
We cannot say enough wonderful things about Paul. From our first Zoom consultation, Paul made us feel completely at ease. He genuinely took the time to get to know us, our relation...
ship, and our love story, and it truly showed in every part of our ceremony.
Paul crafted the most beautiful, personal vows. Our ceremony felt deeply authentic and intimate, so many of our guests commented on how touching and unique it was.
If you’re looking for an officiant who is thoughtful, professional, and truly invested in making your ceremony special, Paul is absolutely the one.
We planned our wedding fairly last minute, and Paul was not only very reassuring , but also very patient and thorough with our various requests, and did an amazing job officiating ...
for us. We received multiple compliments from our guests for our ceremony, including comments like, great choice on the officiant.
Paul was an amazing officiant! He took the time to get to know us and made our ceremony feel incredibly personal and special. His speech was so heartfelt and memorable, and he help...
ed us craft vows that truly reflected our relationship. We’re so thankful for his care, guidance, and professionalism! I would recommend him over and over again.
My husband and I loved working with Paul for our ceremony and private vows. We were working with him remotely from New York before our CA wedding and he was always responsive and e...
asy to connect with. We had several conversations ahead of the day to get to know him and help him create a meaningful and personal ceremony. He also had great guidance for us on our vows. The ceremony was beautiful and our guests loved how personal and touching it was. He got our license processed quickly and made sure everything was done by the book. We couldn't be happier with his services.
We are so thankful we had Paul as our officiant! He took the time to get to know both my husband and I. Our ceremony felt personal, genuine, and sweet, thanks to Paul leading us an...
d allowing us to customize it! Paul was always quick to respond to questions and provided guidance throughout the months leading up to our wedding. Thank you Paul!
Paul was the perfect officiant for our wedding and put together a ceremony that felt so right and encompassed who we are as a couple. I highly recommend his services!
Paul Howell did a great job officiating our wedding. He was very responsive and took the time to get to know us and our story, which made our ceremony feel personal and meaningful....
He also gave us helpful suggestions for making our vows special. Despite the venue being a little tricky to find, Paul arrived on time, and everything went smoothly. We appreciated his professionalism and warmth. We would definitely recommend him to others.
Paul was incredible to work with! He really took the time to get to know us as a couple and made our ceremony so personal and meaningful. We could not reccomend Paul more, he is no...
t only a professional but an extremely kind gentleman!
Paul was the best officiant for our wedding! We loved how passionate he was with weddings and the first thing we noted was that he was a reader and a writer like we were! Paul was ...
very thorough in our conversations and asked very intentional questions and it was clear that he was listening and taking great notes on us. And whenever we’d talk, he would remember the little details we talked about even though we know he’s working with so many other couples!
What we liked best about Paul was that he wanted to meet us in person before the wedding for an interview that would help him create the perfect ceremony for us. This gave us the chance to get to know him very well and for him to see us physically and emotionally connected to each other as we talked about our love for each other. He made observations about us that we weren’t aware of and was able to create such a beautiful ceremony from that amazing interview. And he is so systematic, where before we met, he provided homework - reflection time in which he wanted us to go back in time in our relationship and really uncover what we loved and were thankful for. It also helped us with our vows and love letters to each other that made everyone cry during the ceremony.
He even suggested and sent readings over that he felt spoke to our relationship and we found that so thoughtful! Not to mention he really knew his stuff when he walked us through the marriage license process which was a lot more confusing than we anticipated!
Paul was also just so helpful during the entire process and was completely dedicated to making changes and helping us have the best ceremony of our lives. We can’t thank him enough. If Paul is available for your wedding date - BOOK HIM! You will not regret it! I don’t think any other officiant is able to pull off even half the magic that he did!
We would highly recommend Paul Howell for your wedding. He was very responsive to emails and when we met him over zoom he was friendly and so welcoming which is what we wanted for ...
our wedding.
Day of the wedding Paul's calming presence and experience with weddings really shone. Any hiccups before or during the ceremony didn't concern him at all as he's seen it all, which brought a very calming presence to us and our guests. His ceremony was fantastic and his reading of the Elements of Love was very thoughtful and suited us well from his recommendation.
I would highly recommend Paul Howell as your officiant he will make sure to make your day feel as special as it deserves to be!
We are forever grateful that Paul agreed to take our wedding on last-minute! With just a few week's notice, he was able to put together a beautiful ceremony. We do not recommend pu...
tting your officiant search off until the last minute, but if you must, Paul is your guy!
We could not have asked for a better experience working with Paul Howell as our Officiant/Reverend. Paul is first friendly, kind and thoughtful. He took the time to get to know u...
s better and put together a wedding ceremony that was perfect in every way. From our love letters to each other, our vows and his experience in getting to know us.
Our guests couldn't stop talking about what a wonderful ceremony it was. So grateful for Mr. Howell, it truly was our marriage with meaning!
Paul is amazing he really took the time to get to know us and created beautiful custom vows for our elopement that we will treasure forever. Could not recommend him more!
Paul is AMAZING! The amount of compliments we got on our ceremony from our guest is unreal. So many people thought we had known Paul for years based off the way he was able to tel...
l our love story and talk about my husband and I. Highly highly highly recommend you use Paul as your officiant.
We had originally hoped to have a friend or family officiate our wedding but could not settle on who would be the right fit so we started looking for an officiant online. After rea...
ding Paul's reviews we reached out and he arranged a time for us to chat via video. He was so easy to talk to and seemed truly invested in learning about our love story. Once he was hired it was easy to communicate and Paul provided several options for our vows which he was open to collaborating with us on to fit our needs. The day of the ceremony Paul was so gracious and came to check in with both of us before the ceremony started. He did such a great job bringing our story to life and there was no shortage of tears and smiles. Many of our guests thought that Paul was somehow related to one of us and were surprised to find out we had only met him once via our video call! We will cherish your special words at our special day forever. Thank you, Paul!
Paul was an absolute pleasure to work with. From our first phone conversation, he immediately made us feel comfortable and at ease. He was responsive and gave us great tips/made th...
e process simple. On our wedding day, his energy was so kind, genuine, and warm. The ceremony he put together was everything we could have hoped for. It was truly touching and beautiful. Both of our families loved him and the ceremony. It was so special. Highly recommend!
Paul basically saved our wedding on very short notice. Our original officiant got injured last minute so we had to pivot and Paul was very accommodating and was able to construct a...
script off of one meeting. After that he continued to help us and make sure we were good for that day. For anyone looking around I would confidently recommend Paul!
It was a true joy working with Paul for our wedding. It took us a while to find an officiant, but the moment we had our first phone call with Paul, we knew we had found the perfect...
person. He was very easy to talk to and was also able to grasp and understand our relationship and our story. This was all proven in his ceremony speech. It was both professional yet heartfelt and truly captured who we really are as a couple. It was so well done. We could not have been happier to have hired him for our wedding.
Paul was so great to work with! From the moment we contacted him, he put us at ease and took the time to genuinely get to know us. He was professional and always there throughout...
the wedding planning process. And he made our wedding ceremony so special and memorable.
Paul is hands down an amazing officiant. He really took the time to make our ceremony personal and very touching. He was super professional and made sure we had everything we neede...
d to have a stress-free day! I would 100% recommend Paul to officiate!
Paul was a pleasure to work with and immediately made us feel comfortable and at ease. We found Paul online as we were planning our Paso Robles wedding from NYC, and he was extreme...
ly accommodating, took the time to get to know us over zoom, and helped guide us through the process so we knew what to expect at every stage of the process. On the big day Paul was warm, professional, and kind, and did a great job officiating our ceremony. He fit in seamlessly to the setting and the event and really contributed to making us feel great on our special day.
Paul spent time to get to know us as a couple and made our ceremony unique. He was a pleasure to work with.
My husband and I had nothing but a positive experience working with Paul. From the beginning, he was always willing to make time for us to answer any questions we had and even cond...
ucted a formal interview with us over the phone in order to craft vows that were unique to us. He presented us with multiple options for vows, and even let us combine types of vows to suit our needs. Everything sounded great and I had little need to modify anything in the vows; he was very flexible however and was willing to make any edits we desired. We originally wanted to do a rehearsal the day before the wedding which we scheduled with Paul. We later determined that our ceremony would be very simple and this was not necessary- Paul was fine with this and did not try to charge us for canceling the rehearsal. On our wedding day, Paul arrived well in advance of the ceremony in case we needed anything and officiated for us very skillfully. He also filed our marriage license for us afterwards in the county we reside in. We highly recommend Paul for any couple's wedding ceremony.
Paul is nothing short of amazing. He is kind and genuine. We found Paul on The Knot and Wedding Wire and he was highly recommended by our wedding planner Jade Preciado.
We had tw...
o phone consultations with him prior to our wedding ceremony. During the first one we got to talk about his service and his process and decide if we were a good fit. During the second call my fiancé and I both spoke with him. We shared our love story and some things that make us unique as a couple.
Just by using these two short interactions, Paul, created the perfect wedding ceremony. It was personalized for us and I got to pick from about three different sets of vows. He took all our requests into consideration and he was easy to work with.
It was a match made in heaven when we found Paul to officiate our wedding! When my husband and i first met paul, he was so interested in hearing our story and assured us that he wo...
uld do everything to make sure that our day would be fine and it truly was. Paul has an easy going personality and easy to talk to. Even In our first meeting he asked questions that you wouldn't even think of and I got so choked up because everything he was was saying was so real of how I felt for my husband. So when it came time for the big day, he gave us the most beautiful and personable ceremony to our story. So thank you Paul and I would 100% recommend Paul to officiate your wedding!
Paul went above and beyond to make our intimate wedding ceremony personable. All of my conversations with Paul have been professional. He was very understanding of our hectic work ...
schedule and was super easy to communicate with. Our ceremony was perfect, I couldn't have chosen a better officiant.
Paul was the officiant for our wedding in Paso Robles and was absolutely wonderful to work with throughout the planning process and on the day of. His role in our ceremony ensured ...
that it both went smoothly and was a memorable moment for everyone in attendance. He was able to meet with us beforehand to discuss the logistics for the day and to get a sense of our personalities and life together in addition to giving us lots of options and examples to help personalize the ceremony to our preferences. Overall, our ceremony was flawless, and Paul is a kind, heartfelt, and personable officiant who largely contributed to making our wedding day unforgettable and one of the happiest of our lives. We highly recommend him!
Paul was recommended to us by our wedding coordinator. He was very professional and communicative throughout the process and felt that he captured our relationship well in our cere...
mony. Highly recommend!
We can’t say enough great things about our experience with Paul. Countless hours of searching for what we hoped would be the right officiant for our wedding day, and omg we were no...
t disappointed. Paul went above and beyond our expectations. He interviewed us months prior to our ceremony to create a custom wedding script and experience that I have to admit, we both cried while describing our relationship and love to Paul. Everything was perfect and this site doesn’t allow for enough words to describe our gratitude to Paul and the perfect experience he provided for our wedding day 08/27/2022.
Paul was an excellent officiant, he was attentive to our needs as a couple, paid great attention to detail and officiated our ceremony with such care and warmth. We are were very l...
ucky and grateful to have Paul be our officiant.
It’s not the easiest the find the officiant that suits you but my now husband and I are so grateful that we found Paul! We are now married (thank you Paul!) and are so grateful for...
the beautiful ceremony Paul did for us. From the get go he was so easy to talk to, communicated well , flexible (huge help during such a crazy time) and very kind. He listened so well to our wants and made our ceremony everything and more that we wanted to be! He even hung in there and sweated it out with his in his nice suit and we got married on a … pretty hot day. We thank you Paul for everything you have done for us and for marrying us!! - Liz and Bill
Paul took the time to get to know my wife and I, and it showed at our wedding. Many guests assumed he was someone we had known for years, when in reality we had only spoken to him ...
a handful of times. He asks all the right questions, and was super helpful in guiding us as we wrote our vows. I would absolutely recommend him to anyone!
Paul was an amazing officiant at our wedding. He really took time to listen to our story and weaves everything into a beautiful message during the ceremony. Several family members ...
mentioned how much they loved how the ceremony was performed. We highly recommend Paul to any couples who are looking for something truly special!
Paul was very sweet and helpful! He gave us vow options to select from and printed out our vows for each other. He took care of mailing our marriage certificate and was one less th...
ing to worry about. He even moved to the left when it came down to our first kiss so our photographer could capture the moment without him in the picture. It’s all about the small details! Also he doesn’t speak Spanish but he sure the heck tried to for us and it was very sweet of him to do! If he’s available don’t hesitate to hire him!
Marcus and I decided to renew our vows in front of all of our family and friends for our 1 year wedding anniversary. Paul created such a memorable, personal ceremony that celebrate...
d our love and marriage. Throughout the process, he included us in his writing process to ensure that we have a ceremony that we'd truly cherish. It was also so important to us to include Filipino traditions during the ceremony and Paul was so willing to make sure he highlighted that with the utmost care. We highly recommend Paul as an officiant!
My now-husband and I wrestled with who to choose as our officiant, because we wanted someone who could really create a special ceremony and we thought that only a family member or ...
close friend could do this for us. We were wrong! We found Paul through our photographer's recommendation, and we are so happy we did. From speaking with Paul over the phone after contacting him the first time, we knew that we were in good hands. He is extremely personable, warm, and kind, and it shows in everything he does. Paul took the time to get to know us over a casual coffee, during which we got to tell our story, share our love, and answer some more specific questions. From this, he gave us examples of "I Dos" and helped us craft our own personal vows. We also wrote our own personal expressions, which Paul printed on nice paper and had prepared for us at the ceremony. Beyond that, Paul took what he learned about us and brought it together for the most beautiful ceremony. We had no idea what he would say (beyond the vows and personal expressions), which made it even more special. We listened to his speaking and we just felt so seen. Paul captured our love so perfectly. In addition, he is eloquent, confident, calm, and professional. He set the mood perfectly and made it all very special. In addition to the beautiful ceremony, he also took the lead on our rehearsal so it was all very easy. If you need an officiant, look no further! I would highly recommend Paul for any couple getting married. Thank you for everything, Paul!
Paul was the best officiant we could have had. He was extremely thorough, communicative, and cordial. Paul has such an easygoing personality that we felt comfortable throughout eve...
ry step of the process and the day of. He took the time to assess what we were looking for, the kind of relationship we have, and sent over vow samples and readings to help further personalize our ceremony. On the day of, our ceremony was absolutely perfect and effortless since Paul is a true professional in his craft. We cannot recommend him enough! Thank you for marrying us!
Hiring Paul as our officiant was one of the best decisions we made for our wedding. He has surely listened to every variation of a couple's story in this profession, but he treats ...
every couple just as important as the last. Paul communicated with us every step of the way via email (we lived 3-4 hours away) and was just as attentive when we met in person. In the end, he crafted a beautiful ceremony for us and we are ever grateful for the memory.
Paul created a magical wedding ceremony for us. He was professional, creative and flexible. We highly recommend him.
Working with Paul was a breeze! He was understanding of our date change due to the pandemic and stayed in touch during our 12+ month wait. He wrote all of our vows and the reading ...
was beautiful! We really appreciated his kind demeanor. Thank you again for being part of our special day!
We discovered Paul after seeing what an amazing job he did officiating at a friend's wedding. Our plan had been to have him do the same for us in Marin County, but when both our o...
riginal plans for August 2020 and even our contingency for 2021 had to be scrapped due to pandemic restrictions, Paul was extremely understanding and flexible.
We ended up getting married in rural Minnesota instead of California, but because we were bummed about not having Paul as our officiant, we had the idea to have him prepare a ceremony to be read for us by someone local. Although this was certainly an unusual request (and a first for Paul), he was helpful and professional at every step of the way, sending us suggested readings and working with us to help combine our diverse traditions into a seamless ritual.
He completed the written ceremony with plenty of time to spare, so that we could coordinate everything out of state. Hearing it for the first time at our wedding was blissful; we had a very naturally flowing ceremony that was as fun for our local officiant to perform as it was for us to take part in it. The only way this could have gone any better is if Paul were there to do it in person.
We would 110% recommend Paul to anyone looking to have a unique, beautiful ceremony. He was an absolute joy to work with.
Warm and wonderful experience!
Paul was so kind, friendly, professional and prompt with everything he did. We immediately knew we found the right person to marry us with the first ...
correspondence! He was thoughtful and caring with the questions he asked us to prepare our ceremony, and we couldn’t be happier with how it went!
Paul made sure our ceremony was the most special, meaningful, happy moment of not only our wedding day, but our lives. He took the time to get to know us & learn who we are as a co...
uple. He also reminded us of our love story & what brought us together as a couple. Paul is very creative, he does a custom ceremony and vows which are very unique and special. He is the best & he made us very happy. He made us feel the love & reminded us of the special memories that we shared together. Paul is very attentive & he does everything with meaning from the heart. His ceremony was in perfect detail, he captured everything. Paul is a kind & genuine person. We believe he is the best officiant ever & we are proud that he lead our wedding ceremony! We will never forget our special day & how special he made us feel. Thank you so much for being apart of our day Paul! :)
Richard & Jasmine
Paul did a wonderful job of officiating our wedding! He made it feel really personalized and kept it to the shorter time frame that we wanted.
Paul was perfect. He was available on short notice, professional, thoughtful, and considerate. His preparation was great, and he made our special moment very special.
Paul was the perfect person to choose to officiate our wedding. This was our second marriage, it was a micro wedding and we wanted something traditional as well as unique.
Paul re...
ally took the time to hear our love story and he worked in all our important aspects into his lovely ceremony.
We could not have asked for a better person. Thank you so much Paul. You are the best!
Teri and Ralph
Paul was very helpful from the beginning. My wife and I wanted someone who could help us make the ceremony into what she had imagined. She wanted to add some religious quotes and p...
aul was great at helping to merge those into the ceremony. He gave me tips when writing my vows and made the whole experience very easy. We had a call with him in the beginning where he wanted to know our history and backstory, with that information he was able to weave our story into the ceremony and make it very personal. Paul was a great choice for our wedding and we are happy that we found him.
Paul was an absolute pleasure to work with as our officiant. He took the time to get to know us on a personal level before the ceremony. He provided us with many options and great ...
ideas to customize our ceremony, write our personal expressions, and create vows that felt true to our relationship. Paul officiated our ceremony in an eloquent and comfortable way, bringing a special feeling to the ceremony. He made our wedding day so memorable, our families and guests loved him, and we could not imagine our special day without him! Paul is your guy! Thank you Paul!!
Paul was absolutely amazing officiant for our ceremony! It all started from when I sent him an email at 8 in the morning and by 9 we had a chatted on the phone! I was incredibly gr...
ateful for his responsiveness. His flexibility for our ceremony was also exceptional! But really the best part was the absolutely meaningful message Paul created for my husband and I. Due to COVID-19 we ultimately decided to have a ceremony with just the three of us. Paul still took the time to write such a meaningful message that we cant wait to replay for years to come! What makes Paul special is that he takes the time to learn about your love and what you seek in your union. His message is hand written and custom based on my husband's and my background. When he spoke it felt like we had known him for years! I would highly recommend Paul as an officiant to friends and our dearest family members because I know how special of an experience he creates.
Contact
San Luis Obispo & Santa Barbara counties
- Wedding Vendors/
- Officiants + Premarital Counseling/
- California Officiants + Premarital Counseling/
- Paso Robles Officiants + Premarital Counseling/