5 out of 5 stars and 21 reviews Best of Weddings (1x).
5
(21)58 S. Manheim Blvd., THe Ridge, Apt 44, New Paltz, NY
About this vendor
In the spirit of your tradition or beliefs, Rev. Puja Thomson will help you create a heartfelt ceremony that uniquely reflects your special commitment. Her calming presence and lovely Scottish voice add a special touch.
Details
Business Attributes
- Woman-owned Business
Ceremony Types
- Commitment Ceremony
- Elopement
- Interfaith Ceremony
- Non-Religious Ceremony
- Religious Ceremony
- Second Wedding
Religious Affiliations
- Buddhist
- Christian
- Catholic
- Protestant
- Quaker
- Hindu
Wedding Activities
- Premarital Counseling
- Wedding
- Ceremony
Awards and Affiliations
2013 'Best of Weddings'
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.
Reviews
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5
out of 5.021 reviews
We are so blessed to have found Puja as our wedding officiant! If you are looking for a meaningful ceremony that you, your partner, and guests will remember as a true highlight of...
your wedding day, you will be in good hands with Puja. I always thought of wedding ceremonies as a part of the day that would be difficult to make feel unique and reflective of our relationship. With Puja’s expertise in ceremonies, her spiritual background and wealth of knowledge, and her warm and eloquent nature, we crafted the ceremony of our dreams. Puja provides so many resources and counsel, and encourages both parties to invest time and thought to every piece of the ceremony. She assists with questions, drafts, and reviews your final ceremony so that you feel confident and excited on your wedding day. We received so many compliments that our ceremony was perfect for us from friends and family, and that Puja’s calming presence elevated our day. I highly recommend working with Puja, as the result will be a ceremony you will cherish forever!
Puja came as a recommended officiant by our venue, Red Maple Vineyard. After speaking with her during our first consult we knew we’d found the person we wanted to conduct our cere...
mony. My wife and I are not religious people and quite frankly didn’t know exactly what we were looking for out of our ceremony. Puja asked us very pointed questions and was able to guide us with thought starters and a tremendous wealth of resources from numerous ceremony types for us to pick and choose from. We ended up with a completely customized ceremony that truly meaningful to us and our values. We had SO many of our guest come up to us, unprompted, and say how floored they were with our officiant, how she completely made them forget about everything else and help them be fully present for the ceremony and how poignant her words were and how they resonated wo much with them. We would strongly recommend Puja to anyone looking for an officiant, especially if you’re not quite sure what you want from your ceremony and could use a little guidance.
Puja was amazing and did exactly what we wanted. Very detailed and professional.
I'll start by saying, working with Puja was easy and comfortable, but what made the experience truly fantastic was the outcome. As a not particularly religious couple, at the onset...
of our wedding planning my husband and I did not feel particularly strongly about the ceremony, but Puja's guidance and help in crafting everything from the opening prayer through to the vows, truly made it one of our favorite parts of the entire day. She worked closely with us to make sure the service was representative of us as a couple, and truly spoke to our love and future together. Not to mention, that throughout the reception and in the weeks following, I have had numerous people from friends to family to friends of family, all come up and rave about our ceremony and vows, noting how unique and honest they were. Many have also specifically complimented Puja and the calm steadiness she brought to the service.
Rev. Puja Thomson was our co-officiant at our August wedding at Onteora Mountain House. She came to our rescue after we realized our online-ordained ULC minister would not be viewe...
d as legal on her own. Though she and our officiant did not meet each other prior to the wedding day, they blended perfectly to deliver a beautiful, seamless ceremony. It actually made the ceremony more lively and exciting to have two strong, wonderful women share the ceremony script. We had a Skype meeting with Rev. Puja to get to know each other better. She made helpful suggestions to improve our self-written ceremony script and vows. She is an organized, lovely, spiritual person who has passion for what she does. We would recommend Rev. Puja for any couple seeking an incredible officiant for their wedding.
Puja was the most amazing collector and organizer of all the different aspects of our wedding ceremony. We arrived at our meeting totally clueless and somewhat overwhelmed. She hel...
ped us understand tradition as well as personal choice. She gave us many options to choose from as well as being totally supportive of our ideas. The result was an amazing ceremony that was both official and very personal. I would give more than five stars if I could. Thank you Puja for an amazing event.
It was an absolute pleasure working with Puja, and I would highly recommend her to others. My husband and I were so glad to have her by our side throughout the planning process, at...
our rehearsal dinner, and during the day of our wedding. We were initially drawn to Puja because of her calming and grounding demeanor and her openness to working with us on our interfaith Jewish/Methodist ceremony. Her charming Scottish accent was a plus, as well! At the beginning, we had very general ideas of what we wanted from our ceremony. With Puja's guidance we were able to craft a truly unique and inclusive ceremony that incorporated elements from both of our families and faiths. The end result was a highly personal representation of the two of us as a couple – our values, families, and love for each other. Many of our guests commented on how moved they were by our ceremony, and how very "us" everything was. I really can't think of a higher compliment than that, and we have Puja to thank for helping us to achieve it!
Puja was absolutely amazing! The only thing we wish we had that we didn't get was more time with her! Everything went so fast, but we knew what an amazing person we had beside us! ...
We strongly recommend her. She really takes the time to listen to what is important to you and helps guide your ceremony to be meaningful for a lifetime. Her spirit is bright and beautiful. You will not regret hiring her!
Working with Puja was a complete pleasure. She was very attentive to our desires and vision, and also extremely knowledgeable about how a ceremony can work. She had a wealth of exa...
mples of parts of the ceremony and entire ceremonies for us to look through. We were able to craft a perfect ceremony for us. Her presence was very warm and comfortable. I would absolutely recommend her to any other couples ready to make this commitment.
We found Puja through our venue, the Highlands Country Club, where she married us this past April. We first met with her a few months before the wedding and loved her instantly. Sh...
e has a very kind and calming presence and we felt very comfortable with her. We wanted a non-religious but spiritual ceremony and Puja walked us through a number of sample ceremonies and traditions we could incorporate into ours. The end result was very special and we were so happy to have Puja there to take us through the entire process. Thank you Puja!
Puja was recommended to us by our photographer, Maggie Heinzel-Neel. We had an excellent experience in crafting our ceremony with her. We wanted a completely secular wedding cerem...
ony, which was more challenging than we originally expected. Starting from a blank slate is hard! Puja shared loads of examples of different ceremonies - some were more spiritual, some were very romantic, some were a little whimsical. And there were also tons of examples from Celtic, Native American, Indian and Jewish traditions. From all this information we were able to craft a ceremony that reflected the shared beliefs we have about marriage but also told the story of how our long friendship turned into a love story. Many of our guests commented on how beautiful and unique our ceremony was and a few said they got a little choked up - even some of the guys!
One of the main reasons we chose to work with Puja was that she made it clear from the beginning that she would act as a guide in putting the ceremony together, but the heavy lifting would be up to us. We took that as an opportunity to really reflect on not only our decision to get married, but what we expected our marriage to be. It also made us both very thoughtful about what we wanted to say to each other about how we felt and the promises that we wanted to make to each other. Puja was a tremendous help and made suggestions about tightening up certain areas of the ceremony or switching things around so they made more sense or weren’t repetitive. The overall language and feel was left in our hands and gave us honest and direct feedback about how it all sounded. We happily recommend Puja as an officiant! Whether you want a secular, spiritual or even non-denominational religious wedding ceremony, she is a perfect guide through the process and an excellent resource in supplying materials to help you craft a ceremony that will be just right for you.
Josh & Kathleen Gladstone - Married 10.12.14 in New City, NY
Puja Thomson preformed our ceremony At Stonehedge she helped us put it all together to make it our own.We received many complements on how beautiful it was and so emotional.
Puja was beyond accommodating and personal. It felt like we'd known her for years and were extremely happy to have her as part of our ceremony. Puja helped us tailor the ceremony...
perfectly to our tastes. We really couldn't have been happier. Thank you, Puja!
Puja was patient, caring, and full of resources to help us put together a ceremony customized to our beliefs and values. She had sample ceremonies from all religious and spiritual ...
beliefs, and made sure our ceremony had all the key elements for a meaningful and engaging delivery. On the day of our wedding, she was a warm presence and a perfect officiant. We couldn't have asked for anything more.
"We loved our wedding! I could not have asked for anything more. Puja has a very calming energy and a wonderful spirit. It was a delight to work with her on our vows and our ceremo...
ny before the wedding. She included my stepdaughter in just the right way. Puja had a wonderful presence at the ceremony. It turned out exactly how I had imagined it.
Puja married us at The Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, New York in November of 2008. Our ceremony was breathtaking and magical . . . words cannot say enough about Puja's positive e...
nergy, focus, love, and professionalism. She was a pleasure to work with (in preparation for our ceremony). She was thorough and thoughtful when editing the content of our ceremony. She exuded warmth and love during both the planning process and the ceremony itself. Our friends and family still say it was one of the most amazing ceremonies and weddings they have ever been to.
We were overjoyed with Puja's guidance and support throughout the wedding planning process. We immediately felt at ease with Puja as we sat down for a cup of tea at our first meet...
ing. Puja asked us thoughtful questions to get to know us and to begin to put together a ceremony that reflected what we truly value in our relationship. An on-going dialogue with Puja, in the form of emails and one more meeting, helped us to not only revise and focus our ceremony, but also helped us to clarify the meaning of our marriage. On the day of the wedding, Puja was a calm and centering presence before and during the ceremony. The day of our wedding was unforgettable.
Puja made our wedding so special. It was great to work with her to create an amazing, meaningful ceremony. Many of our guests made a point of telling us how much they liked Puja an...
d the ceremony as a whole. We will always be able to re-read our ceremony to remember how special it was. We couldn’t have imagined a better way to start off our lives together. Words cannot express how grateful we are to Puja and how lucky we feel to have had her our officient.
There are no words of appreciation that would suffice to express the way we feel about Puja's officiating at our wedding ceremony...! The blessing of her presence was enough, but t...
o add her patience, intimate work with us, and dedication to detail made this wedding so special for us, and to those who attended. We are so grateful, from the bottom of our hearts.
Puja was wonderful to work with. She engaged us in the process from start to finish. With her caring and calm presence and support, she guided us through the writing of our vows. ...
Every moment was meaningful and truly reflected us as a couple. Puja was extremely sensitive and supportive when hard topics needed to be discussed in preparation for our wedding. We also were asked to spend time as a couple discussing some questions together prior to our wedding. All in all, the process was entirely heartfelt and in the end, we had the most amazing ceremony that we will never forget. Thank you Puja!!!
If you take time to meet and consider Puja for your ceremony it will absolutely be worth it. Puja is warm, welcoming and truly brought something amazing and special to our experie...
nce. From start to finish Puja was so considerate, helpful, open and so wonderful - a great fit for our needs. Puja worked with us to put together our own unique ceremony that was literally perfect for us - beyond all of my expectations.
A few months before my wedding day I ran into someone who had attended one of Puja's wedding ceremonies. When I asked this person what they thought of Puja, she did nothing but compliment it. She noted that out of all of the wedding ceremonies she attended in her life, Puja's truly touched her. She was spot on!
Contact
58 S. Manheim Blvd., THe Ridge, Apt 44, New Paltz, NY
Puja Thomson - Roots & Wings's photos