Rabbi Alan C. Stein

Rabbi Stein did a phenomenal job at my wedding. My wife and I are of different faiths and he did a great job seamlessly blending the two. Our original rabbi had a conflict and we had to find a new person that we liked 2 weeks from our wedding day... As time was short, rabbi Stein ended up skyping (google hangouts) with my wife and I which made our lives much easier. We got a good feel for him and his personality. On top of this, the "fee" is actually a donation to his synagogue which we liked even more. We had quite a windy wedding day and rabbi Stein rolled with it and was truly entertaining. He turned a typical boring ceremony into one that has some humor, was engaging, and something everyone will truly remember. I received many compliments about him after the wedding. They said how professional he was, funny, and concise. The ceremony did not drag on which was nice. Oh I almost forgot to mention, he is kind enough to provide a Ketubah and he has a portable Chuppah if need be all free of charge. Other rabbi's charge for this which of course makes sense, but rabbi Stein does not! I very highly recommend you reach out to him if you either need a traditional wedding or an interfaith one such as I did. Tell him Geoff and Melissa sent you!

Rabbi Stein did a great job officiating our wedding ceremony. He has a great personality which shines through in his presentation. He spoke with us ahead of time to decide what we wanted and did not want in our ceremony, and to learn more about what made our relationship special. With that information, he really made our wedding about us - it was not just a cookie-cutter one-size-fits-all ceremony. The ceremony was a perfect mix of prayer and laughter. We were happy with his services and would highly recommend him to other couples.

Rabbi Stein officiated at our wedding and we were extremely happy with the ceremony. We met with him a couple of times beforehand to discuss what we wanted, and Rabbi Stein truly delivered. He included just the right amount of Jewish and Catholic rituals and just the right amount of humor. Many of our guests came up to us and complimented us on our Rabbi, saying how beautiful the ceremony was and yet at the same time funny. We found Rabbi Stein online and it was one of the best decisions we made in the wedding planning process. Highly recommended.

I don't like to speak badly of anyone but I felt a strong need to post this review. I was recently married by Rabbi Stein and was shocked by how disappointing it was. I found Rabbi Stein through LIWeddings.com. When my husband I met with him in his home we were very happy. He spoke well and appeared to be very accommodating. After signing with him we waited until the month before the wedding to meet again. We met him for lunch where he pulled out a piece of paper and jotted some information down. He asked us for words we would use to describe one another, etc. When we spoke about the Sheva Brachot honors, I asked if he had transliterated copies. His response was, "You should really ask someone who knows how to read hebrew." I didn't say anything then because I didn't care what his opinion was but it did leave a sour taste that he would think I would exclude someone because they are not as comfortable with Hebrew text. Then, he proceeded to say that we should call all of the honors up at once to keep the ceremony shorter. I said I wanted to call them up individually but that my husband and I would think about it and get back to him. After that, we discussed the circling tradition at the start of the Jewish ceremony and agreed to do it. After that we left and my husband and I discussed our details. We then e-mailed him and told him we definitely wanted to call them up individually and he confirmed our request. I also e-mailed him a copy of the program so he would see the names and I sent him a transliterated blessing sheet and he approved it. I also asked him whether or not the music continues to play during the circling and he said yes. I thought we were on the same page. Now it is my wedding day. He comes at 6:20 to start the Ketubah ceremony; it's a 7:00pm wedding start. He was not a part of the rehearsal and that worried me. After that, I had my husband remind him about the circling. We walk down the aisle and my mother went to pick up my train so that I could begin circling and Rabbi Stein began to yell to her to come under the chuppah. Talk about embarrassing! I then yelled back to her to come help me. He tried to get me under the chuppah and I said through my teeth, "I am circling." And he responded, "Oh right ok." Then after that slip up, I see him pull out the same scrap paper from lunch! for $750 you would think he would take time to organize his speech and notes.; bad sign. So now comes the blessings, and he calls them all up at once! When I say through my teeth, "We wanted them individually," he responds with, "They are already coming up." At this point I'm laughing inside. Ok now it gets better. I chose not to have him mail the marriage license because I was going to City Hall two days later. Thank goodness I did this! When I got there, the clerk was reading the information, which was written in such a sloppy manner, and says, "OK so you were married July 5th." I was not! I was married in August! He actually put the wrong wedding date! Thank goodness it was resolved and I was there. I have to say I am still shocked by all of this. Thank goodness my guests didn't notice too much but that wedding video will be interesting. I had an amazing time at my wedding, even with all of this but I would never recommend using him for your service. I gave him 2 stars because his voice is nice and that is about it.