Contemporary and Traditional Catholic Weddings

Fr. Jason Lody was exceptional in helping us with our dream wedding day. He was available for pre-wedding day Zoom calls to talk through our ideal ceremony and was receptive to requests and customization. Jason was supportive and gave us confidence that our day would go as planned, and we were not mistaken. We wanted a balance between a modern/ contemporary and a religious ceremony, and Fr. Jason delivered perfectly. We highly recommend having Fr. Jason at your wedding, you won't be disappointed!

Fr. Jason helped us design and execute a light-hearted, yet religious ceremony which was very important to us. Thank you!

Father Jason provided a great ceremony for my husband and I. He tailored the ceremony to the personalities of ourselves and our guests. The ceremony was the perfect length and included everything we wanted. Father Jason was very organized and made the ceremony planning easy. He is available for pre-marital counseling and planning meetings when asked. I would definitely recommend Father Jason to officiate weddings in the future!

Fr. Jason preformed a very small ceremony for us, and it was perfect! He made us feel so special and communicated with us throughout the process leading up to the days. To any and all my friends getting married I would recommend him!

My husband and I would highly recommend Father Jason. We zoomed with Father Jason a few times leading up to our wedding day, and he was incredibly friendly and made us feel right at ease. Through these zoom sessions, Father Jason took the time to get to know us and really personalized our ceremony. He made sure that every part of it reflected who we are as a couple, which made the whole experience feel so special and unique. Father Jason was quick to respond and made sure everything was clear, which took a lot of stress off our shoulders. We’re so grateful for Father Jason and would absolutely recommend them to anyone looking for an officiant who’s personable, organized, and dedicated to making your ceremony truly memorable.

We hired Fr. Jason Lody for our June wedding and he did a fantastic job! We were looking for a Catholic priest that would be able to marry us at our venue outside of the church, and when we found Jason we knew he’d be a perfect fit as our officiant. He had a sense of humor that we and our guests loved and even wanted to participate in receiving a beer from our beer boy so that he could “cheers” with my husband at the altar!

We are so happy to have Father Jason Lody for our wedding. We can tell he has a lot of experience that he doesn’t need rehearsals, just trust him because he knows what to do. He gave us that confidence and support we needed. We are so lucky to had him!

Working with Father Jason was amazing! He is so nice and patient even with me sending an email practically every other day. My husband is not Catholic, but it was important to my family to have a Catholic ceremony and he did a wonderful job of making everyone feel included in the wedding. I would recommend him to anyone who is looking a religious ceremony.

It was very important to my family that I get married in a Catholic Church. With my husband being non-Catholic this was a tricky task. I reached out to the church and was in contact with Father Jason throughout the entire process - I must have sent over fifty emails but he was always so patient, kind and informative! We both loved working with him to create a religious ceremony catered to us as a couple and on the big day, everything went smoothly! It was such an intimate and beautiful ceremony and I got many compliments from our friends and family! Father Jason was absolutely wonderful to work with and I would recommend him to anyone wanting to do a religious ceremony.

Fr. Jason was everything we were looking for in an officiant for our wedding. Great experience and very grateful we found him.

Father Jason was excellent to work with, very flexible and was a GREAT guide for helping us put together a simple ceremony, as neither my wife or I had a super clear vision. In the end, we both loved the outcome and we'll have fond memories of our moment together, forever.

We are so pleased to have connected with Father Jason and have him officiate our November 2023 wedding. Multiple five-star reviews on various platforms encouraged us to learn more about Father Jason. The vision of Father Jason’s Parish of St. Anthony of Padua immediately resonated with us. The ceremony itself reflected our preferences while Father Jason injected a welcome dose of humor, kindness, and personality. There was no dry script-reading. Father Jason spoke from the heart, engaged our guests, and put both the bride and groom at ease.

Father Jason officiated our wedding over this past weekend and we could not be more grateful or happy with how he crafted our ceremony. He was incredibly personable, communicative, and informational about the entire process from the time we started working with him through our wedding day, and giving us updates about submitting our marriage license. He offers to lead a pre-marriage conversation via zoom that was very insightful, non-judgmental, and my husband and I thought it provided a lot of great conversation and topics to think about. I grew up catholic and my spouse is Christian. We were thrilled Father Jason could officiate a beautiful and religious ceremony tailored to us. The both of us and our families will remember it forever! If you are looking for a catholic officiant, please look no further!

Father Jason recently presided over our wedding ceremony. We are so happy he was able to be our officiant! My husband is Jewish and I am Catholic. Both of us wanted to incorporate various religious aspects into our wedding, to make it meaningful to both our upbringings. Father Jason was the perfect officiant to help us do just that! While Father Jason is Catholic, he is extremely knowledgeable about different faiths and their various traditions as well. He has a lot of experience presiding over interfaith marriage ceremonies, so he was able to help guide us to a ceremony which was meaningful to us both. From our first meeting with him, to our last, he was so welcoming, understanding, supportive, and personable! He helped us craft a perfect ceremony which seamlessly blended both our faith traditions. He also gave us lots of valuable relationship advice along the way, each time we met with him. In our ceremony, we were able to include two readings from the Bible, we signed a Ketubah during our ceremony, had a reading of the Seven Blessings, and my husband stomped on the glass at the end of our ceremony. He explained the various traditions along the way, which I felt engaged our guests and helped them understand the significance of each tradition. His ceremony was very personal and meaningful to us both. He was also very personable, made a few jokes at the exact right moments during our ceremony, and had our guests very engaged. We are extremely happy with the services he was able to provide us!

We were beyond grateful to have Fr. Jason as the officiant for our wedding ceremony! From our pre-marital counseling session, to the many emails, to our outstanding short but sweet wedding service, we could not have been happier with our experience.

Fr. Jason was amazing. I would highly recommend! My fiance is Jewish and I was raise Catholic. So Fr. Jason performed a lovely ceremony for an interfaith couple.

Fr. Jason was hands down the best celebrant we’ve ever heard - which makes us very lucky that it happened be at ours! His beautiful words and wonderful energy were eaten up by our guests - and our family and friends could not stop raving about how great the ceremony was. If you’re looking for a thoughtful, inspiring, and fun ceremony stop your search now with Fr. Jason!

Fr. Jason was unbelievable. I can’t believe how special he made our day. My wife and I wanted to have religion in our wedding while at the same time having a ceremony outside of the church. Being Catholics our whole life, this was a challenge for us and our families. But when Fr. Jason stepped into the process of our special day I knew all our worries were solved with his kindness, ability; and attention to every detail. Thanks again Fr. Jason as I wish you the best with all things post our special day.

Father Jason was a perfect officiant for our ceremony. He was able to blend in aspects of a Catholic ceremony while also keeping it very personal to us and our relationship. We met with him multiple times and he was very receptive to our wants and needs and crafted the most perfect ceremony.

Father Jason was a God sent throughout the entire process. All of the pre-wedding meetings we had with him, his counsel, and how the ceremony was performed. He did everything we asked and more. We wanted a genuine ceremony and he did phenomenal. Everyone complemented how beautiful and heartfelt the ceremony was. We couldn't have picked a better officiant, because honestly, we had the best! He became a genuine friend to us and we wouldn't have been able to deal with all the family issues that arose two months prior to our wedding day without him.

Fr Jason was fantastic. We wanted a spiritual feel to our wedding without it being too religious and he delivered. Everyone loved the ceremony and he made it special for us.

Fr. Jason just preformed our wedding last weekend and we could not have asked for anything better. He was amazing to say the least. The ceremony was perfect and captured all of what we hoped for. Thank you so much for being part of our big day, God Bless!

Fr. Jason was so amazing from our first contact to our wedding day. He was so helpful with answering our questions about having a dual Catholic-Islamic wedding ceremony and encouraged us to make it our own. He welcomed us to Saint Anthony’s and was always flexible with scheduling a Zoom call to talk through details. On the day of our wedding, he on-the-spot(!) adapted the ceremony to fit perfectly with what the imam was saying. Everyone was so impressed and we are so so grateful to Fr. Jason for making our wedding so special. We highly recommend him!

We worked with Fr. Julian for our August 6, 2022 wedding and it was amazing. He was so easy to talk to and made the whole ceremony planning process a total breeze. It meant so much to me to be able to have a Catholic ceremony but also to be able to have it at a venue and in a location that was so important to me and my husband. Fr. Julian met with us several times, gave us things to think and talk about, and he really helped us mentally prepare for the ceremony. We heard so many great reviews from our guests and I’m so happy we were married by Fr. Julian!

Groom. 4/8/2022 When my wife and I first got engaged, we faced a discouraging anxiety what to do about our officiant. My family is Catholic, and sat me down to say "the only thing we ask of your wedding is that you get married in a church." My wife's family is non-religious, with some members adamantly opposing religion altogether. Already we were juggling heavy demands, and without even thinking about what we wanted as a couple. Personally, I was also torn, as someone who has the utmost respect for my family heritage, but who hopes for a more inclusive world in the idea of marriage. The point to all this backstory being: we were convinced that someone would walk away from our ceremony unhappy. And then combine this with a global pandemic which delayed our wedding 18 months, and the anxieties were fully brewed. However, Fr. Jason is truly a pioneer ahead of his time, and he brought so much joy and calm to our big day. He listened to our perspectives, and somehow magically weaved together a script that did the impossible: everyone walked away from the ceremony happy. My family was beyond thankful that although it wasn't a church, we had chosen a priest. And my wife's family did not feel out of place with too many unrelatable references. Most of all, we could tell that Fr. Jason truly reflected on our story together as a couple, and reminded us to make room for our special memories as a couple too! He even helped me coordinate/announce a surprise vow reading that my wife had no idea was happening. And I mention again, all of this patience throughout an extended wedding timeline we, nor he, knew we signed up for. My wish for other couples out there is that they find someone with the grace and peace of mind that Fr. Jason gave to us during the most important moment of our lives. If you're reading this, he is the real deal, and I hope that other communities around the world have a Jason-equivalent making these realities possible outside the DMV area too.

We could not have asked for a better officiant. Throughout the process, Fr. Jason was great. He met with us for our requested pre marital counseling and helped us design our ceremony in a way that was meaningful to us. Whenever we reached out to him, he was available and flexible to our schedules. During the ceremony itself he did not bat an eye when it started pouring rain and he needed to make last minute ceremony adjustments. Overall he's a wonderful resource, friendly, professional, and reliable. Highly recommend.

Father Jason was great to work with. He helped us design our ceremony with all the elements we wanted to include. He is very responsive and super personable. Highly recommend him for a customized wedding ceremony.

Father Jason was friendly, extremely easy to work with, and gave us exactly the ceremony we had in mind! We'd highly recommend working with him for your special day!

Fr. Jason was so easy to work with. He worked with us to make our ceremony exactly what we wanted it to be, and great suggestions for us during the process. After the ceremony, people were raving about how excellent the service, and Priest were. I would highly recommend Fr. Jason to anyone looking to make your ceremony meaningful and personal. He was fantastic!

Father J was not only kind and welcoming, he was also very professional and reliable during the whole wedding planning process. We met with him virtually a few times before the wedding day and we felt comfortable with him from day one. We highly recommend him if you're looking for an officiant, especially if you want a religious ceremony that offers flexibility based on what you want to incorporate into your wedding and what is important to you and your future spouse.

My husband and I grew up Catholic, but neither of us practice. We wanted a traditional wedding to honor our families, but didn't want to get married in a church. Father Jason heard want we were looking for and was absolutely fantastic to work with. We got several compliments from our guests on the service. He even incorporated last minute details such as the parade that happened just a few hours before our ceremony. I highly recommend working with him!

We asked Father Jason to officiate our wedding and he was so helpful and responsive throughout the process. I am so grateful he was able to fit us in as our wedding was planned in a shorter span of time. When people ask me what was my favorite part of the wedding, my answer is always the ceremony. Father Jason set the tone for us during the ceremony and I’ll be forever thankful for him making our ceremony so special.

Father Jason is the absolute best. He’s flexible, compassionate, and kind. I had fallen away from the church in recent years, but I still wanted elements of a Catholic ceremony in my wedding. Father Jason reminded me of the kindness and mercy of God’s love, and brought that message to our ceremony and our guests; even our guests that are atheists commented on how touched they felt by his words and kindness. He was also happy to work with us re: pre-marital counseling and incorporating readings and prayers into our ceremony to truly personalize it to us. You won’t find a kinder or more compassionate officiant; we highly recommend him!

Father Jason was wonderful! We wanted to have a Catholic wedding ceremony but not a full mass, and one that allowed for a little more flexibility such as not having the ceremony in a church and adding readings that were not scripture. Father Jason was more than happy to accommodate our preferences into the ceremony and make it our own. He was very friendly, positive, and easy to work with. Absolutely recommend!

Awesome! Father Jason was absolutely perfect. From our first contact with him through the ceremony, Father Jason was truly our partner and guide in this process. He was receptive, engaged, and very helpful as we sorted out the specifics of our most special day. We met several times before the wedding which put our minds at ease and on the day of the wedding, Father Jason arrived early, ensuring everything would run smoothly. We highly recommend Father Jason and are forever grateful for him!

Father Jason curated the most lovely ceremony for us. He incorporated everything we wanted, gave excellent advice, and is genuinely so kind and thoughtful. The planning process and communication was seamless. We, like many, rescheduled the wedding due to Covid - Father Jason could not have been more supportive and available when discussing new dates and processes. He was so helpful and kept things light for us during the planning process. It was everything we wanted and his message during our ceremony we truly loved and will live by. We have been to so many weddings with some very unfortunate officiants and we promise that Father Jason is hands down the best!

Father Jason was wonderful to work with and did an amazing job with our ceremony. He is extremely kind and personable which was a blessing after postponing our wedding last year. Father Jason incorporated the perfect balance religion, laughter, personalization and love. We received so many compliments from our guest and would highly recommend him! He truly was one of the best aspects of our wedding.

Father Jason was so wonderful to work with every step of the way. His demeanor is so warm and he makes you feel like you are in the best of hands. He made planning the ceremony and obtaining our license foolproof. The homily was perfectly tailored to our ceremony and the day. So many guests approached me to tell me how impressed they were with Father Jason!

Father Jason helped connect us with Father Julian after our wedding was postponed due to covid and he wasn't available. Father Julian did a wonderful job officiating our wedding! Even when the microphone was acting up, he helped our readers be heard and was super flexible, nice, and supportive throughout the process. We were able to customize our ceremony and make it very special to us. Thank you for helping us on our special day!

It is hard to put it in words how much Father Jason meant to our big day. We had been connected with Jason since 2019 and he put up with us through 3 reschedules. We only had 3 zoom calls and met him the day of our wedding but it felt like seeing an old friend. The service was tailored to both of us exactly like we wanted it. My wife and I are both Catholic and Jason did a great job representing our faith how we pictured in the ceremony. His words felt so personal and I can't tell you how many people came up to us at cocktail hour singing his praises or sharing their short interaction with such a nice man. Jason is so well organized and makes everything such a breeze. I couldn't recommend him any higher! Thanks again Jason!

Amazing!! Father Jason was phenomenal and exceeded our expectations. It was important to us to have a somewhat religious ceremony. Initially we contemplated getting married at a Catholic Church near our venue, however they required a 4k "donation" in order to proceed which was out of our budget for a ceremony alone. This is when we came across Fr. Jason, and let me tell you, this was the best decision ever! He was amazing, kept our guests engaged and everyone is still raving about how much they enjoyed our ceremony. Thank you Fr. Jason!!

Fr. Jason was the BEST. He helps as little or as much as needed. The ceremony was perfect and personalized but still had the religious aspects we wanted. Can’t recommend him enough!

Father Jason did an amazing job with our ceremony. He worked with us before the wedding to make sure we were all on the same page and he explained every part of the ceremony to us. The ceremony was everything that we had dreamed of: special, spiritual, full of love, while also bringing some laughs and smiles to our guests. I was worried we would not be able to find a priest we liked to perform a ceremony outside of the church, but Father Jason answered my prayers. It was the perfect balance of love, God, and gratitude. He also made the process after the wedding very easy, he took care of the wedding licenses and we received them in the mail when we returned from our honeymoon. If you are doing a wedding outside of the church and still want a religious ceremony, Father Jason is your man! I can't express enough how much everyone enjoyed him.