Reverend Gary Shapiro

Creating Meaningful and Joy-Filled Ceremonies

VT, NH, MA, CT, NY, ME, NC , SC, TN

Service area

Reverend Gary Shapiro (aka Reverend Joy) is a wedding officiant serving couples in both the New England area (between May and October) and in North Carolina (between November and April). This interspiritual ordained minister believes in creating heartfelt, personalized ceremonies for every couple. He is happy to work with all couples regardless of whether they desire a religious, spiritual, or secular ceremony. Rev. Gary has encountered a rich variety of faiths, spiritual teachings, and life experiences which serve to inform his work as a wedding officiant. His work over the years has focused on conflict resolution, community development, citizen empowerment, peacebuilding, and much more. He was ordained as an interspiritual minister by the One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in 2011. Reverend Joy Weddings is passionate about truly getting to know each couple in order to create the most authentic and personalized ceremony possible. This is achieved through an in-depth questionnaire and ongoing conversations throughout the process. Rev. Gary welcomes the additions of any traditions or rituals that couples wish to include in their ceremony, and can assist with writing vows if necessary. He can provide pre-and post-wedding counseling and can also perform ceremonies in Spanish if required.

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Details

Ceremony Types

Civil Union

Commitment Ceremony

Elopement

Interfaith Ceremony

Non-Religious Ceremony

Religious Ceremony

Second Wedding

Vow Renewal Ceremony

Planning

Se Habla Español

Religious Affiliations

Buddhist

Christian

Catholic

Protestant

Quaker

Interfaith

Jewish

Conservative

Orthodox

Pagan

Secular

Spiritual

Unitarian

Wiccan

Wedding Activities

After The Wedding

Newlywed Life

Getting Engaged

Premarital Counseling

Wedding

Ceremony

Any questions?

Availability

4.8

out of 5.0

5 reviews

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Review Summary

This AI-generated summary is a snapshot of this vendor's ratings and feedback.

Multiple reviewers highly recommend Gary as a wedding officiant, particularly praising his professionalism, flexibility, and ability to personalize ceremonies based on couples' love stories. Gary is commended for his thoughtful and meaningful delivery, helping couples feel at ease with thorough script reviews. Guests appreciated his genuine approach and the beautiful ceremonies he conducted, making him a top choice for weddings in the Vermont area.

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Caroline H

12/01/2024

Reverend Gary played a very important role in our wedding. Since our families do not speak the same language, we wanted a bilingual ceremony and Gary was able to officiate in both Spanish and English, which helped make our guests feel included. He also worked with us to make an incredibly personalized ceremony, incorporating in rituals that reflected our relationship and included our family members. In the lead-up to the wedding, he was a bit disorganized and misremembered the times of our phone check-ins a few times. We had also invited him and his partner to join our dinner but he did not let us know until right before the wedding that he would could not join, which impacted our catering cost and seating chart. Overall, working with Gary was a grounding experience and helped us contemplate our marriage and what it means to us at a time when all of the details of wedding planning was becoming stressful and distracting.

Michael R

7/06/2024

We were in great hands with Gary as the officiant for our wedding. He was a consummate professional throughout the entire process. During our phone calls leading up to the event, Gary really listened to our story and weaved that into the ceremony beautifully. He was also very flexible with our "spiritual, but non-denominational" approach and delivered a very meaningful program. The Irish Blessing was a particularly great fit for what we were looking for. Afterwards, we received a lot of compliments from our guests about the thoughtful words that Gary used to describe our journey and relationship together. Just before the event, Gary did a great job of putting our minds at ease by helping us do a quick review of our vows, and gave us plenty of time to review the ceremony script so we knew exactly what to expect. Would highly recommend booking him for a wedding ceremony in the Vermont area!

Any questions?

Ben M

8/31/2023

Reverend Shapiro is an amazing wedding officiant! He takes the time to meet with you and create the ceremony perfect for your wedding day. He really cares about your love story and what you value in one another and presents it perfectly at the ceremony. We couldn't be happier with how it went. Guests commented that it was one of the most beautiful ceremonies they have been to. He is genuine and will craft a ceremony that you will always cherish. 10/10

Megan L

7/16/2023

Working with Reverend Shapiro was fantastic and a pleasure. Rev. Shapiro is responsive, caring, and kind. After a few phone calls where he asked about the details of our relationship and tried to learn more about us as a couple, he sent a draft of the ceremony to review and it felt that he truly represented our relationship in a meaningful way. Our guests loved the ceremony and a major part was Rev. Shapiro in his delivery and tone. We are very happy that we chose Rev. Shapiro to officiate our special day.

Claire E

1/15/2023

Reverend Gary was an integral part of the best day of our lives. He took the time to meet with my husband and I virtually multiple times before the wedding to get to know us. He wrote a meaningful ceremony that perfectly matched the non-denominational ceremony we had envisioned. He was kind, professional, and easy to work with.

Contact

(802) 229-1165

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