5 out of 5 stars and 57 reviews
5
(57)in the MD, N, Virginia, W, Virginia, P.A. and Washington DC
About this vendor
I am a wedding officiant, who absolutely loves her job! I have positively the best job in the world, because I never meet ‘grumpy’ people. Everybody is very happy that they are engaged, and going to get married, and I’m very privileged to be one of the many officiants out there who gets to do that job.
I like to meet up with my couples and talk with them about their hopes and dreams for their BIG day, and how I can help to make it happen for them.
So why don’t you call or e-mail me and make a date to meet up, for coffee, a light lunch, or an appetizer, and talk about your plans. I would love to be ‘the one’ you choose!
Message me today!
www.mddcweddings.com
301-676-2105
Details
Business Attributes
- Woman-owned Business
Ceremony Types
- Civil Union
- Commitment Ceremony
- Elopement
- Interfaith Ceremony
- Non-Religious Ceremony
- Religious Ceremony
Religious Affiliations
- Christian
- Protestant
- Interfaith
Wedding Activities
- Wedding
- Ceremony
Awards and Affiliations
5-Time 'Best of Weddings'
2023.2022.2021.+2 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.
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Reviews
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5
out of 5.057 reviews
Review photos
Showing slide number 1 out of 7
Joyce was an absolute pleasure to work with! She did an amazing job officiating our wedding at Springfield Manor in November 2023. She was funny, personable, kind and calming durin...
g the ceremony. She helped us create a custom ceremony and suggested a wine box portion for the ceremony that turned out excellent. We chose our readings and added some of our own sayings to make it our own. Joyce’s personality was exactly what we were looking for for our wedding day: lighthearted, fun and sweet. She’s the best!
Joyce was absolutely the best! She was so professional and also upbeat throughout the whole process. She does all of the little things, like ensures she moves out of first kiss pho...
tos. Our vendor's coordinator had some hiccups during the rehearsal and ceremony and Joyce handled them with grace. We loved having her officiate our wedding!
After my wedding, quite a few friends came up to me and said they wished they had been able to have the delightfully funny Joyce officiate their weddings. Joyce’s warmth and charm ...
radiated through our entire ceremony — it wasn’t just her Scottish accent that made her memorable.
In writing our ceremony, she had many readings pre-selected for us to look through — clearly, she had options for all sort of people and weddings, which was very lovely to see — but she was also open to us modifying selections and adding our own choices to personalize the ceremony to who my husband and I are. Working with her suggested pieces, it streamlined the process and made composing our ceremony so straightforward and easy.
On our wedding day, Joyce was a calming and reassuring present during was could have been a more stressful event. She made us laugh and smile over and over. We were fortunate enough to have videography and, within the video, you hear and see Joyce in many memorable bits outside and within the ceremony itself. She tells Nick to “take a deep breath” when he begins getting emotional as I start to walk down the aisle, she has the pair of us giggling when she gestures that we’re not quite standing in the right spot for the ceremony, and then she has the whole audience laughing when she asks if the drumming from the festival outside was for us. I’m so glad to know that we’ll remember her with joy and delight from our wedding day.
After the ceremony, she had printed out the script and she presented it to us. It will forever be a precious keepsake. Joyce knows a lot about weddings — during our rehearsal dinner, she made her opinions and thoughts known clearly, all to our benefit. She is matter-of-fact, but that does not take away from her charm.
Looking back, Nick and I could not have possibly picked a better officiant for us — we will forever be grateful and fortunate to have found Joyce! Anyone seeking an officiant should know they’ll be picking a gem in choosing Joyce — she cares so much about the role she performs in the weddings of others, and truly does a wonderful job.
Joyce was absolutely amazing to work with for our big day! From the day we met her we knew she was the perfect addition to our wedding day! She was so helpful with the planning of ...
our ceremony and giving helpful advice on what to add to make our day about us. She was so much fun and fit right in with all of our wedding party, friends and family. We are so grateful we got to work with Joyce and would recommend her to anyone in need of an amazing officiant!
We had Joyce officiate our wedding and she was absoluteley amazing! She was so helpful and responsive before the ceremony and made us feel comfortable leading up to the event. Duri...
ng the ceremony, she was so funny and charming, and her speech was very meaningful. We had so many guests come up to us saying how fun and well-spoken she was. We even had a guest ask how long we knew her! So very happy we chose Joyce and Joyce agreed! Because of an injury, I was not able to write this review earlier, however, it has been my intention to write this review. Joyce is the best! Thank you so much, Joyce. You made our day very special. We will always remember you during this time of year!
We knew that Joyce was the perfect wedding officiant for us as soon as we met her. Joyce is a very lovely lady and provided us with great advice and recommendations before the even...
t and and also during our wedding ceremony. She made us both feel very comfortable during the entire process. We’d both highly recommend Joyce to anyone looking for a great marriage officiant. In our opinion, she is the best!
The absolute best!!! Joyce was well organized and made everything so easy for us. We got to pick all the readings and specifics for our ceremony so that it was exactly what we want...
ed. She also has a great sense of humor! Joyce helped make our wedding unforgettable! I highly recommend Joyce for any wedding!!!
Joyce is exactly who you will want to officiate your marriage. She made us WANT to celebrate our marriage. I'm sure that sounds strange, but as we met with her to talk through our ...
journey (which included a Covid-canceled wedding from March 2020 and the addition of a toddler to the mix!), she
articulated all the beautiful moments and symbolism that go into a ceremony. It reminded us that the wedding wasn't just a big planning item to check off on your to-do list (speaking to my fellow Type A Brides out there!), but it's a true celebration of a meaningful and beautiful life event.
Joyce came highly recommended to us from Stone Manor Country Club. We planned our small wedding in just 2 months, and we were fairly clueless about what we wanted. All we knew was that it was important for us to feel at ease with our officiant (we didn't want to be lectured or made to sit silently while someone rambled off Bible verses to us). Joyce is SO warm and welcoming, and she has a wicked sense of humor. She comes prepared with helpful materials and to-do lists (which I loved!), and everything can be tailored to your own desires.
I distinctly remember leaving our meeting with her and thinking, "Yes! This is EXACTLY who we need." After meeting her, I felt so excited about our marriage and that we were finally able to celebrate us.
She also wore the most amazing, gorgeous shoes to our ceremony :) :) :). They look wonderful in our wedding photos!
My spouse and I found Reverend Joyce Hilbery and MDDC Weddings through an online search. We were getting married near Frederick, MD but we're from the Baltimore area, and neither ...
of us has a particular religious affiliation. We wanted a ceremony that captured our personalities, and she worked with us to create the best experience.
We first contacted Joyce through the website and she was very responsive - we set up a video call to talk a little about the date/location and what we were thinking of. We made a plan to have a meeting near Frederick - as she said, it's important for us to get to know each other a little for her to perform the service on our special day. Joyce was absolutely lovely to work with, very organized, open to ideas, with a great sense of humor, and also sensitivity to family dynamics that related to the ceremony. We got many of the details ironed out there with a plan for following up closer to the wedding.
One of the things I really appreciated working with Joyce was having a sample script available and we could mix-and-match different pieces to make the ceremony exactly what we wanted. We kept the ceremony short and sweet with a knot-tying at the end.
The day of the ceremony, she had the groom faced away for a 'reveal' moment as I came down the aisle (we didn't do first looks or see each other at all since the day before the wedding, so this was a really special moment). She came prepared with extra copies of the readings and vows for us, and kept everything moving smoothly. At the very end, she paused and moved out of the way for the first kiss photos - a move our photographer greatly appreciated.
Overall, Joyce was a pleasure to work with and I would highly recommend her to other couples. Best wishes!
Joyce made our dreams come true. She made it fun and kept me from passing out when I first saw my wife. Joyce was extremely professional, but also had fun with us on our special da...
y. I would highly recommend her to anyone for their special day!
From the moment we first met Joyce, we knew she was the officiant for us. She has this aura that just draws you in and keeps you waiting for her next words - not to mention those d...
eep blue eyes and radiant smile! We were able to personalize all parts of the ceremony script using templates she provided as well as include our own readings. Our guests were moved and simultaneously entertained with Joyce's sincere voice and charismatic attitude. They shed tears of joy yet also laughed at Joyce’s sprinkles of witty remarks. One of my favorite things about her which the guests weren’t able to see was her leadership during the rehearsal. She kept everyone focused and highlighted crucial details that made the ceremony that much more special. Without Joyce, the ceremony would have just not been the same, and we highly HIGHLY recommend contacting her if you’re looking for someone to ensure the most important day of your life is perfect. Thank you so much, Joyce!
Joyce was absolutely amazing. I respected her wanting to meet and see if we were a good fit and I appreciated how easy it was to customize our ceremony. Unfortunately covid hit and...
our wedding was postponed for over a year, but we stayed in touch and she made sure she was still available each time our date got pushed. We didn't have a rehearsal and she still made sure the day and ceremony ran smoothly. Her accent and humor are also enormous plusses. Seriously, book Joyce. I promise you won't regret it.
Joyce was amazing! So sweet, honest, and easy to work with! She brought a levity to the day that was very special. She makes it so easy to personalize everything about your ceremon...
y, and even provides templates to help get you started. We really didn’t know what we wanted in a ceremony, only what we didn’t want. She helped us pull together a ceremony that fit us perfectly. She was a wonderful and memorable addition to our wedding. Post ceremony she even provided us a nice printed copy of the whole ceremony and vows in addition to our wedding certificate.
Joyce was great. She was friendly, personable, and organized. Joyce was patient and walked us through everything from the structure of our ceremony on paper to physically walking e...
veryone through at rehearsal. Her sense of humor is, of course, our favorite, right next to her accent. Love, love, love her
Joyce was an amazing officiant to work with. From the beginning, my fiancé and I felt comforted by her presence and her positive attitude. She not only made our ceremony perfect bu...
t also brought touch of humor and fun that both my husband and I as well as wedding guests loved. She was responsive and helpful throughout the process with creating the ceremony custom to exactly how we wanted it. You won't regret booking her!
Joyce was amazing to work with! When we were meeting with potential officiants Joyce really stood out to us and made us feel very comfortable. She was very communicative leading up...
to the wedding. During the ceremony she kept everything on track and made us very relaxed with some humor along the way. Our families loved Joyce as well. We highly recommend her!
Joyce was hilarious, professional, and kind. She is stylish with an awesome accent! She was the officiant at our wedding and was more like a member of the family by the time it wa...
s said and done. We could not have asked for a better person to officiate our wedding. She truly loves her job and it shows. We highly recommend her if you want an amazing officiant!
Working with Joyce for our wedding was one of the best decisions we made! She is exceptionally thoughtful and helpful; creating a custom ceremony was a breeze with her help and gui...
dance. It was important to us that our wedding be non-religious but still convey the solemnity of a more traditional wedding. Joyce helped us achieve that vision. Additionally, as our date approached, she contacted us with reminders and help to make sure things were ready for the day, and after our ceremony, provided us with a printed copy of our ceremony as a keepsake. I cannot recommend Joyce highly enough!
Joyce,
Tina and I just want to take the time out to say how happy and elated we are about the ceremony on Saturday. We wanted to let you know that you did a fabulous job and every...
one spoke very highly about your professionalism and your candor.
As we both go forward, we can look back at this day with joy and delight knowing that you help give us a wonderful memory to look back on . Thank you.
Keep well.
Tina & R K
We were very happy to have Joyce as our officiant. Our ceremony was very different than the “standard” and Joyce was great about being flexible and making the day just the way we w...
anted. She was punctual, funny, and offered good advice to ensure the ceremony went off without a hitch.
Joyce was THE best decision, outside of getting married, that we possibly could've made. She was extremely helpful in guiding us through the entire marriage process. She took charg...
e of the rehearsal and helped us avoid any possible disasters. She was quick and responsive to all our questions, as well as being kind and funny by helping to break the ice the day of the wedding. She made us both extremely comfortable as we stood in front of all those people crying and pouring our hearts out. We couldn't possibly think of any other person we would want to go through this experience with than Reverend Joyce!
We had an amazing experience with Joyce. She was perfect for our wedding- she was fun, light hearted, charming and well spoken. She was quick to respond and accommodate us on our d...
ay even though she had another wedding to officiate that day as well. She has a passion for what she does and it is very evident. We feel so lucky and happy with our choice and would recommend Joyce to anyone! :)
Joyce was the perfect Reverend. She had fantastic insight and a wonderful spirit. She was extremely prompt with communication, which I value very highly. Joyce made us feel comfort...
able and relaxed during the ceremony and we were able to have a lot of input on the ceremony wording making it special to us. I would highly recommend Joyce to anyone and everyone.
Joyce is just amazing! She's very fun, yet super professional and will do a very thorough job at making sure you have what you need for your ceremony. She's punctual, and an excell...
ent reader (that matters to some I know). But most of all, she cares and it comes across clearly in her work. She made our ceremony a wonderful, fun event. And best of all, she has the most amazing accent haha! If you're looking for someone who cares about you as a couple and wants to do her very best to ensure you have a wonderful, beautiful, fun wedding ceremony, go with Joyce.
The moment we met Joyce, we felt as though we had known her forever. She is so warm and friendly. She walked us through how to plan the ceremony and obtain our license. She even fi...
les the license at the court house and sends you the copies in the mail. Joyce convinced us to write our own personal vows, which we did not anticipate, but so glad we did. It felt great to say those things, although very emotional. Joyce helps you through it all. All of our guests loved that we wrote our own vows. We decided to pay for the rehearsal, which we highly recommend! She kept everyone in line and makes sure that everyone understands their role on the wedding day. She adds just enough humor while keeping everything romantic and professional. Her humor helped calm our nerves on the big day. We could not have hired a better officiant!
The second we met Joyce my husband and I knew that she would be the perfect fit for us! She was so helpful every step of the way and helped me stay organized! She also was hilario...
us, and all of our guests raved about how much they loved her after the ceremony. Our ceremony was beautiful and flowed perfectly. We can't thank Joyce enough for making our wedding everything we wanted and more!
We knew Joyce was the right fit for us from the moment we met her. She is witty and charming and very organized. She helped in every way possible to make our day unique to us. She ...
was supportive and kind and we are so glad to have found her!
My husband and I are not overly religious people and really didn’t want the traditional style wedding. I did a general search for officiants and Joyce was close to us, so that’s wh...
o we picked. We scheduled a lunch meeting. My husband really didn’t want to come because he thought it was weird that we HAD to meet an officiant and talk about our wedding. After our meeting was finished, he couldn’t say he loved her more!! She’s the friendliest, funniest, down to earth person and really fit our personalities perfectly! She’s SO adorable and her accent (Scottish) is heavenly to hear! You will not regret selecting her for your ceremony, trust me!!
Joyce made our wedding ceremony so special - we can't recommend her highly enough! She was warm, funny, and kind. My husband Mike and I wanted a ceremony that was really heartfelt ...
and authentic and reflected who we are, and Joyce helped make that happen - she is so lovely and responsive and genuinely made us feel like she was invested in our relationship. So many of our friends & family commented on how much they loved her (and we loved her too!)
Choosing Rev. Joyce Hilbery was the BEST DECISION my husband and I made for our wedding. She really took the time to get to know us, and calmed our pre-wedding jitters. Joyce made...
the whole day feel special for our guests, and most importantly, made the day fun for my husband and I. Thanks again, Joyce, for making our day unforgettable!
Joyce was one of the absolute best part of our wedding day. She allowed us to be part of the entire process of constructing our ceremony so that it was as personal as we wanted it ...
to be. We got SO many compliments on her after the wedding.
Joyce was a fantastic choice for our wedding! She is very calming and made us both feel very comfortable. She was able to keep us (mostly) calm during the ceremony too.
I loved ...
that she offered so many resources for ceremony ideas but that she was happy to personalize everything just the way we wanted. That made planning the ceremony very easy. In addition, she handled everything with our marriage license, which meant less we had to do.
We would highly recommend Joyce to anyone who is looking for a professional who will handle all the details so you don't have to worry and can focus on other things.
Joyce is amazing! Her friendly nature made us feel so comfortable with her right off the bat. We'd highly recommend Joyce to anyone!
Joyce came recommended to us from a family friend. From the first phone call with Joyce all the way through our wedding ceremony we both knew that she was the ONE person we wanted ...
to have marry us. Joyce’s wit, humor, professionalism, timeliness, and impeccable taste (to name a few of her qualities) are extraordinary. She made us feel very comfortable and emphasized that our wedding was our special day and she would be happy to perform our ceremony in any format we requested. She provided some sample wedding scripts to give us some ideas which we found to be simple and delightful and took a lot of leg work out for us. We ended up choosing one of her recommended formats and she modified it to include a special reading that has great significance to us. Our ceremony was perfect. Did I mention that she drove three hours each way to the wedding location because we were adamant that we wanted her to do it? We could not have been more thrilled and would highly recommend Joyce to perform a wedding for anyone. She’s absolutely wonderful.
Hands down one of the nicest person you'll meet. Joyce was wonderful and made us feel so relaxed and comfortable. I would recommend Joyce to anyone in the DMV area looking to tie t...
he knot, you will also have the best. She was voted best of 2018! Thanks again Joyce for everything!!! Cheers!
Let me just say, Joyce is the best.
My husband and I found Joyce through a mutual friend and we could not be more thankful. We were having a hard time finding an officiant - we'r...
e not particularly involved in any church or religious group that would lend itself to an easy officiant selection. As soon as we met Joyce, we knew she'd be the right choice.
We knew we wanted a ceremony that was spiritual, but funny, light and memorable for our guests. Joyce helped us accomplish this 100%. We had no idea how to pick out the parts of our ceremony. Joyce had great insight on putting together a ceremony that would be right for us - both on how to keep it special for the bride and groom, and how to make it enjoyable for the guests. She had many excellent readings we could choose from and also incorporated special readings we picked out on our own.
Joyce's delivery of the ceremony was fantastic. Everyone after the wedding commented on how much they loved her and how fun our ceremony was. We laughed, we cried and we all had a great time. It was exactly what my husband and I were looking for.
I will also say, working with Joyce was super easy. She's very responsive and answered all of our questions, no matter how silly or numerous they may have been. :)
I would recommend Joyce to anyone looking for an officiant. She's a true professional and an amazing person to boot.
A lot of our guests let us know how much they loved Joyce's officiating of our ceremony. Some comments were that it was well-paced and a good length, and Joyce kept things flowing ...
nicely. Plus her accent is lovely!
Joyce is an amazing officiant! There are many options that she provides to customize the ceremony from different readings (but we were still able to choose our own outside of the m...
any options she had provided) to sand/hand fasting/tying the knot ceremonies etc. These options made our ceremony feel very personal and fit us perfectly. She was extremely easy to work with and easy to get in contact with when we had questions. For the rehearsal she was able to easily get across where everyone should be placed and even provided easy directions for the kids in our wedding to follow. It was a wonderful, fun, and perfect ceremony thanks to Joyce!
We intially chose Reverend Joyce because she was one of the only offciants who had their own website. (That is how we found her!) But we knew after our first meeting that she was t...
he one. Joyce was also the only offciant with options on her website to customize your ceremony to be your own! She had up on her website a word for word transcript of an example ceremony, which you could change and/or add a reading of your choice. Joyce is great at communicating and an awesome person to work with. As an offciant she is awesome at her job-perfect for the type of ceremony we wanted. As stated above she has a Scottish accent which we love- Joyce also commands people's attention when necessary. (Especially at rehearsal!) Joyce is super professional. I can't imagine the ceremony going as flawlessly as it did without her. She is lovely and made us feel completely at ease during the day of the wedding and during the ceremony. Our guests absolutely loved Joyce. Thank you again!💜
Joyce was absolutely perfect for us! Her ceremony options were numerous and flexible and allowed us to incorporate our own personal touch. She was a tremendous help when it came to...
rehearsal time and took charge to get the bridal party lined up while still maintaining a great sense of humor which carried through to our ceremony the next day to help us relax and enjoy the memories we were making. Joyce meshed seamlessly with our photographers and wedding coordinator. We couldn't have found anyone better, she is the total package. HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMEND! We love you Joyce!
We held a small ceremony at the Green Springs Gardens in Alexandria, VA with no guests, but us, Joyce as our marriage officiant and just as lovely photographer Darcy Troutman. We ...
chose to contact Joyce after reading all the good reviews on internet, and are happy how it worked out. Joyce was lovely, friendly and with good sense of humor. She made us feel at ease when talking to her before the ceremony as well as on our wedding day.
Joyce was amazing to work with and really made the name change experience smooth as she provided everything in a folder with the complete ceremony. It was functional and a keepsake...
!
Her personality came through during the ceremony, but she also did a great job capturing our love!
Thank you Joyce!!!
Joyce was a pleasure to work with! She was able to get two very nervous people through it all and put us both at ease. Our family members were asking about her after, telling us ...
how great she was. We could not recommend her more as an officiant.
Joyce is truly an amazing officiant! She is easy to work with and willing to customize your wedding to fit you. Very easy to communicate with and is a true professional. I have kno...
wn Joyce for several years and there is literally no one I would have picked to officiate my wedding except her. You cannot go wrong with picking Joyce!
Joyce is wonderful! She went above and beyond to make sure we had everything we needed for our wedding. She gave us so many options and really specified everything to what we neede...
d. You cannot go wrong with Joyce!
Joyce came recommended to us from our venue. While she unfortunately was not available on our date, she took the time to reach out to other officiants to help us find someone! This...
was a huge help to my fiance' and I. Such a pleasure!
Joyce was a pleasure to work with for our wedding! My fiancé and I met with Joyce for our first meeting with any officiant. We were blown away! We only met with one other officiant...
(a day later) and we both knew immediately that Joyce was the one. Joyce gave us plenty of time to review the ceremony reading options, and even helped us cut it down to avoid it being too lengthy. Our wedding day went so smoothly, and we have gotten many responses from our guests that they loved Joyce! Of course they did! We highly recommend MDDCWeddings! Joyce is fantastic!
So glad we had chosen Joyce to co-officiate our wedding. She was funny, listened to our suggestions, and professional. I would highly recommend her to anyone.
We picked Joyce after our first meeting and were very pleased with our selection. She was very helpful and accommodating and had great advice about the area and other vendors. We a...
re a lesbian couple, and never felt weird or uncomfortable when setting up our ceremony. Everything went as planned without any issue.
Having Joyce officiate our wedding was a major highlight of our wedding day. She was so charismatic, kind, and professional. Our favorite thing about Joyce was that she really took...
the time to get to know my husband and I as a couple. Joyce didn't just show up to our wedding. She talked to us, met with us beforehand, and really got a feel for who we were and what we were looking for in an officiant. She was professional the entire time, and yet had an infectious humor that made our wedding day so relaxed and enjoyable. Our guests adored her as well. Joyce was just phenomenal, and I will be recommending her without hesitation to everyone I know getting married.
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