4.8 out of 5 stars and 53 reviews
4.8
(53)Metro Philly, Delaware, south Jersey, but also will travel
About this vendor
** The Knot does not text about an inquiry. For faster response, please write me here and let me know about yourselves (Jewish, interfaith, secular) -- but also send a text. TY! 267-902-7752.
"How is this officiant different from all other officiants?" I can offer an answer in one sentence. In the words of Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan: "I believe the past has a vote, but not a veto." (i.e. While the traditions of any religion or culture are a great place to BEGIN the process of (anything), they do not dictate it -- esp. when they don’t reflect YOUR beliefs.)
It completely applies to weddings. I NEVER officiate the same ceremony twice (as s0 many "budget" officiants do.) I don't hand you a few pre-scripted ceremonies and ask you to pick. Worse, I don't do a ceremony written in the Middle Ages and which has been done for every couple, the exact same way, ever since! [As if every couple is the same; as if human values have not evolved; as if the scientific method has not affected our theological beliefs from the men who wrote the texts that form the foundation of our traditions!?!]
I take great care to learn about you, YOUR values, and create a ceremony that celebrates YOUR unique love story.
Probably 80% of the couples I marry are Catholic-Jewish partners, but I've married Quakers, Hindus, Baptists -- you name it! My non-Jewish couples usually self-define as "spiritual but not religious"; I can create a ceremony with SO much more heart and soul than a "justice of the peace" would because I've seen them!
I'm officially ordained as a rabbi and have I've studied or worked in all non-Orthodox Jewish groups for 30 years: Reconstructionist, Secular Humanist, Reform, Conservative, Renewal.
My first career was journalism, and I've written a wealth of resources to help you weigh your ceremony options. I'm also a certified facilitator with Prepare&Enrich, an optional (free) program that measures how you compare in 9 key areas scientifically shown to affect marital happiness
.
Here is how the process works: FIRST, we have a phone call to "meet" (no obligation!) SECOND, I invite you to my home to brainstorm the MANY options you have for your ceremony; it takes ,2 hours (still no obligation!) THIRD, I write a ceremony based on your decisions for readings, rituals, etc.
You make a 50% deposit to reserve your date whenever you're ready.
The most popular (and unique) element of my ceremonies is "The Love Story.” Here, I ask you each to answer questions about how you met, your first date, what qualities you fell in love with, etc. You email me the answers privately – the surprise is half the fun!
I hope you can find time to read reviews other couples have left, as they really are the best testimony to my work. Also, don't miss the 5-minute video posted here showing highlights of a co-officiated ceremony I conducted with an Episcopalian.
I am HONORED to work with LGBTQ couples.
Congratulations on this exciting leap in your life!
-- Rabbi Joysa
Details
Business Attributes
- Woman-owned Business
Ceremony Types
- Civil Union
- Commitment Ceremony
- Interfaith Ceremony
- Non-Religious Ceremony
- Religious Ceremony
- Second Wedding
Religious Affiliations
- Buddhist
- Christian
- Quaker
- Interfaith
- Jewish
- Conservative
Wedding Activities
- Wedding
- Ceremony
Awards and Affiliations
2017 '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
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help
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4.8
out of 5.053 reviews
It’s been a few years since my wedding in October 2021 and I am writing this review now because it is still so unbearable to watch parts of my wedding video that involve Rabbi Joys...
a. It started with her forgetting about our scheduled meetings prior to our wedding. I even looked into other officiants but unfortunately it was too close to our wedding date. During our Ketubah signing, Rabbi Joysa started to play “jeopardy” Jewish version with the guests who were there (mostly our closest family). It was extremely awkward and we didn’t finish the signing because none of her pens worked and my guests started to arrive. I had to rush to the bridal suite and we had to finish signing the Ketubah there. During the ceremony when she read the love story part. The part we were most excited for, she only took pieces of it that she could make a joke out of like it was her personal stand up comedian routine. I kick myself for not saying something but how could I in the middle of my wedding ceremony and Ketubah signing in front of all my guests. Years later my family and guests still talk about how awkward and uncomfortable it felt. I married the love of my life and focus on that and the beautiful photos our photographer took and the video of our reception but I am so disappointed in the way she handled one of the most important days of my and my spouses life.
** First, one thing to know if that if you need general officiant-hiring advice (especially if you're wedding isn't in metro Philly), you can find Rabbi Joysa on Psychology Today a...
s a counselor who specializes in working with interfaith couples who are dating, engaged, planning a wedding, or even having roadblocks after marriage.
So I suggest you look for her contact info and profile on there if this applies to you! (She also has a Youtube channel she is planning to begin.)
As for my fiance and I, we began by having multiple pastoral counseling sessions via Psychology Today -- and then we decided to pay to fly her to our state to host the wedding. This is/was NOT her goal, but we so fell in love with her energy and joyful spirit, we decided it was worth the cost.
After all, the ceremony is the most important part of a wedding, we believed.
As an interfaith couple, we began our wedding planning process feeling TOTALLY lost as to what kind of officiant to hire, what to look for in an officiant, whether we should hire a rabbi or Protestant minister -- on and on! It honestly felt so overwhelming, especially because we didn't know what was "typical" or to be "expected"!
My fiance and I had seen 2 interfaith weddings before we were engaged and I can say, now that we have had ours, that Rabbi Joysa simply blew every other officiant out of the water!
She uses a "build-your-own-ceremony" process, providing options from the 8 elements in a traditional Jewish wedding, plus options from American traditions as well as the religion from the non-Jewish partner (all adapted for an interfaith audience of course.)
Not a single guest of the 200 people we had in attendance felt excluded, confused, or anything but wholly tapped in and emotionally connected.
People laughed, cried, smiled, rejoiced. It was all we could have ever asked for -- if not more!
Buyer BEWARE!! My husband and I are keeping this review factual because if we shared our feelings about the matter, it would be NOT be pretty. So here are the facts — each of which...
is well documented and provable. Joysa showed up late (we were so worried that the best man applied online to become an officiant while we waited!); she did not have the necessary materials she said she was bringing (copies of readings and the seven blessings); she was not dressed appropriately; and she offered no explanation or apology — not even a month later after several of us tried to reach her to discuss. She did NOT write our “love story” which was a big reason we chose her. She simply read our questionnaires word for word. She talked about her dating life in Denver and her cats multiple times throughout the ceremony. And worst of all, she literally threatened to “nullify” our marriage certificate when we disputed that we did not receive what we were paying for. You can certainly judge a vendor by how they handle a critique. (Btw all our other vendors were phenomenal!!) So in summary, we will echo what another reviewer of Joysa’s said back in June, do yourself a favor and STAY AWAY!!
Rabbi Joysa officiated my wedding 10/24/2021, the process of working with Joysa was relatively smooth, she did seem a bit unorganized with planning our pre-wedding meeting and ofte...
n took a while to answer emails or texts. Her packet of information she sent prior to the wedding was very helpful and ensured our wedding was personalized and unique. The ceremony was beautiful and perfect and so many guests came up to us after telling us how much they loved the ceremony. Prior to the wedding we separately answered questions about each other with she turned into our “love” story, this was definitely our favorite part! It was also nice to incorporate our friends and family into the ceremony with the 7 blessings ! Overall she made our ceremony perfect and we would recommend her to anyone !
Rabbi Winter was amazing to work with! In preparing for the ceremony she offered so many options to personalize our wedding, and make it fit just for us. As our guests were of mixe...
d faith, she did an awesome job explaining the jewish rituals we included in our ceremony, so that everyone was able to really follow along.
But what really blew us away was the work she put into our “love story”. She asked us a series of personal questions individually (like how we met, when we knew we loved one another, etc), and then put it together into a narrative that became the centerpiece of the ceremony.
She knocked it out of the park! Our guests laughed uproariously, our guests cried, and ever since they’ve been gushing about how wonderful our ceremony was. (And we have members of the family who work in the wedding industry.)
We could not be happier with how touching, beautiful, and all-around amazing the job Rabbi Winter did in officiating our ceremony.
Rabbi Joysa was so lovely to work with for our microwedding, which took place on 4.21.21. Prior to hiring her, she sent a very detailed email about who she was and what to expect. ...
Her warmth and passion just radiated from that email and we knew she was going to be “the one”! We clicked immediately after speaking over the phone and decided to hire her based on that. She was very helpful in subsequent conversations when we were selecting our ketubah and our in person meeting was great to plan the ceremony was great. There are so many decisions to factor for an interfaith wedding and Rabbi Joysa was incredibly knowledgeable about Jewish, Christian, and non-secular customs and traditions and was able to help us create a unique ceremony that was super personalized. She was sensitive to our needs and provided wonderful insight which helped in our decision-making. She provides couples robust options to select from, but will absolutely work with you if you’d like to use something that’s not part of her existing files. You definitely won’t be getting a “cookie-cutter” ceremony or officiant! Rabbi Joysa is friendly, kind, and funny and that sparkles throughout the ceremony she will help to create for you. We loved her inclusivity and her support! The Love Story, gleaned from questions that you and your partner answer separately, really adds that special touch for this important day. We definitely would recommend Rabbi Joysa for your event!
To say we are pleased with Rabbi Joysa’s wedding ceremony for our son and his now wife, is an understatement. The ketuba signing and the ceremony were filled with heartfelt since...
rity, beauty, helpful guidance to those that are of varied faiths and just the right amount of religiosity, given the fact that there were two faiths involved. It was a lovely day which began with a memorable ceremony and thanks to Rabbi Joysa will live forever within our hearts.
Joysa was an absolute DREAM to work with, from the first time we contacted her through the end of our wedding day.
My husband was raised Christian and I was raised Jewish/Irish Cat...
holic and we knew we wanted a Jewish ceremony but with a very humanistic feel to it that honored both of our backgrounds.
Joysa provided us with a very in depth 1:1 session where she helped us explore the many ways to do our wedding ceremony. She is so creative and really wants couples to have ceremonies that feel true to them. She also provides couples with lots of written information/articles on the meaning behind different ceremony aspects, and articles with advice for engaged people/newlyweds. We also chose to participate in the PrepareEnrich program with Joysa for pre-marital counseling (optional!) and we felt that working through that information with Joysa helped us learn how to navigate our new marriage together.
Even many weeks later, we still get compliments on how personal and moving our ceremony was! The guests and my husband and I really enjoyed having the LoveStory portion of the ceremony and we felt it was one of our favorite parts of the day. She also led a beautiful ketubah signing where we played "Jew-pardy" with our families, which was a really fun twist on the traditional signing.
We would recommend Joysa 1,000% to any potential clients. She is a beautiful person inside and out and really goes above and beyond to make couple's wedding days meaningful.
Rabbi Joysa was an absolutely wonderful wedding officiant. She offered the perfect amount of guidance while also encouraging us to make choices about the ceremony that felt authent...
ic to our partnership. A few months before the day, she sent us several comprehensive packets explaining various wedding traditions and options for the ceremony (both Jewish and interfaith), which we had so much fun sifting through to identify the components we thought would best suit us. She was incredibly organized (some of the packets even included information on logistics we never would have thought of--like flattening our ketubah before the wedding day!), and her ceremony beautifully blended our respective backgrounds and heritages and really felt like it captured the essence of our love story. Even though we had only met her a couple of months before our wedding, the ceremony could not have been more personalized—she even brought in an inside joke! Aside from crafting a beautiful ceremony, she is also an exceptionally engaging speaker--eloquent, accessible, and interactive. We're so grateful we had the opportunity to work with her. We can't recommend her highly enough!
My husband and I had originally planned on having a Catholic Priest and a Rabbi for our interfaith wedding. We ended up rethinking our plan and emailed the priest and rabbis we had...
originally contacted to notify them thanks but no thanks, we will be having a non-denominational wedding. Joysa wrote back with such a thoughtful response we decided to meet with her. Joysa helped us craft a beautiful wedding ceremony that gave respectful nods to both of our faith traditions. We chose Joysa because we wanted a personal feel to our wedding - a ceremony that would share a bit about who we were as a couple and as individuals. It was important to us because given our quick courtship and engagement many guests hadn't had a chance to meet one side of the couple. The "love story" that Joysa shared, based on our survey responses, was really special and provided great insights into our relationship and personalities.
We got many compliments on how personalized our service was and the way Rabbi Joysa explained the Jewish traditions to those in the audience who were not familiar with Jewish tradi...
tions.
Joysa was phenomenal and wonderful to work with! She started by letting us chose which ceremony to have and what traditions to include. Our story is that we're mixed faith, I'm 1/2...
Jewish and my now Husband is fully Catholic. We also loved that she incorporated an Irish ring warming since my Husband is Irish. I would recommend her over and over again for any ceremony, faith based or not. She is a wonderful human being.
We were originally going to do a self-uniting marriage but decided last minute to go with an officiant. Joysa was very accommodating and pleasant to work with. We had a beautiful I...
rish handfasting cermeony. Thank you, Joysa. :)
I am Jewish but my husband is not. We wanted a ceremony that included a lot of Jewish traditions but wasn't hugely religious and Joysa certainly delivered. We loved creating our ...
customized ceremony and found all of Joysa's resources incredibly helpful. We ended up with a personal and moving ceremony that truly showcased our love story!
Karen and I can't say enough good things about Joysa. She did a wonderful job helping us shape our ceremony into a very memorable and personal moment. Honestly, going into the plan...
ning, we didn't know what we were doing, and without her our ceremony would have been over in 10 minutes. Not to mention we were also planning our wedding from across the country over the phone. Joysa had so many amazing suggestions for us, and we were so appreciative that she was able to make everything so personalized even though we weren't able to meet her in person until the day of! We also appreciated her flexibility, as we were looking for a mostly secular wedding.. With Joysa's help, we ended up with a perfect combination of Jewish and Irish traditions without making our ceremony explicitly about religion. She truly captured both of our personalities in the ceremony, to the delight of our family and friends. Joysa got a ton of laughs out of our small wedding, and had us laughing during our own ceremony to cut the nerves, but also gracefully handled the more serious aspects of our ceremony. Joysa wasn't just our day-of officiant, but she really was the mastermind and author of our wedding. Our family and friends gave us tons of compliments, but the praise should be directed back to Joysa. Thank you again for helping us throw our dream wedding!
- J&K McMullen
I'll start with what is most important; I have been told by friends, family, staff on-site and our photographer that our ceremony was one of the most heartfelt, romantic, beautiful...
, and intimate ceremonies that they had ever experienced. And so much of that is due to Joysa.
While we planned our wedding from across the country, I had a feeling we'd connect well. When my (now) wife and I first met with Joysa, on her couch while her kids ran in and out with their friends, it felt like she was opening herself up to us and it made it that much easier on us to clearly outline what we wanted from our ceremony, who we were as a couple, and for Joysa to help guide us towards getting to that "perfect" ceremony.
She had the ceremony organized and broken up into sections, providing options from Jewish, Irish, and varying degrees of secularism - resonating deeply with our mixed and not-especially-religious selves. Joysa had cut to the primary message of traditional ceremonies and provided it with modern sentiments, which was incredible.
Our favorite part was our "Love Story", where we (separately) went through about a dozen questions detailing from our perspectives how we met, what we loved about one another, funny anecdotes, etc. During the ceremony, there was laughing (between my wife and I), crying (for all of our guests), and a wonderful memory.
I'm so happy we chose Joysa - our wedding would not have been nearly as good with another person. We had certainly looked for and considered a lot of options, but at the end of the day the wedding is all about, you know, actually getting married. It's worth it to make sure you have the best ceremony possible - and that's what Joysa gave us.
I found Joysa Winter researching on line. We needed a wedding offiante. I’m Jewish but my fiancé was not. When we met her I knew we had made the right choice. She was warm & cari...
ng. She listened to us and took the time to get to know us. She presented us with many unique options to add to our ceremony. She was easy to communicate with during the planning process. And the planning of the service was detailed. Which lent to a meaningful service...Many people complimented me on our service....
We loved working with Joysa! She truly did a wonderful job and telling of our love story was so sweet. She really connected with my MIL, who may start attending services at Joysa's...
synagogue. She also created a ceremony that was accessible to my non-jewish family and worked with us to incorporate Quaker traditions as well
We loved working with Joysa! From the very first phone meeting, she put us at ease. She provided a packet of information on navigating interfaith weddings that we turned to again a...
nd again while we were planning. The ceremony was so personalized, and we got tons of compliments on the various components, length, humor, etc. On the day of the wedding, she was efficient, on time and friendly to all of our guests. Worth every penny!
We really enjoyed having Joysa as our rabbi for our wedding. With Joysa, we were able to truly customize our wedding and make it ours. A ton of people have commented on how beautif...
ul the service was and how they felt like it was really "ours" and special. We also met with Joysa to discuss our future and how to incorporate religion into our lives in a way that was meaningful and comfortable to both of us since we came from different backgrounds. We appreciated that a lot!
The moment I met Joysa I knew she would be our officiant. She is kind, attentive, and very experienced with marriage ceremonies. Her expertise is Jewish ceremonies but she loves to...
add nontraditional pieces to every ceremony. She was very responsive via email before the ceremony and incorporated all of our requests. The ceremony felt so genuine and intimate and I wouldn't have changed a thing!
Thank you, Joysa, for our beautiful interfaith ceremony! My husband is an atheist but comes from an Irish Catholic family, and my family is Jewish-- both sides have never been to t...
he other religion's wedding before! Joysa took the time to get to know us and to customize a ceremony that included our family's traditions in a meaningful way. Not to mention the funny stories she shared from our couples' questionnaire. Many of our guests even came up to us throughout the night asking for her contact info and saying that was the best ceremony they've ever been to! Thank you for making our day so special!
We highly recommend Joysa! She helped make our wedding ceremony personalized and exactly what we wanted. She took the time to get know us and learn about our love story and really ...
helped to make our wedding represent us! We are both catholic but wanted to get married outdoors and incorporate Irish traditional aspects as well as our own ideas related to our own beliefs and joysa helped us to do this perfectly!! Our guests told us our wedding was so unique and personal and so filled with love! We are so thankful and highly recommend joysa!!
We are so thankful for Joysa being our officiant. We were a very indecisive couple about what elements we wanted for our wedding ceremony. Joysa got to know us on a personal level ...
and provided us with a wealth of information and options to consider. She was knowledgable and very easy going and helped us merge celtic and jewish traditions seamlessly. Her ceremony was beautiful, personalized and reflected us perfectly. We received so many compliments on the service!
Thank you for our beautiful ceremony and making everything come together to ensure a special day with our friends and family.
Joysa was a pleasure to work with. She sent us a ton of information about the ceremony and things we would like to add/remove. We had a Skype call originally with her because of...
the distance and she made us feel at ease. Due to weather restrictions we had to hurry up our ceremony slightly and she made it seamless for us. Highly recommend!
Joysa was great and very welcoming. She had a wealth of information and options for us to consider to pull together our ceremony. It did not matter that neither of us is Jewish, ...
Joysa happily worked with us to pull it all together and it was lovely! We felt an immediate connection with her within minutes of meeting her, and this helped as we were on a very tight schedule. With Joysa's guidance, we pulled practices adapted from a number of different cultures throughout history including a Celtic handfasting ceremony. We are so happy with how the ceremony turned out and could not have done it without Joysa. Thank you!
Joysa aided us in developing a personal ceremony that fit our wishes and that was unlike any we had seen before. She found novel ways of including the audience in the ceremony, whi...
ch made for a more inclusive experience. And, she developed enough knowledge about our relationship to be able to speak about it during the ceremony. We have received numerous independent compliments on the ceremony itself, which makes us happy. Working with Joysa was a pleasure. She was punctual, accessible, and professional, all of which helped to smooth the way towards a wonderful ceremony. We recommend Joysa with full confidence.
Everything was amazing!!! She truly encoperated every aspect possible of both our families, Jewish and Irish.
We wanted to thank you for the amazing job you did with our wedding ketubah signing and ceremony. It was so touching and even more wonderful than we could have ever hoped for. Yo...
u really captured our relationship together and beautifully incorporated our backgrounds. We really cannot thank you enough. Everyone we spoke to said how wonderful it was. You truly have a gift.
Joysa is great and we really enjoyed working with her to prepare our ceremony. She is extremely knowledeable and was very adaptable to what we wanted and didn’t want in our ceremo...
ny as an interfaith couple. We especially loved how Joysa asked us to fill out questionnaires about how we met and what we loved about each other before our wedding— and to not share our answers with each other. During the ceremony, Joysa read our responses and it was such a touching addition to an already beautiful ceremony. Thank you again, Joysa!
Tommy and I are now back from our honeymoon and wanted to say THANK YOU for such a beautiful ceremony. We loved the whole ceremony and were very happy it fit us as a couple. We rec...
eived many compliments from family and friends about how beautiful and personal the ceremony was. Thank you for the time to get to us and use that in our wedding. We are so pleased with everything. :) I am so excited to get our video back and watch it over and over again.
Thank you so much for helping to make our wedding so wonderful. You made planning so easy, ensuring Ryan and I planned a ceremony that was truly a reflection of us. All of the reso...
urces you provided us with made planning go smoothly and you were always available to answer any questions that we had. As we knew it would be, the ceremony felt so personal, and perfectly captured our relationship. It was an incredible day, one we will remember with love …
Rabbi Joysa was our officiant for our wedding this past September (2016). From the moment we sat down with her we knew she was the right person to marry us. Actually we she was the...
first and only officiant we met with. We are an interfaith couple and she was the perfect person to help us fuse our different religions and backgrounds.
She was very helpful in deciding what traditions to include. She provides a lot of information, explanations of different traditions and how to put it all together. We also each secretly answered questions about each other and sent them to Joysa which then allowed her to craft this beautiful story during our ceremony.
Our ceremony was one of my favorite parts. It was so well done and had the perfect amount of humor and love weaved in. We got so many compliments after from our guests about how sweet and unique the ceremony was. It really was different from all other weddings I have been to and that's exactly what I wanted. We did not write our own vows but Rabbi Joysa had custom vows she had previously written and they were beautiful and neutral so we chose to read those. It was perfect.
I could not recommend her more. She can custom your ceremony with any tradition you want. She really is a Joy (pun in tended lol) and you should definitely hire her for your wedding!
We got back to NYC a couple of days ago from our honeymoon. We had planned to e-mail you and ask if you could send us a copy of the ceremony. It was so personal and beautiful. Both...
of our families loved it — and we did, too. How wonderful it was, then, to return home and find your package with the marriage certificate, The Empty Chair, and the text of our ceremony! Thank you so much for all that you have done for us. You helped make the most important part of our wedding inclusive, special and meaningful.
We had a truly wonderful experience working with Joysa. She was warm, kind, open and worked with us to craft a very personal and meaningful wedding ceremony.
Joysa officiated at my wedding recently and she did a great job. We spoke with her a few times in advance and she provided a lot of information and options for us, which really all...
owed us to create the ceremony we wanted. She made the ceremony very personal and many of our guests commented on how wonderful it was. She does not always respond to emails right away but I never had trouble reaching her by phone and we were very happy with our wedding ceremony.
Joysa officiated our wedding, which was a secular Jewish ceremony. Joysa did a wonderful job being flexible with me and my husband, who is not religious. We were able to combine a ...
variety of practices and our ceremony was exactly what we were looking for. It was also nice talking to Joysa throughout the process, she is a great person to talk to in general! I would recommend finalizing details at least a week before because typically there isn't a rehearsal if your not getting married at a church/synagogue. We had many compliments on what a beautiful ceremony it was and I look forward to have Joysa and an inspirational figure in our lives moving forward.
We could not imagine our wedding without Rabbi Joysa. She made our ceremony amazing. It was personal, beautiful, and just the right amount of humor for us. Joysa discussed every...
thing with us ahead of time, and catered the ceremony to exactly our liking. We would highly recommend her for anyone!
Rabbi Joysa was by far the best! When we first met her we had an instant connection and talked for almost
3 hours! The ceremony itself was PERFECT! She personalized it from our con...
versations and questionnaire. It was exactly what we wanted. She helped us create a wonderful, memorable ceremony. Everyone always tells us how much they loved it and I recommend her to everyone!!
Rabbi Winter was wonderful! She made us feel at ease and personalized our ceremony beautifully. My husband and I would recommend her to any interfaith couple who is looking for a u...
nique ceremony that suits their levels of religiosity (whether traditional, secular, or anything in between). We are so happy to have found a Rabbi/officiant who made us and both of our families feel comfortable and included in the ceremony. Thank you Rabbi Winter!!
Joysa officiated our wedding this September and put together a beautiful ceremony. Getting to know us ahead of time as a couple helped her prepare the most personalized ceremony i...
ncorporating both of our religions and cultures. She had our guests, and ourselves, cry, laugh, and cheer in happiness. Thank you for an incredible start to the rest of ours lives.
Joysa was recommended to us by a friend and was a great fit for us. We are both Jewish but looking for a modern way to incorporate Jewish wedding traditions. From our first meeti...
ng Joysa gave us unique suggestions and ways to make the ceremony personal to us. My favorite part is that Joysa makes an effort to get to know you and include personal stories into the ceremony. The ceremony blended bits of humor with traditional elements. All our guests commented how the ceremony was very representative of my husband and I and that is thanks to Joysa. She is flexible and willing to adapt the ceremony to make it perfect for you. Highly recommended!
Joysa was very easy to work with and we are so glad we chose her to officiate our wedding! She helped us incorporate Jewish traditions with our modern pro-feminist sensibilities
...
(and did this both long distance AND with a huge time difference)! We appreciated and our guests loved how she drew off our personalities and stories and magically wrapped things up just before a huge thunderstorm!
Joysa was an amazing officiant for our wedding. She made the ceremony very personal to who we are and touched everyone with her words. She is very thorough gathering information ...
prior to the ceremony and gave great packages of information to help us make decisions of what could be done during the ceremony. She brought in aspects of both of our faiths to make the ceremony complete. Thank you for such an amazing day to remember!
Joysa officated our wedding this summer at the Morris Arboretum. She was kind, open, and very helpful. Our ceremony was a mix of interfaith and secular, and Joysa worked hard to ma...
ke everyone feel included. Although we didn't meet her until about 4 months before the wedding, she was able to make the ceremony feel really personal. We can't recommend her enough!
-Sophie & Arthur
I can't say enough wonderful things about Joysa! She officiated our wedding last month and it was perfect. We met with her several months beforehand, and she gave us a ton of infor...
mation/options for our ceremony. I felt like we had complete ownership over the layout of our ceremony, while still being able to utilize her knowledge and experience. In the months leading up to the wedding, she was always available by email to answer our questions about timing, the ketubah, etc. My husband and I each completed a questionnaire about ourselves prior to the wedding, and Joysa used that to speak about us and our relationship during the ceremony, which was heartwarming and so personal. We decided it would be too much to write our own vows, so I really enjoyed still having that personal touch in the ceremony (with someone else reading it, so I wasn't completely hysterical!). For readings, the seven blessings, and vows, she gave us a plethora of options, which helped us personalize our ceremony without feeling overwhelmed, since we weren't starting from scratch.
As soon as the reception began, countless guests told us how much they enjoyed the ceremony and how personalized Joysa had made it. We have heard from so many people how much they enjoyed it, which is really a testament to Joysa. I would hands down recommend her to anyone who wants a personalized ceremony with Jewish traditions.
I was searching for an officiant for my "secular wedding with Jewish flair," as my fiancé called it, and I found Joysa's information online. I cannot stress how happy I am that I f...
ound her! We set our wedding date for August 10, 2013, and Joysa was always there for us with any questions or concerns that we had.
Unfortunately, due to circumstances out of our control, my fiancé and I had to legally get married a month before our actual wedding date. We could have gone to the courthouse, but we had already spoken with Joysa and felt such a connection, so we really wanted her to be the person marrying us. She was incredibly understanding, compassionate, and willing to come meet us at our convenience. She came with roses and on one of the hottest days of the summer, gave a short, simple, and beautiful ceremony.
A month later, Joysa came to our rescue again! She put together the most touching service, this time for our family members to see. All of our guests absolutely loved the "heart and soul" - the story she told about how Steve and I met and what we loved most about each other. Our service including a ring-warming ceremony, which I had never heard of, but the guests raved about the uniqueness of that as well.
Joysa is such a kind spirit - she was clearly born to unite others in their love and you can tell she takes so much pride in what she does. I cannot recommend her highly enough. She was such a pleasure to work with and made a stressful time much easier to work through. Thank you, Joysa!! - Kim and Steve
Joysa was the officiant for our recent wedding ceremony. We worked with her to create a Jewish-Quaker-secular wedding. Since the wedding, we have not stopped getting compliments on...
how beautiful, meaningful, and very "us" our ceremony was! Joysa struck a perfect balance between having us guide the overall structure of the ceremony, and using her own skill to craft it into something special.
We met with her once, and it was lovely. We then corresponded about the ceremony many times back and forth. She showed up on our wedding day fully prepared and conducted the best ceremony I could have imagined. I laughed and cried, as did all of our guests.
Joysa will work hard to make your wedding about YOU. Hiring her is absolutely one of the best decisions we made about our wedding.
Joysa met with my (now) husband and I and was available for a myriad of phone calls, emails and meetings! She asked us several questions and was able to extract a wonderful wedding...
ceremony from our [often] scattered stories. She is a great listener and is wonderful at working with families of all kinds and religious (or lack of) circumstances.
She was willing to work within the constraints of our limited budget and was amazing at going with the flow of our [most of the time] chaotic family.
Joysa is incredibly unique and articulate and very capable. Her words (and advice) ring true and will forever be recorded on our wedding video and within our hearts.
Our ceremony was beautiful, thanks to Joysa! She took the time to get to know both of us and incorporated everything we wanted into the ceremony. She is so well spoken! Our cere...
mony was personal, and everything we wanted it to be! We recieved so many compliments from friends and family on how great the ceremony was. I am so pleased with everything!
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Foxcroft Road, Broomall, PA | Metro Philly, Delaware, south Jersey, but also will travel
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