4.9 out of 5 stars and 174 reviews
4.9
(174)Serving Austin Texas and Surrounding areas.
About this vendor
Short and Sweet Weddings has a team of Officiants who are ready to marry you whenever and wherever! Our Officiants customize each wedding so that no two ceremonies are the same. Each ceremony is unique and personal, we want your guests to say "That was sooo them!" when they attend your wedding.
Our price INCLUDES travel fees, unlimited consultations, and any sort of tradition or unity ceremony ritual you want to do during the wedding. We have done some PRETTY COOL stuff!
WE A BILINGUAL OFFICIANT -and- we are LGBTQ friendly.
All prices are listed on our website. Talk to your venue or coordinator for a PROMO CODE for a possible discount on our fees. We can't wait to help you GET MARRIED!
Details
Business Attributes
- Woman-owned Business
Ceremony Types
- Civil Union
- Elopement
- Interfaith Ceremony
- Non-Religious Ceremony
- Religious Ceremony
- Second Wedding
Planning
- Se Habla Español
Religious Affiliations
- Buddhist
- Christian
- Catholic
- Mormon
- Orthodox
- Protestant
Wedding Activities
- Premarital Counseling
- Wedding
- Ceremony
Awards and Affiliations
9-Time 'Best of Weddings'
2025.2024.2023.+6 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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4.9
out of 5.0174 reviews
Review photos
Showing slide number 1 out of 9
We're so glad we picked Shelly to officiate our wedding. She met with us several times, in person and over the phone, to get to know us and develop a speech that was personal, funn...
y, serious, and meaningful to us. The name of the company is Short and Sweet, but I actually thought it was the perfect length. Our speech (which she sent to us to review) was 2500 words including speaker notes, and covered a lot of ground, from honoring our guests, to discussing our relationship and our values, to giving marriage advice, and saying our vows.
Shelly made sure to hit on all of the elements we consider important, and delivered her speech with poise and sincerity that I thought added a lot of gravity to the moment. That being said, Shelly has a bright, energetic attitude that immediately comes through when she speaks, and I think that balanced out the serious nature of the words, underscoring the joy of getting married. One thing I really appreciate about Shelly is that she comes off as such a real person. This isn't AI writing your wedding ceremony speech; it's a real person who you've had real conversations with.
Shelly helped us a lot to define what our ceremony would look like. It was really useful to have someone with so much experience who could suggest things and help us make decisions. For example, she had recommended we come up with a unity ceremony, but after a bunch of googling we hadn't found one that seemed to fit us. She suggested the perfect idea: an anniversary box where we write letters to each other and guests write letters to us, and we seal it all up to read on our first anniversary. To that box, she added a copy of our script, and our private vows we had read earlier in the day.
I want to highlight one experience that shows how serious Shelly takes her job. We met with Shelly in person, and she told us she'd get us a draft of our speech within a few days. Well, a week went by and we didn't hear anything; we thought nothing of it as we had plenty of time before the wedding. A few days later, we got an email from her saying she had a near-death experience due to an infection that put her in the hospital with a fever of 106 if I remember correctly. She said "I must apologize for the delay in getting this script to you! I promised you this script way before now, so I feel bad about that!". She had attached the finished script.
We booked Samantha White from Short and Sweet Weddings as our wedding officiant for our April 2026 wedding. We picked her from a few different Short and Sweet Wedding Officiants, a...
s she really seemed to fit our more laid back vibe. A few weeks before the ceremony we met with Samantha to talk about what we wanted included and tell our story. She then did a great job of working with us to develop a wedding ceremony that was exactly what we were looking for. She also helped us pick out a good quote for my grandma to read during the ceremony. For the actual ceremony, Samantha was great at following the script, while also being adaptable and loose to make it feel less regimented. She did an amazing job, and we would highly recommend her for your wedding officiant.
We had a wonderful experience with Short and Sweet Weddings—especially with Gary Motal as our officiant.
We left an officiant for a bit later in our planning process, but they wer...
e incredibly responsive and easy to work with. They offered a variety of officiants and made thoughtful recommendations based on our preferences, which made the process feel efficient but still personalized.
From the moment we heard Gary’s voice on our initial consult call, we immediately felt at ease and confident that he would do a great job. That feeling carried all the way through our wedding day. He struck the perfect balance we were looking for—mostly secular, with a fairly traditional structure and vows, and just a touch of light religious elements.
Gary provided a strong first draft of the ceremony and we were able to easily make edits and incorporate personal stories. On the day of, he delivered everything beautifully. He has such a calm, reassuring presence, and even handled unexpected moments (like train noises mid-ceremony) with humor.
Beyond the ceremony itself, Gary has been incredibly thoughtful—keeping us updated on our marriage license and even sharing helpful marriage advice along the way.
We’re so grateful for his role in our day and would highly recommend him to any couple looking for a warm, professional, and personalized ceremony experience.
We had Jackie as our officiant for our wedding and she was marvelous! She was warm and welcoming, and very flexible in scheduling. The ceremony was so reflective of my husband and ...
I and we appreciate Jackie's expertise and attention to detail.
David was a pleasure to work with - our guests absolutely loved the ceremony. He made it intimate and full of love and tailored it exactly to our needs. He gave such beautiful advi...
ce and took the time to get to know us. Highly recommend!
Shelly was a pleasure to work with at Short and Sweet Weddings and made the process of hiring and working with an officiant a breeze. The team at Short and Sweet is organized and t...
imely with responses and Shelly created a ceremony for me and my fiancé that was beyond perfect. She also was aware of the framing for photos and videos and kept in mind when she needed to and didn't need to be behind me and my fiancé in shots. I also appreciate that she/her team took care of our marriage license after the ceremony so we could head into our honeymoon not having to stress about those logistics. She was a critical part of our team and I would recommend her and her team to anyone looking for an officiant in the central Texas area.
Any word I write about Shelly will be an understatement. She was truly amazing. We loved how personable, friendly, and accommodating she was. She made our ceremony special and so s...
weet. It was truly an honor to work with her and have her be a big part of our special day
We were so lucky to have Alby (Albania Ventura) officiate our ceremony. Her personality, warmth and charm were exactly what we wanted. We had so many guests compliment her and coul...
dn't have asked for a better officiant. Highly highly recommend!
Gary Lanier officiated our September 2024 wedding at the Videre in Wimberley, TX and did an incredible job! The crowd loved his humor and moving words at our service. He was profes...
sional and kind from start to finish! My husband and I can’t recommend him enough! Thank you so much Gary and Short and Sweet Weddings for helping to make our big day so special!
Gary Motal officiated our wedding on 5/25/24. He was very easy to work with. We wanted a very simple ceremony and he created a wonderful short and sweet wedding. We would 100% reco...
mmend him as your officiant!
Highly highly recommend! We had David Tropea, and he knocked it out of the park! He was super receptive to our wishes (no prayer/religion) and wrote an absolutely beautiful ceremon...
y. He sent us the script and asked if any changes should be made, and we loved it and didn't want to make a single change!! He had our guests laughing and smiling, and it was indeed short & sweet, but also so tasteful and PERFECT!!
Short and Sweet Weddings is the way to go! We had David Tropea, and he felt like family. He was kind, funny, had the perfect script written out for my husband and I, and you can cl...
early see that he genuinely cares about the couples he works with.
We hired Shelly for our wedding but 4 days before the wedding we were told that she wouldn't be able to make it due to another opportunity that she was offered. Her replacement, Ja...
ckie, was good, and they did try to make it up to us, but this is not the sort of thing you want to happen the week of your wedding. Writing the script with Shelly was enjoyable and I'm fine with how everything went overall, just can't bring myself to give 5 stars.
Gary was a hit. We had multiple guests come up to us after the ceremony to commend his style and delivery. He is also very sweet and professional.
We had Gary Lanier as our officiant, He is excellent in it. He also give us blessing prayer.
David Tropea truly felt like family on our special day and we are so thankful to have met him! We met twice over coffee over the course of a few months, and during each conversatio...
n, he truly took the time to get to know us as individuals and as a couple. Not only that - he helped walk us through things like ceremony flow, obtaining a marriage license, etc. The ceremony he ultimately prepared captured our vibe and love story perfectly - truly, it was pure poetry.
Words can’t express how grateful we are for David and Short and Sweet Weddings. You can count on him to craft a wedding ceremony that's heartfelt, memorable, and true to you. Highly, highly recommend!
So happy we went with Short & Sweet Weddings. They responded very quickly to our initial inquiry, we went forward with Johnny Shafer as our officiant and couldn’t of been happier o...
r satisfied. He was so kind and easy to talk with in terms of what we wanted and his input/experience. Pricing is very reasonable and they have a group of officiants to choose from that you feel fits you and your significant other best. Highly recommend.
Short and Sweet weddings helped deliver the best ceremony we could've ever dreamed of! David really got to know us and gave us a ceremony that was personalized exactly to our need...
s. We are so thankful!
We had Johnny Shafer as our wedding officiant. He was super helpful in the planning process by sending us a couple of scripts to pick from, while also allowing us to add our person...
al touches to it! He was awesome during our wedding ceremony!! We loved his personality and loud voice. Thanks Johnny!
Shelly was fantastic! She made our ceremony so special, so unique to us, and so unbelievably memorable. She was warm, caring, funny! and made such an effort to get to know us and w...
hat would be important to our friends and family. Could not recommend her more!!!
Shelly with Short and Sweet Weddings was absolutely a DREAM to work with. From the moment we contacted them about officiating, they were responsive, kind, and informative. When we ...
met with Shelly, she was so lovely and spent some time getting to know us. When we got our script, I was in tears almost instantly! It was so personal and meaningful to my now husband and I. We couldn't have been more pleased with how it turned out. During the wedding day, she checked in with us right away to finalize some last minute changes. SO many guests came up to me at the cocktail hour and reception and raved about how AMAZING Shelly was. I am still getting calls about her! She is truly a talented person and you can fully trust her. From the bottom of my heart, I highly recommend Shelly and Short and Sweet Weddings!!!
We selected David Tropea from Short and Sweet Weddings and what a blessing it was to have him as our wedding officiant. David took the time to have an initial call and then physica...
lly met with us about a month before our wedding. A meeting that was supposed to be 30 minutes lasted into 3 hours of great conversations and getting to genuinely know each other. This was truly a memorable experience along with our wedding day, where David Tropea vividly exclaimed our love in such a beautiful and powerful manner through his words. David, we are very thankful to have met you! Thank you for everything.
Gary Motal was our wedding officiant and he did a wonderful job! We felt at ease while he was performing our ceremony, even though we had never met him in person before, but had on...
ly talked on the phone and through email. He is very good at what he does and we are happy with his officiating services! Thanks Gary!
David was our officiant and he did a great job. He was so kind and took the time to get to know us and our story so that our ceremony felt a little more personal. Everything day of...
f was excellent and I would highly recommend his services!
Gary was fantastic. The whole ceremony went perfectly. From the start Gary was very flexible and accommodating as far as how we wanted the ceremony carried out, which was important...
to us. When the day arrived he was ready to go and nailed it like a pro. Thanks again, Gary for being part of our special day.
What an amazing company to complete our wedding. Gary was the most attentive officiant. He took the time to speak with us and get to know us before the wedding day. He tailored the...
ceremony to what we wanted and we couldn't be more thrilled with our decision.
Wow - I cannot say enough amazing things about David and the team here. We knew we did not want our ceremony to be long or drawn out and honestly I was at first a little worried ab...
out hiring someone who had never met us but when I tell you that the moment we met David I knew we were in good hands and it was going to be perfect. And honestly... it was. He took the time to meet with us before the ceremony at a café, sent over the ceremony script he had for our approval and even threw in a couple "curveballs" (he'll get that joke) that weren't in there that made it all the more special hearing them for the first time. The professionalism that he has is what you want for your wedding. The ceremony is such an important part that even if you are looking for something "short and sweet", you will want to make sure it is done right. Make sure to hire him and you will not be disappointed!
We are so thrilled that we were able to book Short & Sweet Weddings for our ceremony. From the moment we met Shelly, we knew we were in good hands. She was so patient and answered ...
all of our questions during the planning process. She customized her words to incorporate our love story wonderfully. We cant recommend Shelly at Short & Sweet Weddings enough!!
Short and Sweet Weddings was incredible. My wife and I loved the pre-ceremony meeting with our officiant and their process for getting to know us. It was helpful to see a script af...
ter that and be asked for our feedback and input. Amazing experience overall, super flexible, and exactly what we were looking for! Request Jackie as she is awesome!
We worked with Shelly Cole for our wedding this past weekend and she was the best person for us! When we were initially starting the process, I mentioned my goals for our ceremony ...
were short (it was outside and hot), personal, and fun....and she checked all those boxes! The ceremony was a true reflection of us and how special our relationship is. From saving my eyes from the burning sunset light, to making the audience laugh multiple times it was everything I wanted. Shelly attended the rehearsal the day before and was successful in corralling the rowdy groomsmen (which is a feat in itself) and make sure everyone knew where to be day of. She also left a copy of the script for us to hang onto which was very special to read through the next day. I can't thank her enough for all her attention to detail and her electric smile all day, it made me feel so comfortable!
We worked with Shelly Cole for our small August wedding. She was an absolute joy to work with! She is one of those people who genuinely loves what she does and it shows. She made s...
ure our vows and ceremony were a true reflection of us and our personalities. She let us edit the script as many times as we wanted until we felt it was perfect for us. I loved how customizable her ceremony script was. She was also so helpful on our rehearsal day and made sure the entire wedding party knew what to do on the day of. She took care of so many small details and I can't thank her enough. I highly recommend Short and Sweet Weddings!
I found this company through my wedding planner, blue moon events Texas! Shelly was our officiant for our day & she was amazing! Meeting with her made me think about certain things...
I wanted and appreciate her creativeness. She was so kind and very responsive when I had questions!
The company S&S is also affordable compared to most that I looked at! Higher these people to take care of you! They’re seriously the best!
Short and Sweet Weddings came recommended by our vendor, The Terrace Club, and on The Knot. After our first meeting with Gary I knew he would be the perfect officiant for us. He ...
was funny and curious and gave both my husband and I a sense of ease. We are both very shy and don’t like to be in front of large groups, so the ceremony aspect of the wedding was the part we were the most nervous about. He made us feel so comfortable and accommodate as he walked us through writing our personalized vows and when we asked him to read them for us he didn’t even blink. He gave us an amazing experience!
I was excited for our wedding ceremony after meeting with David- he asked some great questions and seemed like he really got to know us. When I received the ceremony, I have to adm...
it I was really unimpressed. The grammar was all over the place and it felt very generic. To his credit, he made edits when I requested, but I still had to essentially write an entire paragraph myself and fix the grammar edits.
My actual issue, though, was that he went completely off script during our ceremony. He rambled a little and then actually got lost and had an awkward pause where he flipped through pages trying to find his place.
In hindsight, I think I would have hired someone else. He was a nice guy but I felt like the service wasn't was I was expecting or worth what I paid for it.
Shelly made things really easy for us. She took our initial thoughts and crafted a memorable and unique ceremony script - perfect for us.
Her calm and happy demeanor made us at ea...
se on the wedding day. She provided us with direction during the ceremony while engaging with the crowd and projecting well so everyone could hear.
Scott Cole was our wedding officiant, and was fantastic! As soon as we talked with him, he put you at ease (which is hard to do, planning a wedding). He explained his process, an...
d told us to submit our vows to him, and he would review (to make sure one was not super long, and was very short). He provided us with his script, and offered us to change up as needed.
During the ceremony, he was great with his presentation of his speech. He made sure he had copies of each of our vows, so we read off them! Many guest complimented how wonderful he made the ceremony! He even posed for pictures with us! Thanks for making our day special Scott!
We just had Scott Cole as our wedding officiant. What can we say about Scott?
Well there aren’t enough or accurate enough adjectives to convey how Outstanding, Fabulous, Awesome Sc...
ott was for us!!!
We were so nervous and in particular, me as the Groom. Scott came in and during our first meetings gathered information about us, the venue and what we wanted.
Scott worked with the family member handling the music and made sure we all knew what we needed to do, and how to position ourselves for the perfect pictures
On the day of the wedding, Scott was there early directing all the particulars and at the ceremony he was so Awesome!!!!
He made us comfortable and his wedding script was designed for us.
When I was overwhelmed he took my elbow and let me know all was well.
Scott is the MAN! I’d pay Sweet and Short Wedding twice what they charge and Scott is forever part of our family and is invited to any motorcycle event we have. He is a true honest and great person.
Sweet and Short weddings should be your choice for your wedding officiant service!!!
Brian and Erica
100% would recommend!! Shelly was absolutely wonderful, from the first few minutes of meeting with her via zoom we were immediately at ease and certain with our choice. She wrote a...
wonderful service and we had the opportunity to review it within a few days of our meeting and we made any changes we wanted. When it came to the big day, Shelly was a calming presence at the altar while waiting for the bride. The words she spoke were excellent, well delivered and loved by everyone. We would not have changed a thing. At the end of the ceremony she left a copy of our service and vows and we look at it fondly. We cannot recommend Shelly enough.
We use Cheryl for our wedding, and we were super happy with our choice! She was on time, responsive, and perform the ceremony well. We filled out a questionnaire ahead of time abou...
t our relationship, and Cheryl was able to pull personal anecdotes to use within the ceremony. Would recommend!
We used Cheryl for our wedding, and we were so happy with our choice! Cheryl was super responsive, on time, and did a great job with the ceremony. We had to fill out a questionnair...
e about our relationship ahead of time, and she was able to include personal anecdotes within the ceremony. Would recommend!
We had Cheryl officiate our wedding. Cheryl is an absolute dream! We also added on pre-marital counseling classes with her so we were able to really get to know each other before t...
he wedding. Cheryl is one of the sweetest people and also brings some humor to the ceremony. Everyone told us how much they liked our officiant! She makes the process incredibly easy and I cannot recommend her enough! Thank you, Cheryl!
Our wedding ceremony was amazing, short and sweet! Gary did an awesome job and made the cermony not only personal but also very special. Every guest complimented the script, said t...
hey had shed a tear or two and found it well short, sweet and to the point. I would hands down recommend their services!
Short and Sweet Weddings did an absolutely amazing job with our wedding ceremony, and everyone who works there is great. Our officiant, Rev. Cheryl Broome, made our ceremony so per...
sonal and told our love story so well. Plus, she was a great help at our rehearsal when our coordinator wasn't able to make it. Cheryl is so kind and really makes your day feel so special. I would highly recommend Short and Sweet Weddings to anyone needing an officiant.
True to the vendor’s name, our wedding was short but still very sweet! Shelly Cole was our officiant, and she sent us emails with a lot of helpful information about the process in ...
addition to meeting with us closer to our wedding date. Shelly patiently listened to our stories and really got to know us. She was extremely personable, and it was clear she really loves what she does. It was an absolute joy meeting her. Because Shelly really wanted to make sure we loved our ceremony, she made sure we were able to see and approve the script (minus our unique vows), and we were impressed that she even spent the time to do research specific to our interests to make the ceremony that much more personalized and special! On the day, Shelly made sure to wear something that would be appropriate for our wedding look and style and delivered our ceremony script with passion and grace. Shelly also gave us a keepsake script, which includes her script and our vows, that we can keep with us. We loved every moment of our ceremony, which we now get to keep with us forever, and it was all thanks to Shelly!
Scott was an amazing officiant for our wedding! He was honestly our favorite vendor and we were complimented by our wedding guests on how spectacular he was. We highly recommend hi...
m for any wedding or event!
We had David as our officiant for our wedding, and we couldn’t ask for anyone more perfect. He is so very kind and down to earth. He really took the time to customize the his speec...
h for us and incorporated many of the more unique ideas we wanted in to this amazing speech.
Scott Cole officiated our wedding on 9/25/21 at Barr Mansion in Austin. From our first meeting with him, we knew he would be amazing. Scott wrote a beautiful ceremony script and a...
llowed us to make edits so it felt more personal to our relationship (we didn’t even need to change much because the script was already so great). He is charismatic, professional, and genuine but also made us feel comfortable and understood. He showed up on time and handled everything with our marriage license, just as promised. Scott exceeded our expectations and we’re so glad he was able to officiate our wedding!
We finally had our (thrice) rescheduled COVID wedding, and it was fantastic! Cheryl officiated, and she was amazing. I can't tell you how many people mentioned specifically what a ...
great job she did. Her remarks were personal, heartfelt, and fit the mood of our wedding perfectly. Thank you for making our day so special!
Gary was our officiant and he did a great job! He got to know us beforehand and let us review his speech before he finalized it. On our wedding day, he punctual, friendly, and pr...
ofessional. Would definitely recommend.
We worked with Shelly for our wedding on September 4th, 2021. She is absolutely amazing to work with, very enthusiastic, and she makes you feel so comfortable. She wrote a beautifu...
l script for our ceremony and incorporated our wishes into it with no problem. I would HIGHLY recommend Shelly and this company to any bride who wants an authentic and personalized wedding ceremony experience.
Contact
PO Box 1234, Austin, TX | Serving Austin Texas and Surrounding areas.
Short and Sweet Weddings's photos