About this vendor
The Modern Officiant presides over weddings in and around Atlanta, GA. Owner Jemelle Wooten believes that great weddings start with great officiants, and she is excited to bring her enthusiasm, warmth, and expertise to your ceremony. Jemelle specializes in same-sex unions but loves marrying all couples. She believes love is not about gender but about the merging of two souls, and she welcomes all those who feel the same.
Jemelle is a wife, mother, and Air Force Veteran who holds an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management. She was ordained in 2016 and has been conducting weddings ever since. This professional loves meeting with lovebirds and hearing the story of how they met and fell in love. She will then bring this story to life as they tie the knot before friends and family.
The Modern Officiants performs celebrations both large and small. Whether you're planning an intimate elopement, a grand affair, or a simple civil ceremony, Jemelle has you covered. She will get to know you and your partner and provide a heartfelt, genuine, and customize experience that honors the unique connection you share. This officiant also offers counseling and coaching in order to help clients prepare not just for their wedding, but for the marriage that follows.
Details
Business Attributes
- Black-owned Business
- LGBTQ+-owned Business
- Veteran-owned Business
- Woman-owned Business
Ceremony Types
- Civil Union
- Commitment Ceremony
- Elopement
- Interfaith Ceremony
- Non-Religious Ceremony
- Religious Ceremony
Wedding Activities
- After The Wedding
- Newlywed Life
- Premarital Counseling
- Wedding
- Ceremony
Awards and Affiliations
2023 '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.
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Reviews
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5
out of 5.026 reviews
Review photos
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We cannot say enough wonderful things about Jemelle! From the very beginning, her organization and knowledge shone through, making the entire planning process seamless. She crafted...
a beautiful program that perfectly captured our love story, and her calm, warm demeanor put us—and our guests—at ease.
Our friends and family were all big fans of her, and many commented on how personal and unique our ceremony felt. She provided thoughtful suggestions that truly made our vows stand out, and her attention to detail even extended to checking our vows for any grammatical issues, ensuring everything was just right.
Communication was always clear and timely, which helped us feel supported every step of the way. Overall, she made our special day even more memorable, and we couldn't have asked for a better officiant. Highly recommend her!
Jemelle was thoughtful and attentive, personable and professional. We truly appreciated the unique touches she helped put on our special day!
A very overdue review. Jemelle officiated my wedding on April 20, 2023. She was so professional, helpful, organized, and all around amazing during our planning process. Coordinatio...
n on the day-of was excellent! Jemelle really captured who my partner and I are as a couple and was able to celebrate us perfectly on our day. Jemelle even filed all of our paperwork for us afterwards so we had one less thing to do after our wedding. If you're on the fence, 100 times YES! YES! YES! Go with The Modern Officiant.
Words cannot describe how special Jemelle is. We found her based on straight reviews. Let me tell you the reviews do not do her justice. She is the most kind, caring and loving per...
son I have ever met. We used her for our premarital counseling and our wedding ceremony. She was patient and understanding with us learning how to communicate properly. She went above and beyond for us. What makes her amazing is she really truly cares about us and our relationship and that was special. I lost my grandma that who would’ve officiated on our special day. I told her I wanted someone to reflect what my grandmother did. She exceed that and more. I highly recommend her to anyone looking for an officiant who cares and will go above and beyond for you. We love you Jemelle - Jailyn and Marcus
From the moment we met with Jemelle, we knew that she was the perfect officiant for us. As an LGBTQIA+ couple, navigating a heteronormative wedding industry had us defeated at time...
s, especially when we were looking for an officiant. Jemelle was instantly welcoming and we loved talking with her! She's professional, answered our million questions, and was extremely helpful. Our ceremony was perfectly tailored towards us and so many of our guests made sure to go out of the way tell us just how incredible she was (which we already knew, but that was good to hear)! We would recommend her and her services to anyone, but especially if you're a queer couple. Thank you, Jemelle!
Jemelle was phenomenal, arrived early and fit right in with our family - hanging out and relaxing pre-ceremony. Everyone commented later how great it was to meet Jemelle.
The que...
stions asked of my fiance and I beforehand served to create the perfect, tailored ceremony with very personal nods to our lives together thus far. It made our whole day so sweet and romantic, and really set the tone for the rest of the night.
I would recommend Jemelle to ANYONE looking for a more personalized wedding ceremony lead by a soul that radiates kindness, acceptance and love.
We feel so fortunate to have Jemelle officiate our elopement. She is very professional, reliable, friendly, caring and compassionate even though we changed plans many times. Her ca...
lm and peaceful demeanor made our elopement a perfect little ceremony for us. She wrote vows for us that seemed like she had known us for years and expressed our feelings better than we could have ever done on our own. Jemelle was incredible supportive and we highly recommend her to officiate at your wedding!
I highly recommend The Modern Officiant! Everything was so smooth, personal AND fun! Thank you!
"If we didn't already have an officiant, we would get her." That's an actual quote from one of our guests who got married two weeks after our ceremony. That tells of the awesomenes...
s that is Jemelle. She got to know us (via counseling sessions) and sprinkled that knowledge throughout the nuptials. Her warmth, personality and words all lent themselves to the magic of the moment. I really can't say enough about her save - get her if you can!
Jamelle was amazing. We would highly recommend her. Her ceremony was sweet, customized to us and exactly what we were looking for. ❤️
Jemelle was super amazing and very accomodating. My husband and I decided to get married the "untraditional" way. We had a few hiccups the day we were supposed to sign our licen an...
d one thing that I really liked about Jemelle is that she was very flexible. When she said "we are making this happen today", I knew she was my person. When we went to her office she was very perosnable and understanding. We had a lot in common and I loved how honest she was about the process. You can not go wrong by hiring Jemelle as your officiant. I can't wait to hire her again for our ceremony. Jemelle, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
Our first officiant ended up backing out and my husband went to work researching and came across Jemelle. We both are non religious but my family is. When we "met" with Jemelle ove...
r Zoom, she instantly knew us! She made the whole process so easy and walked us step by step on how the day was going to play out. Unfortunately, the mic that she was given from our DJ did not work so the guests could not hear what she had to say but I wish they could have because it was beautiful! My husband and I pretty much was crying that whole time, happy tears of course! She is so thoughtful, caring, professional, and chooses the perfect words. I would highly recommend her!
I remember the day Jemelle called us. My wife and I were eating Cinnabon when she called and introduced herself. She asked a few questions and by the time our phone chat ended I kn...
ew Jemelle had to be our officiant. Her voice was so calming and something just felt right even just speaking with her on the phone.
I wish I could fully explain how wonderful Jemelle is as an officiant but even more as a person!! Our first time meeting her felt like we had known her forever. Our family is STILL talking about how amazing she was. Jemelle took the time to truly get to know us and you can tell how important it was to her to create words that really told our story. She shared with us on our day, laughed with us, and we will cherish her and hold her in our hearts forever!
Jemelle is so much more than we can describe on this review. You will not regret choosing Jemelle!
#LoveALWAYSwins
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Jemelle truly is a wonderful person. We chose her as our officiant for our wedding. We were drawn to her warmth and optimism when we had first interviewed her over the phone. We ha...
d a slightly unusual request in that we had asked for her to marry us legally a few days before the official wedding (we wanted a certain date as our legal wedding date). Jemelle accommodated us without an additional charge or hesitation.
Jemelle provided a beautiful service. We had several family members tell us what an amazing job she did. We felt like we had known her all our lives by how she treated us during the ceremony. We were obviously emotional, but she was our rock. We had a last minute change where we had incorporated in a handfasting, and Jemelle happily made the change. She was sweet, thoughtful, and I can't think of enough good things to say about her. She was truly a gift, and I can't thank her enough for marrying us. I highly recommend her.
Jemelle was amazing!!! She captured our story beautifully. You would’ve thought she’d known us for years. She checked in periodically leading up to ceremony to see if we had any c...
oncerns. She had great tips on how to personalize our ceremony with the incorporation of our children and loved ones that have passed away. Her questionnaire helped her get a better idea of our love story, but it also helped us script our own vows. We are beyond grateful that she was a part of our special day.
Jemelle is an incredible officiant. It was important to us to find someone who was LGBTQ+ friendly, who would be able to represent us with a ceremony that would reflect our (not-ve...
ry-religious) views, and not be alienating to our (varied religions) family. My husband & I spoke with Jemelle on the phone & I knew she was exactly what we were looking for! We explained the sort of ceremony we were hoping for, and she truly delivered!! It was beautiful and moving! So many people came up to me after the wedding to say how much they enjoyed the ceremony, and specifically how much they enjoyed what Jemelle said. Most people just go "Oh what a lovely ceremony" but people were like "Where'd you find that officiant? Everything she said was so beautiful! What a joy!" Also, we didn't get a chance to meet with her before the rehearsal, but she immediately put us at ease.
I could gush forever and honestly, I can't recommend The Modern Officiant highly enough! She really helped make our wedding a beautiful experience.
Jemelle was the perfect officiant for our unusual ceremony. We had a costume party Hallo-Wedding and she was super into the costume theme. She came as Prince and her wife, Maya, ...
came as female Clark Kent! It was awesome. She incorporated humor and movie quotes we chose into our vows, yet still made them unique and personal. Humor was huge for me bc we are not the stuffy, proper wedding couple and laughing is my nervous tick, so it allowed me to release some tension during the ceremony. LOL
The modern officiant was awesome. She help make our day special. She put a calmness to our nervousness. We highly recommend her.
We absolutely loved working with Jemelle for our wedding!! First of all, she was so supportive and responsive throughout the entire wedding process. Literally from the moment we co...
ntacted her, she always got back to us so promptly and always had great answers.
The ceremony was so wonderful and professional. Jemelle crafted our ceremony perfectly. We were very particular that we wanted a very personal and non-religious ceremony and Jemelle absolutely delivered. We got so many compliments on our ceremony and there was not a dry eye in the place.
After the wedding, Jemelle quickly sent in our wedding certificate, even sending us a confirmation with the tracking number! She then helped me figure out how to get a copy of our filed certificate quickly from the courthouse.
She was so helpful and we couldn't recommend her more. Our ceremony was so wonderful and we couldn't have imagined a better day.
Jemelle was amazing. She incorporated each of our cultures' traditions into our ceremony so smoothly. She was light hearted but also made the ceremony so meaningful and sweet. The...
re was not a dry eye in the room! My husband and I highly reccommend her!
Jamelle was amazing, and I would recommend her to anyone. She has such a sweet spirit, and she and her lovely wife brought lots of positive energy to our wedding day!
When you're not a religious person, finding an officiant can be a real struggle. But Jemelle was great. She gave us an endearing, loving oration. Everyone at our wedding loved her ...
and gave us great compliments. Very beautiful ceremony.
The Modern Officiant came to our rescue when our original officiant stepped down four months before our wedding. In my panic, I emailed Jemelle on Thanksgiving day and she was so ...
quick and efficient in her responses that I was almost impatient for the holiday to end so we could meet in person. When we finally met, she and her wife were very open and understanding of our situation with our former officiant (my uncle!) and of our preferences for our ceremony (non-denominational, Filipino-Irish). Jemelle eased a lot of my tension and anxiety, especially when I got caught in my emotions over the family drama that led to the last-minute officiant change.
I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that they were familiar with Filipino wedding ceremonies! Living in Georgia, I was very concerned about not having the wedding ceremony I had always dreamed of, so this was fate. (Or, dare I say it, divine intervention?)
Choosing the Modern Officiant was one of the best decisions we made for our wedding. Living up to her name, Jemelle modernized the archaic (err, traditional) ceremony to reflect our values, she personalized our vows to make the wedding about us and not our families, and she made such an amazing impact on our wedding that our guests are still gushing over the beauty and sincerity of our ceremony!
Jemelle was the perfect officiant for our wedding! She tailored our ceremony to our personalities and it truly fit us better than I could have imagined. She led the ceremony with...
a balance of love and humor and with an involved passion that I've never experienced from another officiant at another wedding. It was an absolute honor to share our wedding day with Jemelle and her lovely wife Maya, and we hope we are lucky enough to cross paths with them again!
When my wife and I were planning our wedding, it was very important for us to have an Officiant who specialized in same sex weddings. When I spoke with Jemelle over the phone, I in...
stantly knew she was the one for us. What's funny about it is she was my first and only call. During our conversation I asked if she could recommend a wedding coordinator and as luck would have it, her wife Maya is a coordinator! It was a win win for us. Jemelle addressed ALL of our concerns. She was very professional and easy to talk to. Whenever I had questions, her response time was excellent! She offered great suggestions and even sent me ideas on how to write wedding vows. The vows she wrote for our ceremony was so personalized, that you would have thought she knew us for years. Her and Maya are family for life!! I highly recommend Jemelle Wooten for your wedding. She will not disappoint! !
Jemelle was absolutely a joy to work with. She accommodated our needs and wishes beautifully. She ended up writing our vows and was so hilarious during our ceremony. We are a ve...
ry silly couple so laughter was so important to us! I would highly recommend her and wish her all the best! If I could give her 10 stars, I would.
Contact
5495 Old National Highway, Suite B-18 - 108, College Park, GA | GA
The Modern Officiant's photos