Thanks to recommendations from couples on The Knot
Vows to Cherish is a Frankford, DE-based wedding officiant service led by Mary Barneby, an ordained celebrant in the Universal Life Ministries. Mary aims to work with each couple to create the most meaningful ceremony possible.
Vows to Cherish is honored to work with couples of all religious and spiritual beliefs, including interfaith, traditional, and modern, as well as ceremonies that exclude references to God or other deities. Mary is inclusive of couples of all sexual and gender preferences. It gives her true joy to officiate when two people who love one another come together to express their love and commitment in the presence of their loved ones.
Whether you dream of having a wedding celebration in a sumptuous country club or at the beach, Mary is eager and willing to plan with you and be part of the team that makes your day memorable. She is also open to leading the wedding rehearsal before the event and working with you on understanding the process for obtaining and filing your license. Contact Vows to Keep today to find out more.
Mary Barneby was ordained into the Universal Life Ministries in July 2023 after a very successful career that spanned 40 years as a corporate and a non profit leader. She has a BA in Psychology and Philosophy from New York University and an MBA in Finance from Fordham University. She has served on several non profit Boards and has extensive experience as a public speaker. She has appeared on numerous news programs during her time as CEO for Girl Scouts of Connecticut and as CEO for the Greater NY Region of the American Red Cross.
Reviews
5.0
out of 5.0
14 reviews
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help you make those big decisions with ease.
Review Summary
This AI-generated summary is a snapshot of this vendor's ratings and feedback.
Mary is praised across multiple reviews for her exceptional officiating services, personalized ceremonies, and genuine care. Reviewers highlight her professionalism, warmth, and attention to detail in crafting ceremonies that reflect the couples' love stories. Mary's responsiveness, helpfulness in obtaining marriage licenses, and ability to make the process stress-free are also commended. Her dedication to making each ceremony special and her willingness to go above and beyond for her clients are consistently noted, making her highly recommended for couples seeking a caring and flexible officiant for their wedding day.
Review photos
Showing slide number 1 out of 8
Jennifer L
5.0
11/18/2025
Mary was amazing. My wife and I originally planned on eloping in Baltimore, but we are not familiar with the area. Mary was more familiar with the Delaware coast, so we said why no...
t! She personalized our ceremony and found us a perfect spot on the beach to get married. We had two witnesses and it was so cold but so perfect! She brought us bouquets for the ceremony that we will dry and keep forever. She also included the ceremony script and a sweet card for us to cherish. She was very quick to communicate, and was easy to make edits with if necessary. She recommended a courthouse that she was familiar with, they were also kind with absolutely no judgment. The process was painless! And she mailed our license in the next day! She was so so so sweet and kind. We would recommend her to anyone!
Sam J
5.0
10/22/2025
Mary was great! I only gave her about a month’s notice and she was very happy to help us out with no issues. She got everything we needed done in a timely manner. She was very info...
rmative and helpful with how to get a marriage license and kept me updated with every step of the process. She then endured some insane 30 mph winds and colder temps on the beach with us. She was professional, polite, and personable. I would highly recommend Mary if you’re looking for a great officiant.
Any questions?
Samantha V
5.0
10/13/2025
I can’t thank Mary enough for how wonderful she was. Our circumstances were far from traditional, but she approached everything with genuine care, patience, and warmth. She was att...
entive, responsive, and made the process feel simple and stress-free. Her calm and reassuring presence brought so much peace to a time that could have easily felt overwhelming. I’m truly grateful for her — she helped turn something unorthodox into a moment filled with love, meaning, and sincerity. Thank you so much!!!
Courtney L
5.0
10/08/2025
Working with Mary was amazing! She is so sweet and made the process so simple. The ceremony was truly beautiful. She did an outstanding job of making the script personal to us and...
working with us to ensure it was exactly how we wanted it to be. We absolutely loved working with her throughout the entire process, and we would highly recommend her!
Madison S
5.0
8/30/2025
Mary was a pleasure to work with from start to finish. She is kind, knowledgeable, perceptive, and easy to talk to. Mary is also quick to respond to questions and comments.
Mary ...
set out to get to know my husband and I early on in the planning process and used her impression of us (as individuals and as a couple) to craft a tailor-made ceremony. Not only were my husband and I blown away, our guests were also touched by Mary’s writing, and also her cadence and warm presence. As a secular couple, we wanted a ceremony that everyone would appreciate and enjoy, and Mary truly exceeded our expectations in doing so!
In addition to the wedding itself, Mary was just as helpful at our rehearsal (for which she jumped through quite a few hoops to get to for us!) and throughout the marriage licensing process.
We can’t recommend Mary enough. Thank you for helping us plan and host the wedding of our dreams!
Kayla S
5.0
7/31/2025
Mary was extremely professional and did a beautiful ceremony. I wanted to surprise my husband, which worked, with a renewal after 6 years and the day of I asked if we could do ano...
ther surprise renewal for my parents after 47 years and she made it happen! All were super surprised and it was absolutely lovely. Mary was very reasonably priced and provided 2 bouquets for the ceremony. She customized the vows and it was the best renewal we have had!
Mia M
5.0
6/24/2025
Mary was extremely personable and really cared about our love story. Ever since we met she was so excited to be our officiant and had the most beautiful script it had the whole cer...
emony crying.
Mary and her husband took us out to dinner to get to know us as a couple and we had such a lovely time getting to know Mary as well.
Everything was so perfect and she is extremely well informed. Mary sent our marriage license all the way to New Castle County while my husband and I were on our honeymoon and she made sure everything was taken care of for us. I can’t recommend Mary enough!!!!!!
Erin E
5.0
2/09/2025
Mary went ABOVE AND BEYOND to make our wedding special!
Mary is professional, sweet, caring, and absolutely LOVES doing this! This combination made for a perfect wedding day and I...
've now gained a friend from this process! Mary is the BEST!
We originally had hired a wedding planning service to do a beach ceremony which included an officant. About six months prior the wedding we were going over details and she informed us she was unable to officate our wedding. Fourtunatly I found Mary's contact information. She reached out right away and she was available the day of our wedding!! I am over the moon happy the other company couldn't officate our wedding because Mary definitely made me feel like a person instead of feeling like a number from the other company. She took the time to get to know us as a couple, which ultimately made for the most special wedding ceremony I could've ever imagined! We weren't sure what to say in our vows and how to plan out our ceremony. Mary wrote our vows for us and made it personal. She had our ceremony planned weeks before our wedding and we were able to proof read and adjust things. She also recommended that we add sand to our ceremony so we each(including our son) added sand to a vase. We now have a special keepsake from the ceremony. When Mary came out for the rehearsal she brought our son a gift to make him feel special and included him in our ceremony. She is the sweetest person, and this was by far the smoothest part of wedding planning. Thank you again Mary! We love you!
Lauren V
5.0
10/30/2024
Mary was our wedding officiant for our beach ceremony in Rehoboth and she was a joy to work with for our wedding. Mary was responsive to all of our phone calls and emails and met w...
ith us multiple times ahead of our wedding day because she really cared about getting to know us and catered our wedding ceremony to meet our needs. She made the whole process very easy and took care of the paperwork responsibilities. We highly recommend hiring Mary as your wedding officiant.
Patricia T
5.0
9/22/2024
We loved having Mary as our officiant! She was offered so much support and was very flexible, even with some of our last minutes changes to the ceremony. She was so wonderful to wo...
rk with and definitely wanted to make the ceremony personalized and work however we wanted it. We would definitely recommend hiring Mary!
M M
5.0
9/02/2024
Professionalism, communication, level of service and value - those are just the nuts and bolts of what Mary provides. The soft skills of emotional intelligence, sincerity, kindness...
and thoughtfulness are the ones that really make working with her a pleasure and a joy. Couldn’t recommend enough and you never leave reviews for anything.
Heather S
5.0
7/12/2024
Mary was incredible!!!
If you are looking for someone to officiate your ceremony, contact Mary! I spoke to several others about officiating the ceremony before I found Mary. She wa...
s more about the union of marriage verses greed of making a huge profit off of an "Out of state" wedding.
We had a weekend trip planned for the beach weeks prior. Then a week and a half before I came up with the plan to elope. Once my better half agreed, I spoke to her about officiating our ceremony. I told her we wanted something simple, short & sweet on the beach. She guided me on what to for the "Out of state" wedding and told me her cost. She later called to talk to both of us prior to, so she could get to know us. We got everything taken care of. Our courthouse notarized the form needed and we sent everything over night. I was going to pay extra to have the marriage license mailed back to us before we left. Mary offered to go to the court house and pick up the license on our behalf so we knew we had it. Once she got our license she sent me a picture of it!
The day we traveled to the beach, Mary sent us a text telling us safe travels and she would see us at our hotel later that evening around 7 after a wedding rehearsal. She sent us another text when she arrived at the hotel/boardwalk, told us she was there and for us to take our time & not to rush getting ready. We finally met Mary in person and she brought along her sweet husband (to keep her company on the drive)💕.
Mary greeted us with beautiful bouquets💐. Our ceremony was exactly what we wanted & more. It was absolutely perfect!! Afterwards, Mary took photos of us and her husband took photos of the three of us. Mary also gave us a certificate of marriage, signed our license and gave us the copy of her ceremony note's for a keepsake. After 22+ years I married my best friend and soul mate 🥰💍. Thank you Mary for everything you did for us!!!
Response from Vows to Cherish on 07/30/2024
Thank you, Heather and Jennifer. It was a joy to work with you both and wishing you many ...
more years of love and happiness. Best, Mary
Jenna G
5.0
7/08/2024
Mary was amazing, and we honestly now consider her a family friend! She was nothing but friendly, warm, accommodating and knowledgeable about getting married in DE. She made our ce...
remony fun and tailored it to our love story. Our wedding day wouldn’t have been the same without her! THANKS MARY!!
Anne C
5.0
5/07/2024
Mary was amazing from the minute we connected with her. She spent the time to understand who we and what was important to us. Her suggestions on how to craft the ceremony were extr...
emely helpful. On the day of the wedding, she came prepared and. She delivered the vows in a way that resonated with our guests. Highly recommend!
