Soulful Ceremonies
Offerings to craft a meaningful ceremony01 / Ceremony Design
02 / Ceremony Scripts
03 / Wedding Officiating
Spiritual wedding officiant and guide
Many couples want a non religious wedding ceremony, but they are not sure how to craft something that is both authentic to them and meaningful for others to be a part of. Some couples want to blend their faiths but aren’t sure how differing beliefs can be authentically honored. I can help at three levels of involvement.
01 / Ceremony Design Session
For when a friend is your wedding officiant
After reflective questionnaires, the three of us will gather for a collaborative Zoom session. After two fun, contemplative hours you’ll have a ceremony! Hand the outline to your officiant for them to write the ceremony, or write it together.
We’ll explore language, ritual, and ceremony structures that feel authentic to you. We’ll explore any spiritual, cultural, or familiar traditions that may hold meaning for you and create ritual and language from scratch as needed.
You’ll receive:
♦ A custom, detailed ceremony outline. This will include the discussed options for every single ceremony element from the seating arrangement and processional order to vows and personalized ritual.
♦ Sample ceremony scripts to borrow any language from
♦ A recording of the Design Session for your officiant to listen to
♦ A process and day-of checklist for your officiant
Listen to me talk about spiritual weddings I’ve officiated on IG, to get a sense of what’s possible.
02 / Composing Your Love Story + Ceremony Script
For when a friend is your wedding officiant
Imagine your Love Story as the best Modern Love essay you’ve ever read.
After our Design Session I’ll have a phone call with each of you to hear your full, deep story. I’ll take everything I’ve learned and observed, and enter my own personal creative process. My goal is to not just tell the chronology of your relationship but express how each of you have been transformed by your relationship. Possibly how the world around you has been transformed by your relationship. Simply telling the deeper story to your whole community will bring you all permanently closer.
On a practical note this script will include EVERYTHING your wedding officiant needs. It will include blocking notes so you know how to set up objects for ritual and when/how to move. You can use it word for word or adapt as your officiant sees fit.
Having this written for you allows your officiant to focus on nailing the delivery. (They will be so grateful and love having such an engaging story to tell)
BONUS: Just reading your Love Story, well before the wedding, will be a meaningful experience for each of you.
Your ceremony as a gift
Couples spend hours considering reception details to make sure their guests have an amazing time at their wedding. But they often see the ceremony as something the guests have to suffer through before they can get a drink.
What if your ceremony could be a gift? A chance for people to renew their own understanding of love and commitment, or simply a time to set down the cares of the weary world and fill their hearts. A ceremony authentic to you and the moment is soul food.
To begin, you must (re)discover what marriage means to you—it’s not the same for any two couples.
03 / Officiating
Allow me to be your personal sacred space creator.
It would be my great honor to be your spiritual wedding officiant, and stand with you as you cross this life-changing threshold.
I officiate a limited number of weddings a year, so reach out ASAP to check availability for your date and location. I’m based near Boston and frequently travel throughout the Northeast US. I sometimes travel across the US, based on my availability.
Legal details: I can be your legal wedding solemnizer in any state or territory with non-resident clergy rules (most have them, but a few such as Nevada do not). I can officiate your sacred community ceremony even if I am not the legal solemnizer.
How I became a spiritual wedding officiant.
In 2011 after my grandfather died a peaceful death with good palliative care I discovered a call to become a hospice chaplain. This led to ordination at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in 2015. Once I was ordained, requests for officiating weddings started pouring in.
I have embraced officiating ceremonies because I have something unique to offer: meaningful secular, Interfaith, and spiritual but not religious ceremonies. In my previous career of wedding photography, I witnessed hundreds of weddings. Many non religious weddings are too short—the couple hardly gets a chance to settle in and feel what was happening. Many couples who want a non religious ceremony are not sure how to craft something meaningful, and that’s where I come in.
Spiritual Wedding Officiant Highlights
Interfaith wedding ceremony highlights
Video by Johnny Havens
Listen to how this spiritual wedding blended agnostic and Catholic beliefs for a ceremony that was inclusive while making room for faith and prayer. Sweet clips of the ring warming featured too!
Video of this full ceremony (and others) available upon request.
Teaser for “encore” wedding
Video by Pen Weddings
This pandemic couple had a mini backyard wedding in 2020, then this encore celebration with their whole community in 2021. Listen to how the ceremony was an invitation for a fun-filled and healing gathering. Hear my live reflection on this ceremony.
Caroline & Matt’s Reflection
Caroline and Matt were both raised Catholic but knew they wanted a non religious wedding ceremony. Hear what this process and their spiritual wedding ceremony meant to them.
FAQs
Not sure if this is right for you? If your question isn’t answered below please schedule a call.
Your Title Goes Here
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.
We are… secular, religious, blending faith traditions, spiritual-but-not-religious … is your approach to ceremony right for us?
Do you have a list of ritual or reading options that we can review?
Not really. If you desire lists the internet is FULL of them. But what we’re going to do is reverse engineer it. First, we determine what your marriage is REALLY about. We determine the meaning you want to express and the experience you want to have. Then we use that intention to evaluate and adapt the many pre-existing rituals and readings out there, or create our own. Once I know what’s important to you, I will offer curated suggestions. Once you know what’s important to you you’ll find yourself delightfully decisive.
What does a typical ceremony look like?
While I approach every single ceremony open to creating something completely new, there are common elements that are often included. Read more about components of a wedding ceremony.
Your Title Goes Here
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.
A special loved one is deceased. We want to recognize them on our wedding day, but not make it too sad.
For other couples the loss may be too fresh or traumatic to call significant attention to on such a joyful day. We will discuss if something as simple as a moment of silence for all deceased loved ones suits your ceremony.
Where do you travel?
I regularly travel throughout the Northeast US performing wedding ceremonies. Locations further than 75 miles from zip code 01915 require a travel fee and applicable travel expenses. If I have the availability I’m open to travel almost anywhere so please reach out.
What is Interspirituality?
Interspirituality is a spiritual path which views all religions as valid expressions of, and pathways to, the divine. Read more about my journey and beliefs >>
NAQs
Never asked questions. A few questions that I wish people were asking.
Your Title Goes Here
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.
How will you help us have a wedding day in which we are truly present and remember it clearly?
All my ceremonies have a lot of breathing room. Regardless of the structure we take, I always build in moments that allow you and your guests to be at ease and take in the moment.
This comes in many forms, from encouraging guests to gaze up at a gorgeous sky, or inviting the couple to look out at their gathered community. Even a 15 minute ceremony can feel both full and spacious. In my last career as a wedding photographer, I heard so many couples say their wedding was a blur, and I want to help you slow down and savor the day.
What will our wedding be about?
Some couples get married in their early twenties to their sweetheart of many years. Others get married in their late forties after dating a relatively brief time. Some people are blending families and others don’t intend to have any children—wherever you are coming from is where we will start!
Not only can your wedding reflect your journey as a couple, you also get to decide what to focus on. Some people love including parents and friends in the ceremony rituals, and others prefer to keep it simple with just them. The sky is the limit—tell me about you, tell me your vision! I can make your vision come true, or I can work with you to develop a vision.
What’s the difference between ceremony and ritual?
I define ritual as an act through which we feel and accept change. That means ritual happens in our day to day life as change occurs. Ceremony is when we apply intention and attention to craft these moments of change. A wedding day is full of ritual from sunrise to sundown, but only some of those rituals will be protected and elevated by ceremony.
Components of a wedding ceremony, and why they matter
No two ceremonies are the same, but these components of a wedding ceremony are a great place to start. From here you can add, omit, adapt and—most importantly—infuse with personality and authenticity. Procession Processions are so common that people often overlook...
What is Interspirituality?
What is Interspirituality exactly? Here's a dispatch from my 7 years as an Interspiritual minister. Brother Wayne Teasdale’s 1999 book The Mystic Heart debuted the word, “Interspiritual.” Since then it has become a movement that provides guidance and spiritual...