Rev. Elizabeth Rawlings
Weddings
& Celebrations of Love
From traditional wedding ceremonies to creative partnership celebrations and everything in-between, I can help you create the ceremony that best reflects the love you have for one another and the spirit of commitment you desire.
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You've decided to make a public profession of your love! Congratulations!
While we have a tendency to think about a wedding as a big party (and spend most of our time planning for that), the ceremony is where we make our promises to one another in public and where our loved ones make promises to us. These promises can shape your future together, and, when well-crafted, they can be a foundation we return to again and again when life together gets difficult, when changes make us wonder how to do this thing, and when we need support (and maybe real-talk) from those around us.
I can help you craft a ceremony that reflects who you are as people individually and together, that reflects where you came from and where you want to go -- together.
With my years of experience crafting and leading ceremonies of all types, I can help you create something truly unique or help you find a simple format that works for everyone.
I can also help you avoid some of the pitfalls that less experienced officiants may not know to plan for.
Services
My services range from being present to officiate a simple ceremony to writing a unique service (with your input!) for your wedding day. For anything beyond a small, simple service (think a couple of witnesses and the most basic words), there should be plans for a rehearsal before the wedding with all members of the wedding party present.
I will officiate/write ceremonies for people who are Christian, spiritual-but-not-religious, Athiest, pagan, inter-religious families, and any combination therein. I'm not comfortable doing ceremony in ways I don't practice or am not familiar with or are outside of my ancestral ways (in short: I'm not doing any cultural appropriation for anyone). I will happily connect people with an appropriate officiant if it turns out I can't meet your needs (but I won't help people culturally appropriate).
I will happily include elements in a ceremony that are reflective of the people getting joined and their families or ancestral culture that are appropriate for me to lead. I will also happily co-officiate with clergy of other denominations or religions.
Fees
My fees start at $50 for a simple, very small service and increase from there depending on the time it takes to craft the service and responsibilities for the wedding rehearsal and ceremony. I may wave fees in certain cases where urgency and/or affordability are a factor. Contact me to discuss your dreams and your budget and we will see what we can do.
Other IMportant info
I have one non-negotiable and one almost non-negotiable.
Almost non-negotiable: I generally require people who are making a public commitment to each other to attend some form of pre-marital counseling together and have a broad list of people or organizations I can refer to you that should include people that will be able to speak to your needs as individuals and as partners. I do this both because the right kind of pre-marital work can be really, really helpful when things get difficult *and* because it can be really helpful to already have experience with relational counseling and a connection to a therapist.
I do make exceptions in certain cases of urgency and for financial reasons. I might ask you to read a book though.
Non-Negotiable: If any member of the wedding party is visibly inebriated for the rehearsal or the ceremony, either the person under the influence leaves or I will leave and any right to refund is forefitted.
This is partly because this is a legal ceremony and people signing legal documents need to be sober, and partly because I am uninterested in trying to get inebriated people to behave. However, the bonus for you is you can use me as an excuse to ask people to not be blitzed for the rehearsal or ceremony. After that, y'all celebrate however you want!