Back in 2019, when we were looking around for an officiant for our non-religious ceremony, we looked at several places in the Long Beach area. The groom was raised Catholic and the bride was raised Methodist, but neither of us are practicing or religious now, and we did not want a religious ceremony. However, many wedding officiant services did not really fit our vision for our wedding—most felt like they were trying to put on some sort of elaborate, gaudy entertainment event for the benefit of the guests, more like a flashy, nauseating show than the union of two people for a lifetime.

Fortunately, we found A&S Wedding Officiants, which was exactly what we were looking for! When we first visited A&S, we felt a sense of comfort and openness when working with Janel and Monica. We sat down to discuss our ceremony and ended up chatting for hours about our life in LA, how we met, and all sorts of fun stories of our family and friends. It was an incredibly relaxing and enjoyable experience, and our stress about the upcoming wedding and ceremony details just quietly melted away. Unfortunately, due to COVID, our wedding was repeatedly delayed, but A&S was incredibly accommodating to our circumstances. We met again at the office in the summer of 2021 and it was like catching up with old friends.

One incredible convenience of working with A&S is that the marriage license and all the paperwork can be completely taken care of, and we did not have to visit a courthouse afterward to file documents. Instead, we just went honeymooning to Santa Barbara and everything gets mailed to us later.

As for the wedding, Janel wrote the most amazing and beautiful ceremony, which was so full of emotion that it had the bride and groom holding back tears. It transitioned between witty and fun to powerful and romantic, and perfectly reflected our story. We had a vision for the type of ceremony that we wanted, and Janel was perfectly accommodating to that vision. We even had a last-minute idea for a “wine ceremony” element, which she perfectly incorporated into the ceremony. Our dog, Yukihiro, also had his own special part to play. We are so incredibly happy with our wedding ceremony, which was tailored to our experiences, and held such special meaning to us. Janel is a wonderful person, we’re thankful that she could be part of our wedding day, and we highly recommend her as a wedding officiant!

Photo Credit: Eve Rox Photography

Monica and her husband were truly wonderful. We did an elopement in February and then had our wedding on the beach in May. She was very thorough with designing the ceremony and making it special for our day. Everything she said during the ceremony was custom written to our personalities and our situation. We are very laid back and comedic and she took the ball and ran with it. It had the exact affect we were looking for. We ended up with something incredibly unique and special and I couldn't have asked for more.

Extremely happy and would recommend A & S wedding officiants and Monica! She interviewed us to get to know both of us and wrote a ceremony specifically for the two of us. Monica walked us through every step of the process, including the license, explained everything, and made our preparations with ease.
Thank you Monica for all you do!