Before the legalization of same-sex marriage, we had already had a beautiful commitment ceremony attended by family and friends. When we decided to get married under the new law legalizing same-sex marriage, at first, we thought we’d just have an uneventful civil ceremony performed by a judge at the Cook County Clerk’s office. We didn’t want to attempt to relive that original ceremony by having a big celebration with a lot of guests, but we did we want to recapture the spirit and inspiration of that day while formally acknowledging where the commitment to our relationship had taken us over the years.
We contacted Sheri Reda of Flow Ceremonies to help us craft our legal ceremony – a ceremony that would be just between the two of us and our officiant, but one that at the same time would have the same weight and importance as our first ceremony.
We were not prepared for the level of care and attention that Sheri devoted to our ceremony. She took time to interview us on zoom and shortly after the interview, came back with a detailed draft of the ceremony, capturing a sense of who we are as individuals, the history of our couples, who we had become as a couple, and what we wanted to create and experience in our legal ceremony. She also sensitively added many of her own astute observations, demonstrating the close level of attention she had paid to us during the interview. She was very open to the feedback we gave her and to any changes we wanted to make to the ceremony she had designed.
Sheri handled the entire planning process confidently and adeptly and it was clear that she truly cares both about what she does and about the couple she is supporting. She very successfully helped us to re-experience all the joy and inspiration of our original ceremony, while helping us to fully celebrate the next step we were taking to be recognized as a committed, legally married couple.

After me baby sister passed suddenly, we needed to find an officiant to perform her funeral service and found many glowing reviews about Sheri. She lovingly took the time to get to know our sister’s background, childhood, and adult life. Sheri gave such a heartfelt eulogy at the gravesite memorial. It was beautiful and we will all use it as we grieve and heal from our loss. She crafted special memories that everyone could relate to, and included a special prayer for our Christian burial. Sheri is very caring and skilled in her officiant service, and we are thankful to have found such a blessing in her.

We were lucky enough to get Sheri to officiate our wedding on extremely short notice. Our original officiant was suddenly unable to perform our ceremony on 10/21/17 and Sheri came to the rescue. We met with Sheri for a few hours less than a week before our scheduled ceremony. She constructed a ceremony that made it seem like she had known my husband and I for years, not 6 days. Our guests loved how she was able to combine our chosen readings with her words and make everything flow so effortlessly. We highly recommend Sheri and Flow Ceremonies.