Father Brian married my husband and I. The ceremony was perfect. He included Catholic elements into the ceremony and kept it at a good pace. He was charismatic and flexible. He tailored the ceremony so that it included all that we wanted: unity candle, lazo, arras, blessing of the Rosary, and mother appreciation.

We had Father Brian as our officiant for our wedding... such a great personality! Enjoyed having him as a part of our wedding day... will truly remember :)

Father Mike was our officiant for our wedding a few weeks ago and we were so impressed. My husband's family is Catjolic and mine is Protestant so we wanted someone who would be able to find ways to honor both beliefs. We met with him twice before our wedding and emailed with him to complete the planning of the ceremony. He had us take an interpersonal test to help us understand how we each operate and to help our interactions with one another improve based on our olinsiciduap personalities which was really helpful! He did a great job during the ceremony and everyone said how impressed they were with him! I highly recommend Father Mike if you are looking for someone who can perform Catholic-like ceremonies!

Deacon Gary married us in March 2013. He did an amazing job with personalizing the ceremony. He was also very flexible as we did not want to make the focus of our ceremony be about religion. I would highly recommend Deacon Gary to anyone who is looking for a timeless officient who adds a personal touch.

Pros: Everything!
Cons: None!

My husband and I are SO happy with Father Mike from Good Shepherd Church and everything that he did with our wedding ceremony and for us as a couple!

The wedding prep that they require each engaged couple to complete was unbelievably helpful!!! As the other reviewers have mentioned, it includes a few in-person meetings with your preferred priest and a couple of "tests" (more like tools) that help to identify personality traits, both shared and differing, and open discussions about significant subjects that may arrise due to the joining of two people in marriage. He went over the results of the "tests" with us and discussed some of the advantages and difficulties that we may experience as a couple, being the types of people that we are individually. In the end, you end up with a profile for the bride, a profile for the groom, and a combined profile as a couple. I cannot tell you how accurate the results are! It's mind-boggling, and makes me wish that we knew about these tools years ago.

Anyway, Father Mike is very pleasant and agreeable to work with. He is experienced, professional, reliable, and accessible. We met with him a few times and he really got to know who we were and what kind of wedding we wanted. He worked with us to create the perfect ceremony - it was personalized and thoughtful, and he incorporated all of the religious and cultural traditions that we wished to include without alienating anybody.

Father Mike and the Good Shepherd Church were also very accommodating. We didn't have time to go to their office in Lakewood for the meetings, so he came to us and we did the entire process privately since we didn't feel comfortable sharing such personal information with a group of other couples. He talked to us about how long we wanted the ceremony to be, what customs we wanted to include, what order we wanted everything to be in, and much more! He gave us a lot of options and advice about the flow of the whole thing, and the result was a beautiful ceremony that was customized just for us.

I would recommend Father Mike as an officiant to any engaged couple, and even as a spiritual leader to anyone seeking guidance. I cannot imagine a better officiant for our ceremony.

Father Mike and the Good Shepherd Church are amazing. Included with their wedding officiant is an afternoon at the Good Shepherd Church which equaled about a month long of couples therapy. We took 2 short "tests", (a personality-type test to help understand effective ways of communication, and a FOCCUS test to help hone in on areas that may need discussion). As daunting as "tests" sound, it was more of a tool to help us understand what we would need to work on and how to communicate in order to make our marriage work. My husband and I came away from that afternoon at church feeling great, with a more hopeful, confident feeling towards our marriage. We also had several meetings with Father Mike before the wedding, he was very nice and personable. He went over our test results with us, and by the time the wedding came around, we felt like he knew us. Our guests even commented on how he was able to zero in on our relationship and our personalities, and not give a generic sermon. Best wedding officiant I've witnessed, and the Catholic ceremony in a garden worked for everyone involved.

Father Mike is an "American Catholic" priest. He was a Roman Catholic priest for years, then retired to do other things, then came back to officiate weddings and the like.
Father Mike and Good Shepherd Church are expensive, but well worth it. Even though we didn't get married in church, as an "American Catholic" priest, he was able to wear collar and vestments, and would have performed a full mass had we wanted it. He was so helpful in the ceremony planning process, but more importantly, he became a friend. We clicked immediately and felt at ease with him which was such a relief. We met a few times with him and before we knew it, we had someone marrying us who we felt like we knew and who knew us.
The parents were happy because he was a priest, and we were happy because we didn't have to go through Marriage Encounter or get married in a church or have an officiant who we had met once or twice and was just reading a script.
If you're even remotely Catholic, we recommend him whole-heartedly.