Rabbi Alpern and his wife Karen were fantastic. We had an interfaith wedding that also involved a family friend as pastor, who has never done a wedding before. We went to his home for a meeting and went through everything - all of our questions, ideas, and his suggestions. He was not pushy, extremely open, and didnt require counseling or classes as so many do. He travelled several hours for our wedding and had phone calls to coordinate with the pastor. He did everything perfectly and was not controlling - we received many compliments.

Rabbi Alpern is great, he helped us put together a truly beautiful service, and since your options for rabbis who will perform "interfaith" marriages are severely limited, he may be your best bet. He actually was a Conservative rabbi, but then retired in order to perform intermarriages, so you're getting a real rabbi, not a rabbi-by-mail which so many other interfaith rabbis seem to be. However, despite filling a much-needed niche, there's really no excuse for his cost. He charges so much more than any other rabbi, then makes you pay transportation costs, and then they start asking for you to pay for hotel rooms, and it just seems excessive. However, Rabbi Alpern and his wife are so sweet, so professional, and they took care of mailing our marriage license to NYC, which was really helpful, and then when we didn't seem to be receiving a marriage certificate back from NYC in a timely manner, the rabbi's wife checked into it for me, which was really nice and unexpected.