Custom Wedding Ceremonies of Central Virginia

An itinerant Wedding Officiant traveling a wide radius from her Charlottesville / Staunton epicenter, Julie makes your ceremony a celebration of love. She’s a natural storyteller who brings a sense of fun and an elegant writing style that transforms your personal story into a moving narrative replete with depth and laughter. Each ceremony is an original ... designed to make the heart sing and create a memorable experience for you and your guests. As the Centerpiece of your Wedding Day, Julie's ceremonies set the celebratory tone for all that follows. And she's always happy to honor your cultural heritage, faith tradition, or slip in a sci-fi reference or two to Star Trek or Star Wars, etc..

Professionally certified in the art + science of ritual -— non-religious & semi-religious — Julie is a graduate of the Celebrant Institute. As such, her ceremonies are unique — written from scratch — and customized to your personalities, world view, and deeply held values. From far-ranging conversations with you, she usually finds a theme or a “hook” to draw upon that illustrates how you complement, support and balance each other — and which conveys to your people why it's fait accompli that you marry.

As a Humanist officiant with respect for a Higher Power, Julie often works with couples whose church is the Natural World and the outdoors ... as well as with those who may identify as atheist, agnostic, realist, empiricist, romanticist, paganist, undecided, somewhat religious, science-oriented, practical — and often, those who simply regard themselves mainly as spiritual.

Services Offered
Over coffee, Skype or Facetime, followed by a Questionnaire, couples share with Julie their ceremony vision, or simply their likes and dislikes. Working together, she coalesces the creative elements of the ceremony into a coherent thematic whole, such as with readings, rituals, prayers, ring blessings, vows — and her specialty — the humorous, light-hearted “Celebrant Address.” Couples may revise and make unlimited edits to their ceremony until completely satisfied. They are encouraged to write their own vows with Julie's assistance if they like, or else have her customize "I do" vows.

Her flat fee includes everything from running your rehearsal the day before, and/or with your Planner-Coordinator, to travel, to liaisoning with your Vendors providing Cue Sheets, and sending you a Keepsake Ceremony a week or two afterwards. Most importantly, of course, she legally signs and mails your Marriage License to the Courthouse from whence you obtained it.

If you don't plan to have a D.J. providing sound for your ceremony, Julie will take along her P.A. system to amplify her voice and make sure your guests can comfortably hear, crucial at an outdoor ceremony.

Couples may also request Julie for elopements and intimate micro-weddings that require no rehearsal.

Credentials
Julie is court licensed in Washington D.C. and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Certified by the Celebrant Instittute & Foundation in April 2014, Julie specialized in the Wedding Officiant discipline, which invovled seven months of in-depth classes, discussion, study, projects and practicums.

On a life-long spiritual quest herself, these days she's more like Switzerland...neutral. Able to draw upon her diverse spiritual background, she can create any type of eclectic ceremony you wish.

Travel Range
Julie's travel range in Virginia encompasses the environs of Charlottesville, Blue Ridge Parkway (Ravens Roost), Skyline Drive, George Washington National Forest, Staunton, Harrisonburg, Lexington, Luray, Nelson County (Rte 151), The Omni Homestead in Bath, Orange County, Culpeper, and if specially requested, Washington, D.C. -— and all points in-between. So please, by all means, inquire and include the location of your venue.

Next Step
Contact Julie, preferably via email, to arrange the no-obligation coffee meeting, or set up a Skype or FaceTime video chat. This is a free consultation in which Julie is happy to share with couples ideas for their having a unique, unforgettable wedding ceremony ... performed with just the right amount of humor, joy, gravitas — and that which honors the momentousness of it all with respect for all present, remaining sensitive to any religious beliefs of your family members. She knows she's hit the mark when guests tell her afterwards that they laughed and they cried — and that it was the best ceremony they've ever been to.