My husband and I loved working with Ellen. We were looking for someone who could balance our secular views and our parents religious views and Ellen was just amazing. Not only did she help give us inspiration on how we could write our ceremony and vows, but she also happens to have a college degree in English and was able to suggest edits so our ceremony was as beautiful as possible. She was on time and pleasant at every meeting, responsive to e-mails, and provided her phone number if we needed to get in touch with her immediately. The day of our ceremony she was open to some last minute changes we asked for and spoke beautifully. This is clearly a woman with years of experience and a gentle heart. You won't be sorry you went with the Northern Virginia Ethical Society.

I'm so glad we found NVES, particularly Mary Ellen Stanton! Like many other couples, my husband and I wanted a secular but meaningful ceremony and didn't know where to begin. Mary Ellen is a very experienced officiant and ushered us through the process of creating our own ceremony. She provided examples of vows, blessings, etc. and brought up points (such as music and sequence) that we wouldn't have thought of. She respected our vision and our vows. She's very conscientious, responsive, and flexible, and will raise any any potential issues ahead of time (which I greatly appreciate!). We trusted Mary Ellen from the moment we met her; the actual wedding ceremony was the least of our worries through the wedding planning process! To our delight, she also loves dogs and enjoys having them around at weddings.

One of our initial and unfounded worries was that NVES would attempt to "recruit" us to their organization, with which we were relatively unfamiliar. But don't worry about that! Mary Ellen will discuss ethical culture if asked, but working with NVES comes with no obligation. Officiants with NVES are volunteers who perform weddings because they want to be of service to their communities.

Mary Ellen Stanton was our officiant from Northern VA Ethical Society. She was absolutely wonderful! My husband and I are both atheist, so we wanted a non-religious celebrant. We were so relieved to find an officiant who shared so many important values with us and was able to give us a beautiful, thoughtful ceremony focused on love and commitment. She was also willing to work with our best man who translated the ceremony into Spanish for our Spanish-speaking guests. So many people told us afterwards that it was a beautiful and touching ceremony. We would definitely recommend Mary Ellen and the Northern VA Ethical Society to anyone looking for a secular celebrant!