Steve Finley of Wine Country Rabbi is an ordained rabbi in Sonoma, California. He is available to perform wedding officiating for your Jewish, non-denominational or interfaith wedding. He invests time getting to know each couple as they work together to create the ideal wedding ceremony. This ordained rabbi offers a traditional wedding style, but can also adapt to reflect the couple’s ceremony preferences.
Experience
Rabbi Steve Finley serves as a rabbi to a congregation in addition to performing officiating services for Jewish, non-denomination and interfaith wedding ceremonies. His prior experience extends to Israel, living and earning a BAEd. in linguistics and English literature, along with earning teaching credentials. He later earned his master’s degree in education at the American Jewish University and is an ordained rabbi.
Services Offered
Wine Country Rabbi can perform officiating services for a rehearsal, vow renewal, interfaith, non-religious or single religion ceremony. The rabbi’s language ability spans English, Spanish and Hebrew for those needing bilingual services.
Recommended by 100% of couples
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Alisa · Married on 05/28/2017
Rabbi Finley was absolutely wonderful to work with. We had interviewed several rabbis and it was extremely important to find someone who we connected with spiritually, emotionally and intellectually. Rabbi Finley did an amazing job helping us focus on the essence of our relationship and what it meant to become married. He was kind, open-minded, understanding, and helped us dive into all of the important issues. We had several meaningful conversations leading up to the wedding. The ceremony itself flowed so well that we had multiple people say it was the most moving wedding they had attended. It was heartfelt, funny, and soulful. We feel very close to Rabbi Finley and look forward to maintaining our relationship for years to come.
Sent on 09/29/2017
Stephanie · Married on 09/02/2017
Rabbi Steve is fantastic. My husband was raised Catholic and I was raised Jewish. I wanted to keep some Jewish traditions around during the ceremony and reception. A family friend had given me Rabbi Steve's information, after they saw Rabbi officiate a wedding in Sonoma. So when it came time to chose an officiant for our wedding, I knew Rabbi Steve was the Rabbi for us. Rabbi worked with us to figure out what aspects were important to me and and which ones were not. He also helped explain certain traditions to my husband, which came very helpful to him. My husband and I were in Sonoma for the weekend a month before our wedding, Rabbi and his wife welcomed us into their home. This allowed us to discuss more details about the ceremony face to face instead of Skype or over the phone. The Wine Country Rabbi is ready to work around any challenges of a Jewish wedding and what works with social norms of a wedding.
Sent on 04/05/2018
Our wedding ended up falling on one of the hottest days on record in Berkeley, California. Our venue was a historical site therefore there was no air conditioner inside. When it came time for the ceremony, Rabbi was able to cut parts of the ceremony to keep our guests a bit more comfortable so they didn't have to sit so long. He discussed with my husband and I beforehand, I agreed with him.
I would recommend the Wine Country Rabbi to anyone who is planning a traditional Jewish wedding, an interfaith wedding, or any kind of wedding.
Kathleen · Married on 07/23/2017
Rabbi Steve is amazing! As an interfaith couple, we were not sure we would be able to find a rabbi willing to work with us for our wedding. Not only did Rabbi Steve work with us, he met with us several times to get to know us and invited us to his home, along with our Catholic priest, to design a personalized Jewish/Christian wedding ceremony. He explained all the Jewish wedding traditions, helped us find all the items we needed including a beautiful ketubah and mezuzah, and took care of sending in our paperwork to register the marriage with the state. Most importantly, he did it all with humor, patience, and grace. If we didn't live so far from him, we would love to attend his community in Wine Country! Regardless of distance, we now feel Rabbi Steve is "our rabbi" and we will contact him in the future for any needs we have.
Sent on 06/13/2018
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