Joan Phillips, Officiant & Celebrant Reviews
Reviews
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Awards
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![Lizz]()
Lizz Sent on 05/20/2025Joan is amazing!
Joan is so easy to talk to and very easy to communicate with - was always quick to respond. My husband and I are raving about Joan! If you need an officiant please pick her! She made everything so personable and brought such warmth and joy!! -
![Helena]()
Helena Sent on 04/23/2025We're so happy we chose Joan!!
Joan is an amazing officiant. She made sure she was always available to call or even meet in person to go through the ceremony with us. The ceremony felt very personalized and very thoughtful; my partner and I felt well taken care of. -
![Peter]()
Peter Sent on 12/23/2024DMVs Finest!
Joan is an excellent example of someone who absolutely loves what they do, which was evidenced in our absolutely wonderful wedding ceremony. Our entire experience with Joan was fantastic and we cannot recommend her enough. Thank you again Joan for the magical ceremony, your work made our special day even brighter! Thank you. -
![Kaitlin]()
Kaitlin Sent on 12/22/2024Small Park Ceremony
Joan did a wonderful job with our small 12 guest ceremony at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria. It was such a pleasure to meet with her beforehand and go through our vision. She offered so many great ideas including readings, vows, and ceremony options. She was completely flexible and didn’t miss a beat when our dog kept barking during the ceremony. She takes the time to meet with couples to come up with a personalized ceremony and did a beautiful job of sharing our love story. Thank you for everything, Joan! We cannot recommend her highly enough. -
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![Brian]()
Brian Sent on 12/20/2024Choosing Joan Phillips was a 10+
If you are looking for someone to officiate your wedding, Joan was great. She was not over the top and hit the perfect chord, keeping it about us while at the same time adding a tender touch to the ceremony. She was on time, as we had it at my 94 year old mother’s home and was warm and friendly throughout. Highly recommend without reservation. -
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![Jayden]()
Jayden Sent on 11/07/2024Extremely sweet, professional, passionate, and friendly
When we started our search for an officiant who could perform traditional celtic handwraps, we thought we'd have a hard time, but when we found Joan we knew, without a shadow of a doubt, she was the person to marry us. From our very first meeting, we started talking about family, heritage, what we value, and from those conversations we were able to determine just how well she would perform and how seriously she takes her role. We had such a fabulous time just sitting in the cafe chatting with her and getting to know each other. When we mentioned hand wrappings, her face lit up as she pulled out a binder with samples and dialogs, we were overjoyed to see how excited she was but also amazed at just how prepared she had come to our very first meeting!
Her questions and questionnaires, while extensive, were incredibly important to this experience as they allowed her to truly get to know us, which in turn made the ceremony incredibly loving and personal. She took the time to not only research the style and theme of the wedding we were going for, but also to research and understand us and our love for each other. All that work really showed at the ceremony and, according to our guests, gave everyone a better understanding of our connection. With the level of personalization and love she was able to foster, it felt like she truly understood why we were getting married. Plenty of our guests came up to us during the reception talking about how beautiful the ceremony was, how intimate and loving it felt, and through her, we were able to display our love with all our friends and family present. We are honored and thankful that she was a part of this special moment with us, to last the rest of our lives. Thank you Joan, from the bottom of our hearts. -
![Jessica]()
Jessica Sent on 07/26/2024Heartfelt, personalized ceremony with extremely helpful vow support!
Jon was kind, professional, thoughtful, and reliable. We loved working with her on a personalized ceremony. Joan also provides helpful tools for writing vows. So many guests shared how much the ceremony felt like us! It was everything we were hoping for. -
![Kelly]()
Kelly Sent on 06/08/2024Wonderful Officiant
Joan was absolutely amazing—she took time to get to know us and created such an intimate and special ceremony really blew us away. I truly do not think I’ve ever been to a more thoughtful ceremony and several of our married guests commented that they wished they had done a ceremony like ours. We were so touched and would highly recommend hiring Joan as your wedding officiant! -
![Maylin]()
Maylin Sent on 05/17/2024Perfect ceremony with Joan!
Booking Joan was one of the BEST decisions we made for our wedding. As we are not religious, it was important for us to find an officiant who could conduct a secular ceremony that was still full of emotion and meaning. Joan understood our vision and made the ceremony so special and personal to us. Everyone at the reception was shocked to learn that we did not previously have a personal connection to Joan due to how much she knew about us, which was all to her credit for truly taking the time to get to know us in such a short period. The reading materials she provided to get us to start thinking about what we wanted to say in our vows exceeded all expectations and you can tell she really has a passion for what she does. -
![Renáta]()
Renáta Sent on 12/06/2023The best officiant we could have had!
When I was looking for an officiant for our micro wedding, I was choosing based on reviews because that's how you really get to know someone and the way they work.
Joan was our first choice and she ended up being the best one too! Despite me contacting her just about two months before the wedding day, she made sure to respond to my emails as soon as possible and I never waited too long for a reply. We set up a Zoom call so that we can meet "face to face" and discuss further details about the ceremony.
On the wedding day, Joan was amazing. The wording was everything we could have hoped for and she made sure to talk about everything that was important to both my and my husband.
I would recommend Joan to everyone who wants a personalized ceremony and make their day even more perfect. -
![Samuel]()
Samuel Sent on 11/28/2023Joan helped make our wedding perfect!!
Joan did such an amazing job! Her approach is totally centered around how you want your ceremony to go, and she helped us think of all the things we would or wouldn’t want in our ceremony. On top of this she made the whole process easy, and yet the ceremony was totally customized to our liking. During the ceremony Joan did an excellent job expressing the joy of the day and everything went perfectly. We can’t recommend her highly enough!! -
![Yujing]()
Yujing Sent on 10/15/2023A Heartfelt and Personalized Ceremony with Joan: A Wonderful Officiant
We had the pleasure of having Joan as our officiant for our wedding, and we couldn't have been happier with her services. What sets Joan apart is her incredible ability to create a personalized and heartfelt ceremony that truly reflected our love story. She is not one to simply copy and paste from a generic script; instead, she took the time to understand our journey and beautifully wove it into our ceremony. Joan's professionalism, warmth, and patience stood out throughout the entire process. She made us feel at ease, guiding us every step of the way. She is a wonderful officiant. -
![Chalo396]()
Chalo396 Sent on 09/29/2023Joan made our wedding day super special!!
Joan was amazing!! she came all the way to us for the rehearsal on a raining day, gave us points and help us through everything on what to expect, she went above and beyond to make sure our day was memorable and amazing!!
I would highly recommend Joan for any wedding or anything at all!!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH JOAN!!! We are gonna remember you forever!!
Stephanie and Jose Quiroz!! -
![JWB]()
Jwb Sent on 05/23/2023Joan is a MUST hire for a magical ceremony
Joan is an absolute treasure - not just as an officiant, but as a person. Not only did she craft the most beautiful, thoughtful, joyful ceremony, she went above and beyond in the process leading up to our wedding. After an introductory call in which she walked us through a sample ceremony flow, we also met in person to get to know each other better. She even spoke to my mom over the phone for an hour! Her kindness, enthusiasm, and professionalism are unmatched. She also stayed after the ceremony and boogied the night away with our family and friends! We recommend Joan wholeheartedly and are so grateful she was such an integral part of our special day. -
![DG]()
Dg Sent on 11/21/2022Can't recommend Joan highly enough!!
Joan is an incredibly kind, skilled, and professional officiant. I can't recommend Joan highly enough.
We got married on short notice, and we were worried that we might not find a suitable officiant in time. After a brief intro call with Joan, I knew immediately that she'd do a wonderful job.
Joan laid out the process very clearly, and ensured that we supplied all necessary info for her to organize the ceremony.
In short order, Joan fused the info we shared with our specific requests, and conducted a beautiful and highly-personalized ceremony that we'll never forget.
Joan made it feel like she's known us our whole lives, and it couldn't have gone better.
Thank you again, Joan! We're grateful for the role you played in making our special day so.... special :) -
![Melissa]()
Melissa Sent on 07/10/2022Joan is the absolute best
The compliment I heard most about our wedding was how amazing/engaging/moving/emotional/funny/etc. the ceremony was, and my husband and I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been to a lot of weddings, and typically the ceremony is the part most people can’t wait to get through, but Joan made it one of the most memorable and enjoyable ceremonies we’ve ever seen. Everything from her script to her delivery of it was perfect. She captured who we are as individuals and as a couple so perfectly, and so many of our guests told us they laughed and cried at her truly remarkable script. I couldn’t believe how amazing the ceremony was! We are so so so happy we chose Joan! -
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![Rachel]()
Rachel Sent on 02/04/2022Joan was invaluable!
From our first call, we knew Joan was the right person to be our officiant. She is such a kind person and an amazing listener. She made sure she knew exactly what we wanted for our ceremony and was a wealth of resources. She provided a questionnaire for us to complete at our leisure so she could personalize our ceremony, which she did expertly. She also was a complete lifesaver in going to the DC Courts to take care of all the marriage-related paperwork (for a very reasonable fee). You want to feel confident, relaxed, and secure during wedding planning and your wedding day, and Joan was a pivotal part of making us feel that way, and of making our wedding day so special. HIGHLY recommend! -
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![Kelsey]()
Kelsey Sent on 01/27/2022Amazing!
Truly could not have made a better decision choosing Joan as our officiant! She is so sweet and easy to talk to. She told our story so incredibly well and made it everything we could've hoped for and more. We absolutely loved having her apart of our intimate ceremony and the larger celebration the following year! -
![Andrew]()
Andrew Sent on 01/12/2022Joan was simply the best!
Like many couples we were a COVID reschedule wedding from October 2020 to October 2021. During the course of the year, the officiant we had been working with had become ill and could no longer perform our services for us though we had already had our ceremony drafted. She kindly put us in touch with Joan and we could not have been happier with everything!
Joan came in in July without knowing much about us, and set up an initial meeting so we could get to know each other and get an idea of what we were looking for on the day. She was so easy to talk to and so energetic we knew she was going to be fantastic to work with. We provided her with a copy of our previous draft since my wife really liked a lot of it, but told her to feel free to give it her own voice and make any changes she saw fit. The ceremony we got back was perfect. We thought the initial draft was great but once Joan got to work on it, she really made it everything we wanted.
Joan was easy to keep in contact with despite what I’m sure was a full plate of 2021 weddings and rescheduled 2020 weddings packed into weekends. She worked seamlessly with our month / day of coordinator for scheduling and making sure our other vendors were well prepared for the ceremony, including our DJ and videographer for mic’ing. She was absolutely wonderful and provided reassurance and nerve calming words of wisdom at the rehearsal and pre-ceremony and I (the groom), especially appreciated that.
Our ceremony couldn’t have been more perfect. From Joan’s delivery, to timing and energy she generated (especially with getting some audience interaction and some perfect comedic timing) everything was just wonderful.
Thank you again Joan for coming in a bit late with us and helping to ensure our big day was perfect. -
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![Ashley]()
Ashley Sent on 11/06/2021A true professional
Joan is a fantastic officiant! She is very experienced and detail-oriented, and she worked closely with us through the process of tailoring our ceremony to achieve just the right mood. She had a wealth of materials to use for inspiration as we crafted our vows, but her process also allowed us to weave in the unique and special elements of the history of our relationship. Numerous guests commented on the beautiful, custom quality of our ceremony, and so much of that is thanks to Joan. It should also be noted that she was incredibly kind and understanding when we had to postpone multiple times due to COVID. Joan is a true professional, and we recommend her highly! -
![David]()
David Sent on 10/17/2021Personalized Experience
Joan worked with us in the months leading up to the ceremony, got to know us, asked us all of the right questions, and developed a script that we could tell had a lot of hours poured into it. Our ceremony felt so unique and personalized. Joan brought the right energy and we're so thankful she could be a part of our special day. -
![Chelsea]()
Chelsea Sent on 08/27/2021Joan is the best!
We are so happy we had Joan as our officiant! She made planning our ceremony so easy! She provides you with a ton of resources and is available to have zoom calls to help anytime. We loved the ceremony Joan put together for us and we heard from multiple guests how wonderful it was. We definitely recommend Joan to everyone! -
![Brynn]()
Brynn Sent on 08/22/2021Amazing Personalized Ceremony, Stress-Free Experience
Joan did an AMAZING job for our wedding. We had hired Joan for our April 2020 wedding but ended up having friends officiate in our backyard (due to COVID). Joan was so helpful throughout the process - extremely flexible as we rescheduled our 2nd ceremony and celebration 2 times, very helpful in providing suggestions/readings for the ceremony, and extremely thoughtful in her wedding day script. We wanted to incorporate both Jewish and Christian aspects into the wedding for our families, but largely keep it nondenominational and Joan made that happen. Additionally, we weren't quite sure how to handle our second wedding (as we were already married), but Joan was so helpful in providing ideas and suggestions for how to approach the ceremony. While we reviewed some of the script prior to the wedding, we let her surprise us with her comments on our love story...and I'm so glad we did - it was a great surprise. She pulled from our questionnaires (that we'd written 2 years prior) and spoke beautifully about how we met and what we love about one another. She also included a thoughtful recap on our first year and a half of marriage. Several of our guests asked how we knew Joan - they assumed she was a close family friend. She personalized the ceremony so well and spoke beautifully not only about us, but about our relationships with our family and friends. We are so thankful for Joan and so glad we chose her for our ceremony! -
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![Leo]()
Leo Sent on 08/10/2021A lot of help and support from Joan!
Joan has been really helpful and kind through the whole process. She was also very thoughtful and cared about all the details. We really recommend her as your officiant for your ceremony. -
![Marjorie]()
Marjorie Sent on 06/02/2021Joan is the sweetest Reverend
Working with Joan was such a pleasure and very heart-warming. She has so many wonderful ideas and questions to get the bride and groom really thinking about how they want their ceremony to go.
I would recommend her to every couple looking to get married
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