Secular Jewish Interfaith & Irish Weddings Reviews
Reviews
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![Ryan]()
Ryan Sent on 06/18/2021Microwedding in Spring 2021
Rabbi Joysa was so lovely to work with for our microwedding, which took place on 4.21.21. Prior to hiring her, she sent a very detailed email about who she was and what to expect. Her warmth and passion just radiated from that email and we knew she was going to be “the one”! We clicked immediately after speaking over the phone and decided to hire her based on that. She was very helpful in subsequent conversations when we were selecting our ketubah and our in person meeting was great to plan the ceremony was great. There are so many decisions to factor for an interfaith wedding and Rabbi Joysa was incredibly knowledgeable about Jewish, Christian, and non-secular customs and traditions and was able to help us create a unique ceremony that was super personalized. She was sensitive to our needs and provided wonderful insight which helped in our decision-making. She provides couples robust options to select from, but will absolutely work with you if you’d like to use something that’s not part of her existing files. You definitely won’t be getting a “cookie-cutter” ceremony or officiant! Rabbi Joysa is friendly, kind, and funny and that sparkles throughout the ceremony she will help to create for you. We loved her inclusivity and her support! The Love Story, gleaned from questions that you and your partner answer separately, really adds that special touch for this important day. We definitely would recommend Rabbi Joysa for your event! -
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Rachel Sent on 08/07/2020
What a wonderful officiant!
Joysa was an absolute DREAM to work with, from the first time we contacted her through the end of our wedding day.
My husband was raised Christian and I was raised Jewish/Irish Catholic and we knew we wanted a Jewish ceremony but with a very humanistic feel to it that honored both of our backgrounds.
Joysa provided us with a very in depth 1:1 session where she helped us explore the many ways to do our wedding ceremony. She is so creative and really wants couples to have ceremonies that feel true to them. She also provides couples with lots of written information/articles on the meaning behind different ceremony aspects, and articles with advice for engaged people/newlyweds. We also chose to participate in the PrepareEnrich program with Joysa for pre-marital counseling (optional!) and we felt that working through that information with Joysa helped us learn how to navigate our new marriage together.
Even many weeks later, we still get compliments on how personal and moving our ceremony was! The guests and my husband and I really enjoyed having the LoveStory portion of the ceremony and we felt it was one of our favorite parts of the day. She also led a beautiful ketubah signing where we played "Jew-pardy" with our families, which was a really fun twist on the traditional signing.
We would recommend Joysa 1,000% to any potential clients. She is a beautiful person inside and out and really goes above and beyond to make couple's wedding days meaningful. -
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Avery Sent on 01/24/2019
Wonderful interfaith ceremony!
Rabbi Joysa did a fabulous job in working with us to create a ceremony that was meaningful to us, and was open to using both Jewish and Quaker traditions. We were married over 6 months ago, and my family still comments on how beautiful the ceremony was. in the weeks before the wedding, she sent a questionnaire for us both to complete, and used our responses in her ceremony, which was such a nice surprise to hear what my husband wrote about me/us! She even emailed us after the wedding, a copy of her script, so I have it to look back on :) She was flexible with us on scheduling, and even drove all the way down to Delaware for our big day, Would highly recommend Rabbi Joysa! -
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![Karen]()
Karen Sent on 10/24/2018Mastermind behind our dream ceremony
Karen and I can't say enough good things about Joysa. She did a wonderful job helping us shape our ceremony into a very memorable and personal moment. Honestly, going into the planning, we didn't know what we were doing, and without her our ceremony would have been over in 10 minutes. Not to mention we were also planning our wedding from across the country over the phone. Joysa had so many amazing suggestions for us, and we were so appreciative that she was able to make everything so personalized even though we weren't able to meet her in person until the day of! We also appreciated her flexibility, as we were looking for a mostly secular wedding.. With Joysa's help, we ended up with a perfect combination of Jewish and Irish traditions without making our ceremony explicitly about religion. She truly captured both of our personalities in the ceremony, to the delight of our family and friends. Joysa got a ton of laughs out of our small wedding, and had us laughing during our own ceremony to cut the nerves, but also gracefully handled the more serious aspects of our ceremony. Joysa wasn't just our day-of officiant, but she really was the mastermind and author of our wedding. Our family and friends gave us tons of compliments, but the praise should be directed back to Joysa. Thank you again for helping us throw our dream wedding!
- J&K McMullen -
![Jo Anne]()
Jo Anne Sent on 10/22/2018Wonderful Wedding Offiant
I found Joysa Winter researching on line. We needed a wedding offiante. I’m Jewish but my fiancé was not. When we met her I knew we had made the right choice. She was warm & caring. She listened to us and took the time to get to know us. She presented us with many unique options to add to our ceremony. She was easy to communicate with during the planning process. And the planning of the service was detailed. Which lent to a meaningful service...Many people complimented me on our service.... -
Chelsea Sent on 10/11/2017We highly recommend Joysa! She helped make our wedding ceremony personalized and exactly what we wanted. She took the time to get know us and learn about our love story and really helped to make our wedding represent us! We are both catholic but wanted to get married outdoors and incorporate Irish traditional aspects as well as our own ideas related to our own beliefs and joysa helped us to do this perfectly!! Our guests told us our wedding was so unique and personal and so filled with love! We are so thankful and highly recommend joysa!!
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![Emily]()
Emily Sent on 09/20/2017Joysa was a pleasure to work with. Sent us a ton of information for the ceremony and tied in our love story beautifully. We very much enjoyed working with her! -
![Rachael]()
Rachael Sent on 12/12/2016Joysa was lovely to work with. She is very knowledgeable about wedding ceremonies and does a great job helping you figure out what the best ceremony will be for you, whether you would like elements of an interfaith, Jewish, Christian, or non religious ceremony. She was exactly what my husband and I were looking for in a wedding officiant for a Secular Jewish ceremony! I would recommend finalizing details a week or two before your ceremony if you are not having a rehearsal the day before your ceremony. -
Lisa Sent on 01/27/2018Joysa officiated our wedding in December 2017 and we received so many complaints on the ceremony! Our guests laughed and cried and enjoyed the personal love story that was included in the ceremony. The love story made the ceremony very unique and I wonder why more people do not do this; I am glad Joysa uses this as a key part of the ceremony. Joysa will work with you along the way to help you build your ceremony by providing you information on the different traditions and their meanings so that you can customize it to the couple's preferences. The only item that could have made this experience better is to have had Joysa at the rehearsal as it made my husband and I nervous to not be able to go through some of the ceremony until the night of the wedding. Other than that, we highly recommend Joysa as our ceremony was outstanding and our guests keep saying how special it was!
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![Natalie]()
Natalie Sent on 02/08/2022Buyer beware!
Buyer BEWARE!! My husband and I are keeping this review factual because if we shared our feelings about the matter, it would be NOT be pretty. So here are the facts — each of which is well documented and provable. Joysa showed up late (we were so worried that the best man applied online to become an officiant while we waited!); she did not have the necessary materials she said she was bringing (copies of readings and the seven blessings); she was not dressed appropriately; and she offered no explanation or apology — not even a month later after several of us tried to reach her to discuss. She did NOT write our “love story” which was a big reason we chose her. She simply read our questionnaires word for word. She talked about her dating life in Denver and her cats multiple times throughout the ceremony. And worst of all, she literally threatened to “nullify” our marriage certificate when we disputed that we did not receive what we were paying for. You can certainly judge a vendor by how they handle a critique. (Btw all our other vendors were phenomenal!!) So in summary, we will echo what another reviewer of Joysa’s said back in June, do yourself a favor and STAY AWAY!!
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