HOW IT HAPPENS From the moment you contact me about your wedding, my focus is on you and the creation of a meaningful service that will make your wedding day memorable. We begin by establishing a rapport that will allow us to get to know each other. We will speak by phone, all of us together, so I can get a feel of your relationship and an understanding of what you want emphasized in your ceremony. I will ask you questions about yourselves, your relationship, your dreams and goals as individuals and as a couple. I will discover what type of ceremony you want, if you want to write your own vows and/or ceremony, and whether you would like to have family and friends be participants and how that can be accomplished. At this point I will ask for a commitment and a $50.00 non-returnable deposit to be sent to me. This constitutes an agreement for me to officiate at your wedding. I ask you, both bride and groom, to email or fax me a biography about yourselves and your relationship. In the biography most couples write about some of what they told me on the phone and other things that they think of after our initial conversation. The biographies sometimes have quotes that I may later incorporate into the ceremony. If you have your own readings that you want to use, I ask you to send me a copy so I can incorporate them into the body of the ceremony. From the biographies, conversations and requested readings, I begin the process of putting a ceremony together. After I draft a potential service, I email it to you and ask you to read it over, and if you wish, edit, add or delete the parts that can be altered without changing the over all tone of the service. We stay in contact by email/phone periodically prior to the wedding to continue establishing our relationship so neither of us will be strangers on this important day in your lives. You have final approval of the service, but any major re-writes or changes after the ceremony has been agreed upon will be subject to additional charges. Ideally I would like to have the final approval of the ceremony within three (3) weeks of the wedding date. Last minute arrangements may incur additional charges.