Your Personal Ceremony

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Introduction

We truly listen to who you are as a couple and help you personalize your ceremony, including the tone of the language. We co-create the ceremony with you - so people think that we have known you as a friend rather than someone you hired through the internet. And we really are available to help out day of - with details at both the ceremony and the reception. We go the extra mile for you as a couple. Plus we are both very personable and creative - and really care about people. We don't charge you extra if there's a time glitch or the bride's brother from Israel is lost in the city and get there half hour late. We really do care about the quality of the experience for everyone present. We just love meeting with couples. This is such an important day in your lives that we are planning together, a joyous occasion. We are good at helping couples feel grounded and together day of, so they really DO have a memorable wedding day.

Overview

Hired 13 times

3 employees

30 years in business

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Featured Projects

12 photos

Reviews

Very good 4.6

16 reviews

88%

12%

Jayne T.

Oct 28, 2011

Being a couple of mixed nationality and religion, our challenge in planning our wedding ceremony was finding an officiate who could provide a non-denominational, yet spiritual, ceremony. The ceremony not only had to satisfy both of us, but also our (very religious) immediate family members. We interviewed a number of officiates, but as soon as we met Joanie and Yehudah we felt a connection. They were completely professional at our initial meeting and came prepared with sample ceremonies and were full of helpful ideas and inspirations. They immediately understood our situation, and took the time to get to know both of us individually and then how we fit as a couple. This helped them to guide the ceremony planning process, and over the course of a few months through email communication we put together the perfect plan. They truly want you to create your personal ceremony by using their expertise and combining it with your vision. They also conduct the Rehearsal, which was an extremely helpful event. My husband and I were able to practice everything that was involved with the ceremony, discuss timing, and it allowed us to be completely comfortable on our wedding day. We were lucky to have both Joanie and Yehudah as officiates for the wedding, and the dynamic of the two of them combined with their meaningful and perfectly timed delivery of the ceremony was amazing. The ceremony was everything we could have dreamed of, and Your Personal Ceremony is responsible for that. We will never forget this most cherished part of our wedding day. Thank you so very much Joanie and Yehudah, we will never forget you! Jayne & Armando Tirado

Eowyn C.

Nov 4, 2011

We had a wonderful experience with Your Personal Ceremony. We met with Joanie and Ana early on to discuss what we wanted in a ceremony, what was important to us and what had drawn us together in the first place. Reminiscing about the early days of our relationship was a delightful highlight during the wedding planning! They were with us every step of the way helping to put together a ceremony that reflected us perfectly. We are not religious people and drew on imagery of the Earth and our community-- they helped us incorporate these things. On our wedding day, Ana conducted our ceremony with grace, humor, and spirituality that made us feel "really married". On the practical side, YPC was a pleasure to work with and they worked well with our other vendors to make the whole day a great success.

Kayla K.

Nov 15, 2011

My husband Corey and I had a wonderful experience with Your Personal Ceremonys. When we first started looking for Officiants, we were both on the same page that we needed to find one that understood both of us. We are not religious and NOT anywhere close to traditional. We were planning to have a 1920s Themed Wedding and wanted to dance down the aisle. When we first met with Joanie, we knew she was the one!! She was sooo excited to help plan our Ceremony, she was even excited to dress in her 1920s attire. We met with Joanie about 2 months before Our Wedding to finalize all the details when we found out that she loved to swing dance, which was PERFECT because we needed help with our FIRST DANCE!! Not only did she help out but she Choreographed our entire dance. If you knew my husband you would think 2 months to perfect our first dance would be impossible!! But Joanie was such a big help and because of her our FIRST DANCE was sooo AMAZING!! It was the talk of the Wedding!! I would recommend Your Personal Ceremony to anyone looking forward to having a wonderful wedding ceremony. Joanie was such a joy to work with. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Kayla Kohler

Ben L.

Nov 15, 2011

Joanie and Yehudah performed a wonderful interfaith and inter-nationality ceremony for us during the summer of 2011. They were great to work with as we wove together Jewish, Christian, American, and Caribbean traditions into one coherent ceremony (all while keeping it short and sweet!). We were also able to put together a ceremony that pleased both our religious and non-religious friends and family. We would highly recommend them to any couple looking for a highly customized, completely personal wedding ceremony. Their experience provides enough structure to ease the ceremony development process along, while retaining enough flexibility to let the personality of the couples to truly shine through. You wont be disappointed!

Jane W.

Nov 18, 2011

Working with Joanie on our wedding was absolutely amazing! Joanie co-officiated with my husband's family's pastor and it could not have gone better. She also reviewed the language on our ketubah for us, which I very much appreciated as we have it displayed in our home. Joanie was diligent, extremely attentive, positive and incredibly helpful every step of the way. She helped us create a ceremony that was a perfect blend of Judaism and Christianity while not being too long or religious for us. After sitting through a number of weddings the year before ours that had long and cookie cutter ceremonies Joanie really helped us make the ceremony a unique and individualized experience. 3 years later my husband and I still get compliments from family and friends about our ceremony.

FAQs

What types of customers have you worked with?
Our niche is personalized wedding ceremonies, especially interfaith weddings. We also do elopements in our living room or backyard. Ana Villarqui is our Spanish, Bi-lingual Wedding Officiant available for Hispanic wedding ceremonies. We have married couples in prison, jail and even one death-bed wedding. Mostly we create non-denominational personalized wedding ceremonies and help each couple create a very special wedding ceremony unique to them. We provide rehearsal guidance, file the legal papers, and send each couple a final copy of their ceremony on parchment paper. Our couples become our very dear friends through the process of creating their wedding ceremony, one that they and their guests will remember for years to come.
What advice would you give a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?
Really think about the kind of ceremony you want rather than the cost of the officiant. We are among the best in Portland - and so you might need to pay a bit more for a quality wedding ceremony.
What questions should customers think through before talking to professionals about their project?
There are many people who put out that they do wedding ceremonies, but not many that truly do a good job. We have heard nightmare stories from people whose relative hired someone cheap who was just that - cheap. Its important to be discerning about who you hire.

Your Personal Ceremony

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