Personalized, Hilarious, Professional
I'm Chris Shelley and Illuminating Ceremonies is my wedding officiating business. I have home bases in New York City, NY, and Cincinnati, OH, but I travel around the country thrilling wedding guests. Would you like your wedding ceremony to be personalized and fun? I aim to make your wedding ceremony the best one your guests have ever seen. The Rachael Ray Show producers asked me to create their Valentine's Day Weddings four years in a row! I love this work. My Book, 'Best. Ceremony. Ever.' (The Countryman Press, W.W. Norton) is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I've married over a thousand people to each other: will you and your partner be my next two? For much more information, videos, etc., please see my website, www.IlluminatingCeremonies.com. Whether planning a big wedding with hundreds of guests or a micro wedding for only a handful, an experienced professional with a tremendous stage presence can electrify your ceremony. Give yourselves reassurance, and give your guests something to talk about. I am a Celebrant, MC, and Mood-Booster, all rolled into one vendor. My passion is connecting the joy of the wedding ceremony to the pleasure of the wedding celebration. I'm also a speaker and a member of the National Speaker's Association. I work with students and employees to boost their confidence, speak better, and present themselves more dynamically in a fun session I call 'PEOPLE SKILLS LIVE.' I also talk to DJs at mastermind events, coaching them to improve their personalization game. My goal is to revolutionize how people view the Celebrant's role beyond the ceremony, to see us for the asset we are for the entire wedding celebration. Weddings are theater, and the ceremony is a play-within-the-play. A good celebrant can work with your planner and other vendors to unify the theme of the evening, find new and imaginative ways to connect guests and celebrate the couple. It's essential to hire a professional officiant. I'm biased, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong. It's tempting, financially, to hire a friend to officiate, but the misconception is that this is the only way to have a personal wedding. Not true! A trained Celebrant like me makes ceremonies that are so personal your guests will assume I'm a friend of yours. It's a neat magic trick. Your guests will love you for hiring someone who makes them smile, laugh, and not cry too much. They'll thank you for hiring someone who knew what he was doing and how to make the event electric and entertaining while still having the class to match the elegance of any venue. Plus, I look good in a suit. (I make sure I never look better than the bride.) And I'm probably older than you are, which gives me a vaguely authoritative vibe, something that will reassure your parents.