Celia was recommended by the country club where my wedding was held- The Indian Trail Club in Franklin Lakes, NJ. I knew they were used to witnessing several officients perform ceremonies there each week, but Celia was the officent that really stood out to them. My husband and I are of different religious backgrounds, but neither one of us are particularly religious. We decided we wanted to do a ceremony leaving out religion completely. After meeting with Celia she was bubbly and sweet, and had a great sense of humor. I knew she was the one. My husband and I both have Irish roots and our families love nothing more than to have a drink and have good laugh. When I filled in our questionnaire I encouraged Celia to be herself and add humor to our ceremony. She did great- it was like stand up comedy. Our guests were giggling all the way through the ceremony. She had also given us a long list of non-traditional wedding traditions she was able to perform. Everything from jumping over broomsticks to passing out chocolates during the ceremony. I found one on her list that sounded interesting- handfasting. She explained to me that handfasting was an old Pagan ritual commonly practiced in Scotland and Ireland in the old days, and was even featured in the movie Braveheart. Mike and I may not be from the same religious background but we both had common ground with our Irish roots. We performed the handfasting ceremony and Mike’s Irish family who flew in from Dublin was floored that we decided to add that to our ceremony. They just thought it was the coolest!! My friends are still talking about our wedding whenever we bump into them- some saying it was the best wedding they’ve ever been to, and most saying it was the most unique they had ever attended (in a good way!). We wanted to stray away from the traditional, and Celia held a key role in making our dream wedding a reality. We laughed, we cried- all in all, her ceremony was absolutely fabulous.
Melanie McLynn Conley
NYC
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