Meet Carla, Chicago Wedding Officiant
Twenty-five years ago, two friends found me at my college job and asked me to marry them.
I said no. I didn't know how to marry somebody.
Then I went to the library.
A week later, we met in a public parking lot at St. Pete Beach and walked down to the water. No guests. No microphone. The sun setting behind me. I was nervous, and nothing went wrong.
They're still married. They're about to become grandparents.
I've been standing in front of couples ever since.
Your love story is yours alone. Maybe it started out on the ocean. Maybe you make each other's artistic spirits shine. After hundreds of weddings, beside the couple and behind the camera, I've learned the best ceremonies sound like they could only belong to two people.
The first time I was part of a wedding, I was a five-year-old flower girl.
BECAUSE YOUR WEDDING DAY SHOULD BE ABOUT YOU.
Dream it.
Date, venue, photographer, flowers, food. There are a hundred decisions, and the officiant is often the last one anyone thinks about. That's okay. You don't need to know what you want yet. Most couples don't, because the only ceremonies they've seen were very traditional or very generic.
WRITE it.
You'll answer my questionnaires about how you met, what you love about each other, and the kind of partners you want to be. I write your ceremony from a blank page, using your words. Then you read it, comment on it, and change anything until it feels like YOU.
SPEAK it.
On the day, my job is to disappear into your story. I'll be there early, dressed for your celebration, with every name practiced. You'll be locked in on each other. Your guests will stop watching a ceremony and start witnessing a promise.
Read how my 15 years behind the camera continue to shape every ceremony I create.
WHY I DO IT THIS WAY
When Mehul and I planned our wedding, I assumed finding an officiant would be the easy part.
We interviewed eight. Some wouldn't research the traditions we wanted. Some wanted to fit us into their format. More than one kept steering an interfaith couple toward a Christian ceremony we hadn't asked for.
The officiant we hired mispronounced Mehul's name for the entire ceremony. It's on our video forever.
So I became the officiant I was looking for.
your love matters.
An inclusive Chicago wedding officiant for every couple.
I celebrate every couple, and there's no room for hate or judgment at any ceremony I lead.
Gay or straight. Religious, non-religious, interfaith, multicultural, lightly spiritual, or fully secular. Two people on a rooftop or two hundred in a ballroom.
Whether you're planning a same-sex wedding, an interfaith ceremony, or something that's never been done before, your ceremony should reflect the partnership the two of you have actually built.
I hold the vendors I refer to the same standard. I only recommend LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC friendly vendors.
You decide what's said. Only you.
If a parent or grandparent is paying for your ceremony, that's a generous gift. It isn't editorial control.
When someone other than the two of you pays, I write a separate agreement with them, and you keep every decision about your script.
I've had a mother insist on a prayer a couple had declined. I've had a father insist on "who gives this woman away" after a couple removed it. That couple replaced it with a community blessing, and the whole room answered "We do."
The two people crossing the threshold are the only ones who decide what's said at it.
What happens outside the thirty minutes?
Your guests will see about thirty minutes of my work. Here's the rest: the questionnaires, every email answered, guidance throughout planning, a ceremony written from scratch, revisions until it's right, a pre-ceremony chat, the rehearsal if it's included, coordinating with your DJ, photographer, video team, and planner, and hand-delivering your marriage license with a scanned copy sent to you.
That's why I only take a limited number of weddings each year.
It's how many I can give this much to.
Chicago wedding ceremonies I've been honored to lead
I've married a couple in front of SUE at the Field Museum, after hours, four years to the day from the start of their relationship. At roughly 67 million years old, she's still the oldest guest I've ever had.
I've watched a brunch boat dock right behind a couple on the Chicago Riverwalk. Neither of them noticed.
I've escaped the biting flies on North Avenue Beach with a couple who flew in from the UK, and found them a private rooftop with the skyline instead.
Osteria Via Stato. The Palmer House. Offshore Rooftop. The Carter. La Storia. The Brix on the Fox. Olive Park. The Chicago History Museum. The Adler Planetarium.
Some of my favorite Chicagoland venues have become places I think of as home.
LAUGH YOUR WAY THROUGH YOUR CEREMONY
Sacred doesn't have to mean serious.
I've had a couple flip a coin to decide whose vows went first, because that's how they settled every disagreement. I've refereed a thumb-wrestling match to decide who exchanged rings first. I've opened a custom LEGO ring box in front of a room full of guests.
If you tear up, that's okay. If you laugh, even better.
I've sat in every seat
I've been the bride. I spent fifteen years behind a camera at hundreds of weddings. I've been an officiant for twenty-five years.
As a photographer, I once watched an officiant spend a beach ceremony talking about divorce statistics. The couple's smiles faded. Guests looked at each other. All I could do was keep shooting.
This moment matters too much to feel like this.
I will never lecture you from the front of the room.
WHAT SETS A FOREVER INCREDIBLE CEREMONY APART?
Every custom wedding ceremony I write is your story brought to life.
Not a template with your names dropped in. Your story, told out loud, to the people who love you most.
I'm a Chicago wedding officiant, and I marry couples across Chicagoland, in St. Pete and Tampa, and wherever your wedding takes you.
I'd love to hear what you're planning.
On the day you make it forever
Make it Incredible
Photography Credit
Sapan Ahuja Photography, Westley Leon Studios, Lisa Kathan Photography and Hanna Walkowaik Photography