Wedding Blog

Ahh, it’s good to be back! During my hiatus, I almost forgot how much I love contributing to Weddingbee! I figured it was time for a few choice vendor reviews, some of which might be helpful to Chicago-area brides. Let’s start with one of our most important vendors, our officiant Terry Brady, and the process we went through to create a ceremony that was truly “us”.

To be honest, Mr. E and I are not particularly religious people. So in looking for an officiant, our criteria was to find someone who we “clicked” with, who would allow us to personalize our ceremony… and who did not cost an arm and a leg. I’m sorry, but I just don’t understand how someone can charge $700-$800 for performing a 30 minute (or less) ceremony! I saw a positive recommendation for Terry Brady on the local Knot message board, gave him a call, and set up a meeting. Turns out, there was no need to look any further, we booked him the very day we met! Not only did we hit it off, but when he read me a sample of his ceremony, I got chills down my spine and tears in my eyes. (On a side note, we met in a hotel lobby where there happened to be a Furry Fandom convention going on and people dressed in animal costumes wandering all around us. It was… distracting to say the least).

Through the course of about 7 months, we corresponded mainly through email along with 2 or 3 in-person meetings. We started with his templated ceremony, and began to go through it with a fine-tooth comb. We must have bounced at least 7 or 8 rounds of revisions back and forth via email before we settled on the *perfect* ceremony. He confessed that he had never worked so long and so hard on anyone’s ceremony before, which I took as a compliment because I wanted it to be a very personalized. I also have to say that after meeting with him so many times, we developed a sense of rapport and were truly happy to have him marry us.

Mr. E and I initially wanted to write our own vows, but were having a hard time verbalizing what we wanted to say. So instead, Terry introduced us to the concept of “personal words”. Instead of writing our “promises”, we wrote about our love for the other, and our hopes for the future and we exchanged these words right before we recited our traditional vows. It was the emotional highlight of our ceremony, with tears all around (and we have video footage of Terry himself wiping away some tears!). If this is an element you are considering for your ceremony, I highly recommend it!

Lastly, Terry is quite reasonable for the Chicago area. His fee is under $500 and includes meetings (as many as deemed necessary by both parties), attendance at the rehearsal, and of course the ceremony.

How hands-on are you ladies in regards to developing your ceremony? Does your officiant allow you a say in the process?