This very short video is a placeholder for a video currently in production that talks in much more detail about the topics shown in the graphics.
I’m working on the complete video between rehearsals and ceremonies right now since we are at the height of the wedding season here in the Portland/Vancouver area.
Comments and questions welcome. I’ll try to address them in the completed video!
Happy Wedding Planning Jon Turino (503) 877-4609
Are you looking for a Wedding Officiant or Wedding Minister in Portland Oregon? I also perform wedding ceremonies in Vancouver if you are looking for a Wedding Officiant or Wedding Minister in Vancouver!
Tell me more about your wedding ceremony plans, what you need, what you want, what you desire. It’s YOUR SPECIAL DAY and I can help you customize the perfect wedding ceremony – one you, your family, and friends will remember forever!
“Jon was amazing to work, he knows exactly what to do and just guides you though it all, we hired him in a very short notice situation and he was great!! Thank you, Jon, for an amazing ceremony!! The family and I loved it!” – Trina, WeddingWire Review
“We had a great experience hiring Jon! I initially chose him because he seemed unbiased that our wedding was an elopement. He was very helpful and caring in making sure the verbiage was just right. He responded quickly with all emails, came early, and was very professional. During the ceremony, he spoke loud and clear. He was very genuine in wishing us all the best. I would highly recommend Jon to officiate your special day!” – Lauren, Wedding Wire Review
Call me at (503) 877-4609 or drop me a line using THIS ONLINE FORM.
Wedding guests often complain that they couldn’t hear the bride and groom recite their vows or the words that go with their exchange of rings. This is especially true for outdoor weddings, which are very popular in the Pacific Northwest from June through September.
As a wedding officiant, I carry my own wireless microphone setup: lavalier microphone, body pack transmitter, and receiver with cables for connecting to the audio system in use by the vendor hired for music and sound. Just in case they don’t have one for me. And because a handheld microphone is virtually useless when you are using two hands for the script and vows. And also because many handheld or on-stand microphones are useless unless they are within an inch or so of your mouth.
Try taking that one virtually useless microphone and handing it to the bride and groom, most of whom have never used a microphone before, so that their guests can presumably hear them speak while they are trying to choke out vows or exchange rings and you just add to their stress without success.
Before I became an officiant I did seminars all over the world. Carried my own wireless lavalier microphone setup. A transformer for European and Asian power. A box full of cables and adapters for the various connection needs in multiple countries. And it usually worked flawlessly.
Not always so for weddings. Sometimes mine has frequency interference issues. If the sound person has his or her own wireless lavalier for me, I’m a happy camper. But my microphone won’t pick up the voices of the bride and groom. A fairly important pair of people whose guests would really like to hear them, and not just me!
So here is my plea: Invest in a SYSTEM with at least three wireless microphones and a mixer so that you can provide body packs and lavalier microphones for the bride, groom, and officiant. It is not prohibitively expensive and it will drastically increase your customer satisfaction.
I just did a wedding today at a famous popular venue. That venue provided a useless microphone on a stand and a small amplifier and speaker with the quality of a child’s karaoke machine. It was pitiful, and far below the level of service that I would expect from such a prestigious venue at such a significant price.
I’ve seen vendors, many of whom appear to be real professionals, with thousands of dollars worth of turntables, computers, mixers, amplifiers, speaker systems and other fancy equipment who somehow don’t even think about making sure that the couple being married can be heard.
Please, people, make the needed investment. I’ll bet your client satisfaction scores will skyrocket!
And one last bit of advice for brides and grooms: When you select your venue, or your DJ, musician, or other audio professional, make sure that you ask them if they provide the equipment that you comfortably need in order to be heard (and also maybe connected to your videographer).
I’d love to hear from you folks, vendors and brides and grooms alike. Let me know what you think. And thanks for reading.
Happy Wedding Planning Jon Turino (503) 877-4609
Are you looking for a Wedding Officiant or Wedding Minister in Portland Oregon? I also perform wedding ceremonies in Vancouver!
Tell me more about your wedding ceremony plans, what you need, what you want, what you desire. It’s YOUR SPECIAL DAY and I can help you customize the perfect wedding ceremony – one you, your family, and friends will remember forever!
“Jon was amazing to work, he knows exactly what to do and just guides you though it all, we hired him in a very short notice situation and he was great!! Thank you, Jon, for an amazing ceremony!! The family and I loved it!” – Trina, WeddingWire Review
“We had a great experience hiring Jon! I initially chose him because he seemed unbiased that our wedding was an elopement. He was very helpful and caring in making sure the verbiage was just right. He responded quickly with all emails, came early, and was very professional. During the ceremony, he spoke loud and clear. He was very genuine in wishing us all the best. I would highly recommend Jon to officiate your special day!” – Lauren, Wedding Wire Review
Call me at (503) 877-4609 or drop me a line using THIS ONLINE FORM.
I got to thinking last night as I reflected on this past weekend’s two weddings where I was privileged to officiate. I’d met with both couples well before the weddings and customized the scripts and vows for them. I also advised them on the processional and talked to them about staying calm on their wedding day because it was all going to be fine. I am an optimist, after all.
Both weddings went beautifully. And when I spoke to the brides they were both happy with the ceremonies and happy that it was finally done! They both confessed to being a little overwhelmed with planning and details between engagement and ceremony time. So I put together a little 55-second video with some slides and put it up on YouTube. You can watch it below.
As I was editing the video above, I was inspired to create a longer version of the presentation so that I could reassure future brides that as panicked as they might be feeling at the moment, everything would work out just fine, at least as far as the ceremony and the officiant — me! — were concerned. We had that part of the ceremony fully under control. You can see that longer (8-minute) video starring yours truly below as well.
I would love to have your comments on these two videos. And a description of your experiences from when he “popped the question” to when your ceremony had been completed. I think other future brides would like to be reassured that what they are feeling is normal!
Thanks for reading and watching. And feel free to share this blog post.
Happy Wedding Planning Jon Turino (503) 877-4609
Are you looking for a Wedding Officiant or Wedding Minister in Portland Oregon? I also perform wedding ceremonies in Vancouver!
Tell me more about your wedding ceremony plans, what you need, what you want, what you desire. It’s YOUR SPECIAL DAY and I can help you customize the perfect wedding ceremony – one you, your family, and friends will remember forever!
“Jon was amazing to work, he knows exactly what to do and just guides you though it all, we hired him in a very short notice situation and he was great!! Thank you, Jon, for an amazing ceremony!! The family and I loved it!” – Trina, WeddingWire Review
“We had a great experience hiring Jon! I initially chose him because he seemed unbiased that our wedding was an elopement. He was very helpful and caring in making sure the verbiage was just right. He responded quickly with all emails, came early, and was very professional. During the ceremony, he spoke loud and clear. He was very genuine in wishing us all the best. I would highly recommend Jon to officiate your special day!” – Lauren, Wedding Wire Review
Call me at (503) 877-4609 or drop me a line using THIS ONLINE FORM.
A new live interactive forum to answer your wedding questions.
Please note: This service has been discontinued. But I am available one-on-one via phone, email, or live Internet video chat and I’d love to answer your questions.
Join us live on Tuesday evenings for this great new resource.
Do you have questions about your ceremony? About your vows? About your venue? About wedding planners and wedding coordinators? You can get answers to these questions during a newly announced series of live interactive video chat session hosted on the Zoom.us platform.
The plan is to have people interested in both getting from and providing answers to prospective brides and grooms regarding virtually any topic. Thus I encourage wedding planners, wedding coordinators, wedding venue managers, photographers, musicians and DJs, caterers, cake makers and anyone else who would like to contribute to participate in these sessions.
These sessions are not a place to provide sales pitches for products or services. They are meant to provide actionable information to help future brides and groom make their special day as perfect as possible. So if we can help them by identifying and providing solutions to common problems we’ve seen occur during other ceremonies and receptions I think we’ll be adding a lot of value. And my experience tells me that if we provide value then we may be considered when they are making hiring decisions.
So please join me on Tuesday evenings at 7:00 PM Pacific time at https://zoom.us/j/7993445506 for the next sessions. If you are a bride or groom to be, we’ll all do our best to provide you with great information that will help you in your planning efforts to make sure that your wedding day is as perfect as possible. If you are a vendor who can provide valuable advice to prospective brides and grooms, your participation is welcome as well.
FYI, you may CLICK HERE to watch a recording of the first session that was broadcast on October 25, 2016. You missed this event but you can see what I’m trying to accomplish by watching the recording.
As always, your comments and thoughts are more than welcome. Thanks for reading and I hope to “see” you at an upcoming session.
Happy Wedding Planning Jon Turino (503) 877-4609
Are you looking for a Wedding Officiant or Wedding Minister in Portland Oregon? I also perform wedding ceremonies in Vancouver!
Tell me more about your wedding ceremony plans, what you need, what you want, what you desire. It’s YOUR SPECIAL DAY and I can help you customize the perfect wedding ceremony – one you, your family, and friends will remember forever!
“Jon was amazing to work, he knows exactly what to do and just guides you though it all, we hired him in a very short notice situation and he was great!! Thank you, Jon, for an amazing ceremony!! The family and I loved it!” – Trina, WeddingWire Review
“We had a great experience hiring Jon! I initially chose him because he seemed unbiased that our wedding was an elopement. He was very helpful and caring in making sure the verbiage was just right. He responded quickly with all emails, came early, and was very professional. During the ceremony, he spoke loud and clear. He was very genuine in wishing us all the best. I would highly recommend Jon to officiate your special day!” – Lauren, Wedding Wire Review
Call me at (503) 877-4609 or drop me a line using THIS ONLINE FORM.
Did you ever watch this old reality show? It was on We TV from June 1st, 2004 until October 11, 2013 — an incredibly long run for a low budget reality show. The billing description reads: “Godzilla has nothing on a bride-to-be planning her dream wedding, as evidenced by the aptly named “Bridezillas.” The docu-series follows women who were perfectly normal before wedding planning took over her life. Grimly determined to realize their “dream wedding” at all costs, these out-of-control brides make the time leading up to their day of days an utter nightmare for everyone around them. In the end, they hope all the stress and meltdowns are worth it and they have the perfect wedding they’ve been dreaming of since they were little.”
Like most reality shows, this one found the absolutely worst examples of brides who represent only a tiny portion of the brides who marry each year. And, like most reality shows, it tried to make its audience think that all brides exhibited the characteristics of its “stars.”
My experience with brides is that most are very reasonable, very smart women who want their ceremony to be as close to the wedding day they’ve dreamed of during their childhood and that they want everyone — the wedding party, the parents and the guests, to have the best experience possible. So what goes wrong?
I’ve spent many years in the business consulting world and have always told my clients that a failure to plan is akin to planning to fail. And my recent experiences as a wedding officiant have led me to believe that what has been true in the business world is equally true in the wedding world!
I think that what may turn a perfectly reasonable bride-to-be into a “bridezilla” is simple panic. “Oh, my God! The wedding is only (insert number of months, weeks or sometimes even only days here) away and we still haven’t booked (insert venue, caterer, DJ/musician, cake maker, hair and makeup specialist, officiant, etc.). HELP!
If you are a bride-to-be, the best thing you can do to avoid becoming a “bridezilla” is to begin the wedding planning process as early as possible after your fiance has “popped the question” and you have said “Yes!”. In a previous blog post, I provide some guidance about engagement length versus wedding date selections and I do recommend that you take a few minutes to read it. Beyond that, here are some hints to help you stay calm, collected and in control so that you can have the best wedding day experience possible.
As mentioned above, start the planning process early!
Set out a timeline of things that must be done and people/organizations that must be hired.
Consult wedding related websites and blogs for lists of things you may want to consider so you don’t forget anything.
Delegate what you can to your fiance, your family, and your friends if they are willing to become involved to that level.
Keep a current list of the things that need doing and their status so that you don’t have to think about them constantly.
Don’t procrastinate! You’ll go nuts!
Also remember Murphy’s First Law: Whatever Can Go Wrong Will Go Wrong! But you know what? Your world will not come to an end if there is a glitch or two. This is normal. The hair and makeup artist will be late. Or you’ll be late because you stayed up too late worrying about the things you might have missed or that you might be late! See the list above to avoid those pitfalls. If you start the planning process early, make your hiring decisions on a timely basis and — very important — don’t “second guess” yourself — or make last minute changes that could have a negative impact on all of the other things or the overall schedule.
As an ordained minister who serves as a professional wedding officiant, I’m usually one of the last people to be hired (see chart at left courtesy of WeddingWire.com). But I can provide you with an up-front consultation to let you know that the vows, ceremony elements and any special features (e.g., unity candle or sand ceremony, remembrances, guest comments, special songs, etc.) will be handled exactly as you want them to be. Venues are obviously first priority. And good photographers need early booking as well. You can see the other major elements in the chart, but these are only a small portion of the things, people and organizations that you may want to consider for your special day.
Don’t try to do it all by yourself! You have a spouse-to-be who should take on a full share of the planning tasks. And actually planning the wedding together can be a great test of whether or not you’ll be able to “work together, share together and support each other, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, …”
Thanks for reading this post. I’d love to have your feedback on it and please do feel free to share it on your social media channels with everyone you feel might find it interesting. And if you are in the Portland/Vancouver area and need an officiant for an upcoming wedding, please do keep me in mind. I’d love to marry you!
Happy Wedding Planning Jon Turino (503) 877-4609
Are you looking for a Wedding Officiant or Wedding Minister in Portland Oregon? I also perform wedding ceremonies in Vancouver!
Tell me more about your wedding ceremony plans, what you need, what you want, what you desire. It’s YOUR SPECIAL DAY and I can help you customize the perfect wedding ceremony – one you, your family, and friends will remember forever!
“Jon was amazing to work, he knows exactly what to do and just guides you though it all, we hired him in a very short notice situation and he was great!! Thank you, Jon, for an amazing ceremony!! The family and I loved it!” – Trina, WeddingWire Review
“We had a great experience hiring Jon! I initially chose him because he seemed unbiased that our wedding was an elopement. He was very helpful and caring in making sure the verbiage was just right. He responded quickly with all emails, came early, and was very professional. During the ceremony, he spoke loud and clear. He was very genuine in wishing us all the best. I would highly recommend Jon to officiate your special day!” – Lauren, Wedding Wire Review
Call me at (503) 877-4609 or drop me a line using THIS ONLINE FORM.
