Alisa Tongg Celebrant Blog

7 Things You Can Do To Prepare For Marriage In The Time Of COVID-19

Pat Robinson Photography

Lots of wedding plans that have been a year or even two years in the making, are having to shift and adapt this week as we, as a society in earnest, adjust our behavior to flattening the curve of the COVID-19 outbreak. Here are 7 things you can do to prepare for marriage in the time of a global pandemic.

1) VOWS
Use this opportunity to look for ways that you can show up for your partner in the life ahead, let these real-world daily things and acts of kindness inform your vows. Check out my how-to on Vows here.

2) MICROWEDDINGS NOW, BIG CELEBRATION LATER
Consider having a microwedding ceremony, with group size following the current CDC guidelines. At the time of this post, the CDC guideline is groups of 10 or less. Hire a professional officiant and photographer for this pared down ceremony, so that it will feel special and real when you think back on it.

3) MAKE IT OUTDOORS
As a celebrant, I personally feel safer officiating an elopement or microwedding ceremony in an outdoor ceremony space so that I can maintain my distance from the couple and their family during the ceremony. Everybody’s health and safety is top priority.

Emily Wren Photography

4) ADJUST BEHAVIOR
As an officiant, I've already adjusted the types of ceremony elements we might include in a ceremony for couples in the foreseeable future, for example Passing the Sign of Peace (where people greet each other with a handshake, hug or a kiss) or a Ring Blessing (where the rings are passed around and everyone has a chance to infuse them with their best wishes before the couple exchanges them) are not going to be in any of the ceremonies I conduct until we're through this pandemic.

5) SELF-IMPROVEMENT DURING QUARANTINE
No one knows how long we’re going to have to be mindful about crowd size, and if these restrictions continue through the summer, couples may want to prioritize a close friend or family member being at their microwedding ceremony instead of an outside professional officiant. The good news, is that my new online class is designed to help lay officiants do a good job at this task.

The Wedding Ceremony Master Class is online, can be completed in less than two hours (and with social distancing!!!) and includes my tried and true questionnaire (so the uncle officiant has a lot of APPROPRIATE material to pull from), a starter ceremony (so the friend officiant doesn't waste time cobbling together awkward scripts from the internet) and my primer on VOWS for the couple.

www.weddingceremonymasterclass.com

6) BE FLEXIBLE
I think the best thing we can all do right now is stay home, keep making plans for the future and have a flexible attitude if something needs to change -- whether that's date, venue, a particular vendor, or if Gran can attend.

7) REMEMBER WHAT MATTERS
And we’re book-ending this post by focusing again on what matters the most—honoring your relationships. When things get crazy and everything around us is uncertain, I hope that you can draw strength from remembering that marriage commitments traditionally include a basic premise, ‘for better or for worse, good times and difficult, sickness and health.’ If you’re reading this, my wish for you is that you have someone or a handful of people in your life that you are “in it with”, people who you trust and who provide some stability during these unstable times. Do whatever you need to do today to be that someone, that shelter in the storm, for the people you love too.

Alexis June Photography

Asking a Friend or Family Member to Officiate? All The Reasons You Shouldn’t And The One Reason You Should

Will you marry us?

One doesn’t need to search hard for real wedding examples of how asking a friend to officiate a wedding ceremony can go wrong. There have been numerous articles written and horror-stories shared in wedding boards about having a Friend or Family Member officiate, and still more examples of regret that people would never share because they don’t want to hurt the feelings of someone they care about.

5 Couples Who Majorly Regretted Having a Friend Officiate Their Wedding

Top 7 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Ask a Friend to Officiate Wedding Ceremony

My Friends Are Getting Married and I Don’t Think They Should. Help!

Eight reasons why friends or family members shouldn’t officiate your wedding ceremony

This round up by fellow celebrant Donna Forsythe is particularly illuminating...When Your Friend Officiates—What Do the Pros Have to Say?

Ash Imagery

As a professional officiant, I have the great fortune of only being at weddings where the ceremony is spectacular. But that is not the case for the majority of wedding industry professionals. In fact, two years ago, I started being approached by wedding planners, venues and other wedding professionals, asking if I would put together a ceremony ghost writing/ training/ coaching package for their clients who have asked a friend to officiate the wedding ceremony, because wedding professionals know that everything on the wedding day is affected by how the ceremony goes.

If creating a powerful ceremony moment (the genuine fairytale moment couples are imagining when they ask their friend or family member to officiate) were as easy as following a wedding board checklist, or reciting a sample script available online, then why are wedding professionals at these weddings still reporting such easily avoidable mistakes?

Well, the answer is because, creating the type of ceremony experience most people are dreaming about is harder to do than you’d think. There’s an art to performance, ceremony and communicating from the heart. And learning an art, takes time and repetition.

Wedding Ceremony Master Class for Friend Officiants is the result of professional wedding planners, photographers, venues and videographers alerting me to the problems and dramas of so many of their weddings when a Friend or Family Member is not prepared to officiate, freezes up (or worse yet—doesn’t even show!) or makes the ceremony awkward, uncomfortable or a joke.

The biggest Pro to all those Cons, though, is when the Friend or Family Member asked to officiate does a great job, deepens the friendship and creates forever-cherished memories with the couple. A successful officiant helps people connect emotionally in that moment. A well-written and delivered ceremony helps the couple demonstrate to their community what makes them special as a couple, the WHY of it all. A moving ceremony helps everyone rally around what the couple is hoping for the future.

As an award-winning Life-Cycle Celebrant and a professional officiant, that’s the kind of experience I am delivering each time. It’s often assumed by everyone present, that I am a good friend of the couple because of the warmth I bring to the writing and delivery of a wedding ceremony. Sometimes it takes a professional to deliver the kind of ceremony experience that we hope a friend can provide. I’ve created this Wedding Ceremony Master Class to teach Friend and Family Member Officiants my process of creating those kind of powerful, moving, and memorable ceremonies where everyone leaves with “hearts filled with love.”

Love Me Do Photography

How to Officiate Your Friends' Wedding

Officiating a Friends’ Wedding? I created this online course just for you!

I've cracked the code on writing and performing meaningful and inclusive 20-minute ceremonies, and every aspiring Friend Officiant will receive my tried and true, universally appealing, Starter Ceremony, with simple, straightforward and most importantly, non-gaggy language, so that they can use the bulk of their creative efforts making that ceremony personal, charming and memorable for all the right reasons.

Pat Robinson Photography

Why Friend Officiants?

“Two years ago, I started to be approached by wedding planners and other wedding professionals, asking if I would put together a ceremony ghost writing/ training/ coaching package for their clients who have asked a friend to officiate the wedding ceremony. I know the primary appeal of having a friend officiate is that personalization is such a strong factor for today’s couple. Couples want all the pieces of their wedding to be a reflection of who they are, what their story is, and what their hopes are for the future—authentically.

Having someone who loves them in the role of officiant is a natural draw for modern couples. I get it! The problem is that even the best, most put-together-public-speaking-loving-friend, is a lay person when it comes leading the process of creating ceremony flow and content. What ends up happening is the honored friend (or worse yet, the bride!) devotes tens of hours scouring the internet for sample ceremony scripts and cobbling together official-sounding language that is NOT an authentic representation of the couple’s personality and style. Lots of times, the friend (knowing the cobbled together script is not great) panics and backs out of the responsibility close to the event date, or shows up at the wedding unprepared for day-of considerations, causing chaos—hence the requests from a handful of wedding planners to create something to help this phenomenon.

I’ve created this online Wedding Ceremony Master Class to take Friend Officiants through my process of authoring and performing a simple, genuine, memorable and meaningful ceremony. Wedding Ceremony Master Class students will receive a tried and true questionnaire to help the couple and their Friend Officiant identify important sentiments that need to be included in the ceremony, a Starter Ceremony –a framework for the Friend Officiant to work in, a demystification of what legally needs to be said/done in the ceremony, and (my favorite part!) a coaching session to help prepare the Friend Officiant to knock it out of the park."
-- Alisa Tongg, Fairy God Celebrant

The Wedding Ceremony Master Class for the Friend Officiant

Covers Three Important Aspects:

1) Making It Legal. Although online ordination is the legal tool for the lay officiant in the majority of states, there are a handful of states where a friend who has been ordained online actually puts their friends’ marriage in legal jeopardy. Celebrant Alisa Tongg’s Wedding Ceremony Master Class will equip Friend Officiants to be able to confidently use the phrase, ‘by the authority vested in me…’”

2) Writing a Ceremony. Starting with what questions to ask the couple, Wedding Ceremony Master Class will take Friend Officiants through Celebrant Alisa Tongg’s tried and true process of creating a heartfelt, simple, meaningful and appropriate ceremony that will be about 20 minutes in length.

3) Performance-getting ready to shine. From what to wear, what’s in your hands, when a microphone is needed, an overview of the responsibilities of other wedding professionals the Friend Officiant will have to work alongside, when to collect the marriage license and a performance trick that will boost confidence right before the aisle, the final part of Wedding Ceremony Master Class will prepare Friend Officiants so they can deliver a memorable ceremony, for all the right reasons.

Wedding Ceremony Master Class is an online course that students complete at their own pace, (although I recommend that you give yourself at least 8 weeks to do the classes and complete each step in preparing for being at the end of the aisle on one of the biggest days of your Friends’ lives.)

www.weddingceremonymasterclass.com

Civil Celebrant Bill SB 833, Introduced In The Pennsylvania Senate

Celebrant Alisa Tongg with Pennsylvania Senator John Blake

We need you now! We are almost there! Our Pennsylvania Civil Celebrant Bill SB 833 has been introduced by Sens. Farnese, Fontana, Blake and Brewster and the bill is similar to the NJ Civil Celebrant Law R.S.37:1-13 amending their marriage statutes to expand their list of who is authorized to solemnize marriages in the state. Along with judges, mayors, and clergy, they added a new category of people professionally trained to create and perform ceremonies--Civil Celebrants. For that to happen, they need your help to advance this bill up for a vote!

https://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&sessYr=2019&sessInd=0&billBody=S&billTyp=B&billNbr=0833&pn=1142

Last year, only 1:4 weddings took place in a traditional religious institution, that means that the overwhelming majority of modern couples are hosting their weddings and ceremony in a venue or out in nature, not in a church.

Nearly 40% of Pennsylvanians 30 years old and younger are “Unaffiliated” with a religion. The religiously unaffiliated, in fact, are the second largest religious group in the commonwealth (right after Catholics). And furthermore, Pennsylvania is considered a “more religiously diverse” state, meaning that the occurrences of interfaith marriages are much higher here than in other parts of the country.

Couples who want a religion-free wedding ceremony, or a wedding ceremony that honors more than one faith or culture) are being left behind by our current marriage laws.

This is the time to reach out to your State Senator to let them know how very important the bill is to the PA wedding industry.

Alexa + Frank at their wedding and ceremony at Philadelphia's Union Trust Building, Laura Napoli Photography

Let’s do this now! See the list attached for the PA Judiciary Committee, then please go to their websites and contact them. These are the Senators who will decide if this bi-partisan economic bill goes up for a vote.

FOR SB 833 Civil Celebrancy Bill
Senate Judiciary:

Senator Lisa Baker (R)
Lawrence Farnese (D)
Wayne Langerloc Jr.
Joseph Scarnati III
Camera Bartlotta
Scott Martin
Joe Pittman
Mike Regan
Gene Yaw
Maria Collett
Art Haywood
John Sabatina
Steven Santarsiero
Senator Tina Tartaglione

Senator Lawrence Farnese Jr.  Senate Box 203001  Harrisburg, PA 17120-3001 Room: 543 Main Capitol (717) 787-5662  FAX: (717) 787-4531

Senator Lisa Baker   Senate Box 203020  Harrisburg, PA 17120-3020 Room: 362 Main Capitol (717) 787-7428  FAX: (717) 787-9242

Senator Lisa Baker   22 Dallas Shopping Center  Dallas, PA 18612   (570) 675-3931  FAX: (570) 674-5037

Senator Lisa Baker  2512 Route 6  Hawley, PA 18428   (570) 226-5960  FAX: (570) 226-5964

Senator Wayne Langerholc Jr.  Senate Box 203035  Harrisburg, PA 17120-3035 Room: 187 Main Capitol (717) 787-5400  FAX: (717) 772-0573

Senator Joseph Scarnati III  Senate Box 203025  Harrisburg, PA 17120-3025 Room: 292 Main Capitol (717) 787-7084  FAX: (717) 772-2755

Senator Camera Bartolotta   Senate Box 203046  Harrisburg, PA 17120-3046 Room: 19 East Wing (717) 787-1463  FAX: (717) 772-2108

Senator Camera Bartolotta   95 West Beau Street  Suite 107  Washington, PA 15301   (724) 225-4380  FAX: (724) 225-4386

Senator John Gordner   Senate Box 203027  Harrisburg, PA 17120-3027 Room: 177 Main Capitol (717) 787-8928  FAX: (717) 787-9715

Senator John Gordner   603 West Main Street  Bloomsburg, PA 17815   (570) 784-3464  FAX: (570) 784-9379

Senator Scott Martin   Senate Box 203013  Harrisburg, PA 17120-3013 Room: 459 Main Capitol (717) 787-6535

Senator Scott Martin   48-50 W. Chestnut Street  Suite 308  Lancaster, PA 17603   (717) 397-1309

Senator Joe Pittman   Senate Box 203041  Harrisburg, PA 17120-3041 Room: 281 Main Capitol (717) 787-8724

Senator Joe Pittman   618 Philadelphia Street  Indiana, PA 15701   (724) 357-0151  FAX: (724) 357-0148

Senator Joe Pittman  109 South Jefferson Street  Kittanning, PA 16201   (724) 543-3026  FAX: (724) 548-4856

Senator Mike Regan   Senate Box 203031  Harrisburg, PA 17120-3031 Room: 15 East Wing (717) 787-8524

Senator Mike Regan   1 East Harrisburg Street  Dillsburg, PA 17019   (717) 432-1730  FAX: (717) 432-1733

Senator Mike Regan  2151 Market Street  Camp Hill, PA 17011   (717) 975-1985

Senator Gene Yaw   Senate Box 203023  Harrisburg, PA 17120-3023 Room: 362 Main Capitol (717) 787-3280  FAX: (717) 772-0575

Senator Gene Yaw   175 Pine Street  Suite 105  Williamsport, PA 17701   (570) 322-6457  FAX: (570) 327-3703

Senator Maria Collett   Senate Box 203012  Harrisburg, PA 17120-3012 Room: 183 Main Capitol (717) 787-6599

Senator Maria Collett   Gwynedd Corporate Center  1180 Welsh Road  Suite 130  North Wales, PA 19454   (215) 368-1429  FAX: (215) 368-2374

Senator Maria Collett  1410 West Street Road  Suite A  Warminster, PA 18974   (215) 674-1246  FAX: (215) 674-1361

Senator Art Haywood   Senate Box 203004  Harrisburg, PA 17120-3004 Room: 10 East Wing (717) 787-1427  FAX: (717) 772-0572

Senator Art Haywood   1168 Easton Road  Abington, PA 19001   (215) 517-1434  FAX: (215) 517-1439

Senator Art Haywood  7106 Germantown Avenue  Philadelphia, PA 19119   (215) 242-8171  FAX: (215) 242-6118

Senator John Sabatina Jr.  Senate Box 203005  Harrisburg, PA 17120-3005 Room: 457 Main Capitol (717) 787-9608  FAX: (717) 772-2162

Senator John Sabatina Jr.  12361 Academy Road  Philadelphia, PA 19154   (215) 281-2539  FAX: (215) 281-2798

Senator John Sabatina Jr. 8016 Bustleton Avenue  Philadelphia, PA 19152   (215) 695-1020  FAX: (215) 695-1027

Senator Steven Santarsiero   Senate Box 203010  Harrisburg, PA 17120-3010 Room: 184 Main Capitol (717) 787-7305

Senator Steven Santarsiero   Building 100, Suite 121  2003 Lower State Road  Doylestown, PA 18901   (215) 489-5000

Senator Steven Santarsiero  3 Terry Drive  Suite 201  Newtown, PA 18940   (215) 497-9490

Update Celebrancy Bill: Senator Farnese Seeks Co-Sponsors on Civil Celebrants!!!

We're very excited to share that Senator Larry Farnese, of Pennsylvania's first district Philadelphia, is proposing legislation to modernize the Pennsylvania marriage officiant statutes to include certified civil celebrants (people with my formal training in ceremony) and he is currently seeking co-sponsors on the bill. Their pitch is a strong economic one, here's how their office is talking about the need for this modernization:

Couples preparing to marry in Pennsylvania deserve to have all their dreams met on that special day. On average, Pennsylvanians spend nearly $30,000 on the wedding of their dreams and the wedding industry generates $2 billion in annual sales.

Of the 73,304 marriages that occurred in Pennsylvania last year, 74% were held outside a religious institution, however, Pennsylvania law only permits religious leaders, judges, or mayors to solemnize marriages. This forces couples who do not wish to have a religious ceremony at the mercy of city hall schedule, seeking out busy judges, or opting to find someone who ascribes to their beliefs and gets ordained online.

New Jersey recently recognized the ability of trained, certified Civil Celebrants who craft personal ceremonies and are highly sought out by couples to solemnize marriages. It is time for Pennsylvania to do the same. However a couple chooses to declare their fidelity, the Commonwealth should recognize the witnessed, licensed, joining of two lives.

So please join me in sponsoring legislation to create a certification for civil celebrants to preside over weddings in Pennsylvania.

If you would like to help this effort to modernize our marriage laws here in the Commonwealth, you can call your Pennsylvania State Senator and ask them to consider co-sponsoring this economic bill. Find your representative here: https://www.pasen.gov/
#CelebrancyBill

Why We Need Celebrancy in Pennsylvania, Co-signed by 100 Wedding Industry Leaders

Economic impact of Celebrancy in Pennsylvania

In 2014, New Jersey passed a bi-partisan economic Civil Celebrant Law R.S.37:1-13 amending their marriage and civil unions statutes to expand their list of who is authorized to solemnize marriages in the state. Along with judges, mayors and clergy they added a new category of people professionally trained to create and perform ceremonies--Civil Celebrants. Pennsylvania couples are starting to expect the same choice.

The Knot’s 2017 Wedding Study reported that only 26% of couples hosted their weddings in a “traditional” religious institution. Furthermore, according to PRRI Surveys, 40% of individuals under 30 claim “no religious affiliation.” The current Pennsylvania marriage statute leaves this growing majority of the population who are looking for a ceremony that elegantly blends their family traditions, faiths and story, behind. The Knot’s report supports this cultural and consumer shift and identifies that personalization is a top consideration when making wedding purchasing decisions and 64% of couples identify personalization as “the most important consideration.” Civil Celebrants are educated and trained to create and perform personalized ceremonies.

We the undersigned, would agree that this statistic is reflective of our experience in the wedding industry as well. Commonwealth businesses have already adapted their business models and offerings to meet this new norm; but it’s not enough, our couples are often confused about what legal options are available to them when they are filling the role of officiant in their wedding. Philadelphia boasts some of the most beautiful, well-respected and highly sought-after wedding venues and event spaces in the country, the overwhelming majority of which are not houses of worship or courthouses. Additionally, Pennsylvania/Philadelphia continues to be ranked as one of the top 10 regions nationally where people spend the most on their weddings. Trends and expectations in the actual ceremony are rapidly changing too and our laws need to catch up if we want to stay competitive.

The New Jersey law notably recognizes the changing face of family by providing couples of all backgrounds, traditions, cultures and faiths a greater choice in how they want to mark the beginning of their married life together. Equally important, the law also promotes high-standards in ceremony preparation and delivery by requiring celebrants to successfully complete professional education and training in ceremony and ritual to be eligible to register with the State—creating a whole new profession: Civil Celebrant. A similar Celebrancy bill in Pennsylvania would fill an unmet economic and societal need while also modernizing the law.

We are asking for your support and leadership in passing similar legislation here in the Commonwealth to give today’s couples the choices they’ve come to expect with regards to ceremony. We’d love to keep Pennsylvania a top-of-mind and an attractive place for people to get married and host their weddings.

Please see the New Jersey Civil Celebrant Law we’re interested in using as model legislation, the current Pennsylvania marriage statutes for your reference (Yikes!), as well as the spending report from The Knot’s 2017 Wedding Survey.

Sincerely,
Alisa Tongg, Celebrant, Monroe

David Beahm, David Beahm Weddings, Bucks
Danielle Pasternak, DPNAK Events, Bucks
Douglas James, Douglas James Studios, Bucks
Meg McSweeney, Celebrant, Bucks
Brianna Alcorn, terrain events, Chester County
Denise Stearns, Celebrant, Chester
Stephanie Gundy, Celebrant, Dauphin County
Susan Strayer LaMotte, Exaqueo, Delaware County
Haley Richter, Photographer, Delaware County
Sarah McKay, Photographer, Delaware County
Vanessa Kreckel, Two Paper Dolls, Delaware County
Lori Weinrott, Peachtree Catering/Pomme/Parque Ridley Creek, Delaware County
Shannon Wellington, Shannon Wellington Weddings, Delaware County
Natalie Wallace, birdhouse wedding films, Harrisburg
Jacqueline Smith-Bennett, Celebrant, Harrisburg
Rob Lettieri, Rob Lettieri Photography, Lackawanna
Bob Sanchuk, Two Sticks Photography, Lackawanna
Kelly Trapper, Constantino’s Catering, Lackawanna
Danielle Coons, Photography, Lackawanna
Sammi Shea, Sammi Shea Photography, Lackawanna
Kevin Fonash, Fonash Studios, Lackawanna
Linda Berger, Celebrant, Lancaster
Jillian McGrath, With Love & Embers, Lebanon
Ryan McGrath, With Love & Embers, Lebanon
Krista Hurst, The Hursts & Co., Lebanon
Michael Hurst, The Hursts & Co., Lebanon
Sarah Petryk, Allium Floral Events & Styling, Lehigh
Abby Ogden, Fox and Finch Vintage Rentals, Lehigh
Meg Fox, Fox and Finch Studio, Lehigh
Eric Paez, Vault 634, Leigh
Alicia Smith, ILE Events, Leigh
Cindie Feldman, 29Cooks, Lehigh
Kevin Feldman, Gather Emmaus Event, Lehigh
Katelynn Walsh, Hair and Makeup Artist, Lehigh
Christina Campbell, Nina Lily Photography, Lehigh
Kristy Rice, Momental Designs, Luzerne
Susan Farrell, Big Top Rentals, Inc., Luzerne
John Phillips, MCR Design Group, Luzerne
Danae Husband, Kindred Souls Photography, Luzerne
Sarah Pawlowski, Flourish Grace Calligraphy, Luzerne
Christopher Souza, Penn Strings, Monroe
Paris Kiriakis , Weddings by Paris Entertainment, Monroe
Eileen Noelle Photography, Monroe
Joy Danielewicz-Britton, Limousines Four Less, Monroe
Todd Britton, Limousines For Less, Monroe
Susie Forrester, Susie Forrester Fine Art Photography, Monroe
Nicole Taylor, Photographer, Monroe
Cynthia Malaran, DJ CherishtheLuv, Monroe
Lois Heckman, Celebrant, Monroe County
Melissa McManus, M2 Photography, Montgomery
Michael McManus, Stagger Films, Montgomery
Leah Gallo, Storybook Designs Co., Montgomery
Susan Stein, Celebrant, Montgomery
Adam Skuba, Skuba Entertainment, Northampton
Ken Jones Jr., Mercantile Home, Northampton
Ron Morris, Mercantile Home, Northampton
Erika Urso, Love Bites By Erika, Northampton
Nicole Hutnyk, Rabbit Rabbit Crew!, Philadelphia
Christopher Nguyen, Feast Your Eyes Catering/ Front & Palmer, Philadelphia
Sara Murray, confetti & co., Philadelphia
Danielle Iannetta, Philadelphia Weddings Magazine/ VP, NACE-Venues, Philadelphia/Camden NJ
Rasa Stirbys Benefico, Birchtree Catering, Philadelphia
Allegra Derengowski, Birchtree Catering, Philadelphia
Mugu Radu, Philadelphia String Quartet, Philadelphia
Tom Harmon, Solidity Films, Philadelphia
Claudia Harmon, Jollifer Floral, Philadelphia
Emily Wren, Emily Wren Photography, Philadelphia
Greg Cornish, Emily Wren Weddings, Philadelphia
Jill Magerman, Celebrant, Philadelphia
Beth Palubinsky, Celebrant, Philadelphia
Linda Newsted, Celebrant, Philadelphia
Aleksandra Ambrozy, Hair and Makeup Artist, Philadelphia
Dustin Genereux, Photograper, Philadelphia
Christy Howton, PaperTree Studio, Philadelphia
Tanti Lina, Papertini Studio, Philadelphia
Jon Homes, Lovesick, Philadelphia
Tom Wright, Lovesick, Philadelphia
Cathie Berrey-Green, BeauMonde Originals, Philadelphia
Allen Green, BeauMonde Originals, Philadelphia
Ashlee Mintz, Photographer, Philadelphia
Heather Sizemore, HLS Photography, Philadelphia
Kelly Giarrocco, Photography, Philadelphia
Alexandria Proko, Alexandria Catherine Events, Philadelphia
Milanee Long, Garces Group, Philadelphia
Erin Proud, Proud To Plan, Philadelphia
Ashley Aragona, hello, bird, Philadelphia
Denise Weaver, Denise Marie Photography, Philadelphia
Sean Strub, Mayor of Milford/Hotel Fauchere, Pike
Brandon Grimglia, 403 Broad, Pike
Cara Pawlowski, Wedding Coordinator, Pike
Amanda Griffenkranz, Wedding Coordinator, Pike
Jen Haefeli, Poetic Illustrations, Pittsburgh
Laura Portia Brady, Theodora James Inc, Pittsburgh
Sandee Monahan, Celebrant, Pittsburgh
Jessica Manns Photography, Susquehanna
Seneca Lewis, Seneca Ryan Co. Photography, Susquehanna
Justin Genzlinger, Settlers Hospitality, Wayne
Katharine Brown, 6th and River, Wayne
Julie Piazza, Chippy White Table, Wyoming County
Karyn Pashchuk, Chippy White Table, Wyoming County
Cecelia Cronin, Chippy White Table, Wyoming County
Robin Tyler, Celebrant, York
Dorry Bless, Celebrant, Hunterdon County New Jersey
Susan Norcross, The Styled Bride, Gloucester County, NJ

Let's Update the Marriage Laws in Pennsylvania. Join my Wedding Industry Coalition!

I've taken on a huge task for 2019--to get the marriage laws updated here in Pennsylvania, and I need your help to do it!

Danielle Coons Photography of the first marriage license to be signed on the famous Chippy White Table

As a fellow wedding industry professional serving Pennsylvania, I know that our current marriage laws are often a source for confusion and uncertainty for our wedding clients. According to The Knot’s 2017 Wedding Survey, only 26% of couples chose to be married in a “traditional” religious institution. For those of us in the Pennsylvania wedding industry, we see first hand how quickly the culture and expectations surrounding weddings is changing. This growing trend toward personalization and a more sophisticated consumer, has not only inspired a lot of creativity in what businesses offer (wedding venues, film, pizza trucks, music and entertainment); the styles of gatherings that are desired has also expanded (elopements and microweddings); and in a very short time, we’ve seen the market accept new traditions and expectations too (for example a First Look is now common place where as, 15 years ago it was still considered bad luck.) Trends and expectations in the actual ceremony are also rapidly changing too and our laws need to catch up.

Danielle Coons Photography

Love Shack Photography

In that same survey, 64% of marrying couples said that, “personalization was the most important consideration” when making decisions and planning their wedding. A couple years ago, New Jersey passed a bi-partisan economic Civil Celebrant Law R.S.37:1-13 amending their marriage and civil unions statutes to expand their list of who is authorized to solemnize marriages in the state. Along with judges, mayors and clergy they added a new category of people professionally trained to create and perform ceremonies--Civil Celebrants. Civil Celebrants are formally educated and certified to perform personal ceremonies for people from all backgrounds, cultures, traditions, and faiths.

Due to the tremendous success of the addition of Civil Celebrants to the New Jersey code, (and the highly anticipated adoption of this law in New York State this year) I have volunteered to lead the effort in updating and modernizing the marriage laws here in Pennsylvania. I want Pennsylvania to continue to be competitive in the wedding industry and adopting a version of this law will codify and give our clients what they are desiring the most when planning their weddings: a personalized ceremony that elegantly blends their family traditions, faiths and story.

Nina Lily Photography

I need your help to do this. My first step in the process is to contact and introduce this benchmark legislation to our Pennsylvania Senators and Representatives (who will need to champion the initiative to update our laws). My plan is to send a letter of introduction to our representatives and have it signed not only by other celebrants like myself, but by a coalition of other professionals invested in the wedding industry here in Pennsylvania. We’re all used to working together to give our couples and their families the weddings they dream about, and I hope you will join me in this effort.

TLDR; Join my wedding industry coalition by adding your name to the letter to our PA Representatives. It's time to modernize our marriage laws!

↬Please let me know by sending me an email alisa@alisatonggcelebrant.com by February 22nd, if you would like to add your name to the letter I am preparing to send to our representatives and in which county you/your business resides.

X’s and O’s

Alisa Tongg, Celebrant
www.alisatonggcelebrant.com
570-369-3955
alisa@alisatonggcelebrant.com

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