Wedding Ministries: Creating A Personalized Ceremony

By Paula Philipps

Wedding Ministries, is a unique concept in ministerial services for Bay Area and Northern California couples seeking options to traditional wedding ceremonies and venues. “Many people dislike organized religion and won't go to a church that does not accept people as they are ,” says Reverend Blane Ellsworth, founder. We provide couples with a personalized ceremony by incorporating their life stories into the service.”

Wedding Ministries features fifteen ministers who practice throughout the Bay Area, and who hale from Oakland , San Francisco and Napa . Ellsworth emphasizes that all the ministers and rabbis featured on his site have a masters of divinity from fully-accredited theological seminaries, which sets them apart from the majority of wedding officiants that practice in the wine country. The officiants from Wedding Ministries have also received special training specifically in conducting wedding ceremonies. “In today's ministry, there is an emphasis on religion and teaching the doctrines of the church. Many ministers receive very little training in conducting wedding ceremonies,” he continued.

Ellsworth personally trains the ministers featured at Wedding Ministries, and encourages sensitivity to a couple's values and beliefs. Anecdotes from the couples life before and after they met each other provide a personal view. “How often have you been to a wedding ceremony where you may be someone's guest and you don't know anyone else there except the person you are with?” Ellsworth asks. “We give those people attending the ceremony insights into the couple…perhaps how they met, their childhood experiences. You leave with a better understanding about who they really are.”

Ellsworth takes care to emphasize that his ministers make no judgment or evaluation of the couples they are working with, thereby creating a relationship of trust and openness.

Having been raised in Napa by his mother and grandmother, Ellsworth felt a personal calling to ministry based on the needs of the elderly. “ True religion is ministering to orphans and widows,” he says. “Today's young people do not see organized religion doing that.”

Blane Ellsworth earned his Masters of Divinity from the San Francisco Theological Seminary. In 1988, a friend called him and asked if he would perform a simple wedding ceremony at the V.Sattui Winery in St. Helena . Word spread and soon he and the other ministers of Wedding Ministries began performing many services throughout the Napa Valley and Bay Area.

When interviewing an officiant about performing their wedding ceremony, Ellsworth offers the following suggestions:

Ask the officiant about their training, whether they hold graduate and undergraduate degrees. Ask for references and find out how many wedding services they have performed.

Find out if the person they are talking with will be involved in drawing up the wedding service and whether or not they will be wearing professional attire or robes.

Lastly, ask whether the officiant will be available to counsel them if they have a problem in their marriage.

“I tell couples to call me if they have a problem or crisis in the future, if they are going through a struggle or have a re-evaluation of their faith. I want them to know I am there for them when they need me,” he concludes.

Wedding Ministries has performed services for the deaf and has used interpreters when they are needed. They are sensitive to cultural needs and can work with a couple's special requests to create the service they want. “I have performed services in a swimming pool, at the zoo, with the couple riding elephants, on horseback or in hot air balloons,” he adds. “I want your ceremony to be all that you dream of!”