Chadwick Weddings

And then. . . Wedding Ministry

In 2014 I was photographing a wedding and the priest was more than half an hour late. This wasn’t the first time I had seen a wedding almost crash because either the officiant or the couple were late. Part of my customer service approach with wedding photography was to have a backup plan to help my couples in case of any emergency that might come up. To that end, I got ordained online though the Universal Life Church. Just in case.

As time went on, I always felt like I was missing out on the most beautiful part of the wedding: the ceremony. I knew that with my background in opera and musical theater performance, combined with my excellent public speaking skills and professional voice over training, I would make an excellent officiant should the need ever arise that I should have to step in. It never happened to be a need, but I kept thinking about it.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, the wedding industry shut down. Couples no longer needed a photographer, they just needed someone to marry them so that they could hopefully have a proper celebration later. I was already ordained, and very knowledgeable about weddings, so when a friend was getting married I asked her if I could officiate. Thankfully she said yes, and I absolutely loved it. A couple of months later, a local venue who knew me and my work asked if I could possibly perform a wedding ceremony there, and I jumped at the chance.

Fast forward to today, I have now performed more than one hundred wedding ceremonies in four states (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland) and I’m looking forward to many more years of giving my couples and their guests a wedding ceremony they will treasure forever!