We started working with Zach just over a month before our wedding. He flexibly accommodated our tight schedule while putting together a wonderful, deeply meaningful ceremony for my now-husband and I. Zach is up front about his process, where he guides couples through a lengthy questionnaire and then uses their own words to create a rendering of their love story that forms a key part of the ceremony. Even though I knew this is what we had signed up for, experiencing Zach's thoughtful integration and re-weaving of our words was incredibly powerful, a clear example of the whole being more than the parts. Zach handled the complexity and some genuine awkwardness of our story with grace, and our guests in the audience who had been there for the awkwardness were extremely impressed with how well he balanced sharing meaningful details without getting bogged down. On the whole I would say Zach is impressively comfortable working with different elements of ceremony from a range of spiritual traditions. He was also great at getting on the same page with us about our values and priorities, and he brought at healthy theatrical touch to his performance. He clearly has a solid understanding of his role as a celebrant/officiant, and I would recommend him to anyone looking for a way to bring a sense of personal or spiritual meaning to their ceremony without necessarily wanting to follow a specific religious format.

My wife and I have had the pleasure of working with Zach a few times over the years while photographing elopements on the Oregon Coast. He’s the first officiant I recommend when asked by my wedding clients. When we first met Zach we both felt at ease with him and loved his calm, welcoming presence. When it came time to plan our wedding, we knew exactly who we wanted to marry us. Having a professional celebrant/officiant was so worth it. We met with Zach early on to talk about what we were looking for and completed some questionnaires to give him a better sense of our stories. He then created several drafts for us to review which led to a ceremony that was just perfect. We received so many compliments about Zach and our family and friends loved how much of our relationship story was included in the ceremony. We truly couldn’t have asked for anything better.

Zachary was amazing. He sent us an in-depth questionnaire to get to know us better and then created our beautiful ceremony. He truly has a gift in writing. We didn’t want the same old wedding ceremony and he delivered. If your looking for someone to share your story and make your ceremony real and authentic, choose Old Ways. You won’t regret it.