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         Joy 101  

                             Weddings with a Smile

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Where to Start 

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u   Answers to Your Ten Most Basic Questions° 

u   How We Can Save You Thousands of Dollars° 

u   Alphabetical Index of Web Site Pages° 

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 How to Choose 
Your Wedding Officiant

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Page Summary   

Your wedding ceremony marks a major change in your life.  Because it's one of the most significant events you'll ever experience, it's not to be taken lightly.   It is the heart of your wedding day and the launching platform for your married life.   Your ceremony calls for the best you can give to it.

Even if you are on a limited budget, it deserve special consideration.   Because we know that, we are willing to provide everybody, regardless of their wedding budget, with high class service at an affordable price.   

On the other hand, if you have a wedding budget of $10,000 or more and you are shopping prices for your wedding officiant, you are apparently still uninformed about what a wedding ceremony really is and what it means.   Let us assist you in learning about wedding ceremonies and then you can decide if the love of your life is important enough to give him or her the best wedding ceremony possible or if second rate service is OK?  

If you are still new to wedding knowledge, we invite you to read the page below and also to examine our web pages titled:     
What is a Wedding Ceremony
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and
About Wedding Officiants
°     The About W. O.  page will explain what's really involved in officiating weddings.   

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 How to Choose Your Wedding Officiant

Because  your wedding ceremony is a golden moment in your life, it requires special consideration.  If your wedding ceremony was a physical journey into married life. . .

Would  you ride into married life 
on the cross-town bus?   
Or would you choose limousine service?   

Of course, the bus/limousine comparison is a symbolic metaphor, but but think about it for a moment.   What's more important, a cheap-price  or a high quality, memorable and meaningful, heart-felt wedding ceremony?  

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Here Are Your Choices: 

As you know, there are numerous wedding officiants to choose from.   Unfortunately, all too many of them have a very limited perception of the heart-centered, ceremonial ritual called a wedding.   They can provide you with,  (metaphorically speaking)  a functional, bus ride.     If you're willing to have your journey into married life be of inferior quality, they will get you to your destination.    In contrast to that . . .

 We  Equate  our  Wedding  Ministry 

to  a  Professional  Limousine  Service.

You tell us where you want to go, and we'll take you there.   You can sit  back,  and  in ease and comfort,  enjoy an elegant, first class ride, while we create the ceremony for you based on your needs, your desires, and your instructions.

If you so choose,  you can sit up front, and drive along with us.   Together we will  co-create a ceremony that expresses the essence of your commitment to each other.

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What's Really Important: 

affordable price      ...

Budget:   Many people are on a very limited budget and, for them, obtaining quality service at an affordable price is important.   If money is critical issue for you, we can still provide you with quality service.   Please see our offer,  Weddings on a Limited Budget, on our web page titled:  
$ $ $   The Bottom Line   $ $ $
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We never have and we never will turn anybody away for lack of money
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New to Weddings:   There are also those with an adequate or an extensive wedding budget who are still uneducated about weddings.   In the absence of knowledge, some people place minimal value on the ceremony itself.    Others have been told that the wedding ceremony is just a step along the way to their party.   Still others have been led to believe that the minister's job is just the fifteen minutes he or she spends officiating the ceremony.   If you are still new to wedding knowledge, we invite you to examine our web page titled:
About Wedding Officiants°    
This page will explain what's really involved in officiating weddings
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Impressing Guests:   Then there are those who would rather spend their money attempting to impress their guests.   They place little value on the ceremony, often have no idea what a wedding really is, and consider the officiant as just another servant.   Those who fit this description, need to be aware of the old proverb, "You get what you pay for."   

Of course they can save a few bucks by finding a cheap minister / officiant.  They can also save a buck or two by serving only bread and water to their guests.    But bread-and-water-only meal won't impress their guests any more than will hiring a second-rate minister to stand in front of their guests and read some words.   

If they want to impress their guests, we invite them to hire our services.   We'll create a memorable and meaningful wedding ceremony about which their guest will say "Ahhh"  instead of "Uuhh."    See our web page titled:
Our Commitment to You
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You won't find a more impressive ceremony anywhere else.  

Top of the Line:   If you want top-of-the-line, high quality service,  you'll find it here.   But don't believe us, talk to the wedding service providers  we  work with:
Ask the Professionals 
See the next section below.  

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Ask The Professionals: 

Unfortunately, until you actually experience the officiant performing a wedding ceremony,  it is quite difficult to distinguish between a truly-qualified-ceremonialist and an I-can-do-your-ceremony-salesman .    Since most of you haven’t experienced either of us at a wedding, we invite you to talk to any of over two dozen people who have.

First, We recommend you view the page titled:   What the Wedding Professionals Have to Say About Us.°  There you'll find comments from other wedding professionals who have experiences us officiating at wedding ceremonies.   These people have witnessed hundreds of ceremonies and dozens of different officiants, so they are obviously qualified to offer an evaluation of our services as compared to the services of other officiants.   You are invited to call them and ask about the quality of our service.   

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Second, As you surf the section on this website titled  Ceremony Location & Wedding Reception Sites°  and the section title  Wedding Service Providers,°  you'll see approximately thirty wedding service providers whose names are at the top of the list and enclosed in a frame.   For example:

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Truly Yours Gourmet Foods & Catering    
They also have a wedding location
°  available in Agoura
Lisa Fishman
Phone:
818/753-6772
http://www.malibulakeclub.com
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LFishman@MalibuLakeClub.com
Call Lisa  and ask her about our quality as wedding officiants

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People such as Lisa Fishman are highly skilled, professional, wedding service providers.   They have witnessed hundreds of wedding ceremonies.    Because they've also seen our ceremonies, we recommend that you call  and ask any or all of them whether or no we present a warm, personalized, enjoyable, and memorable wedding ceremony.

Although we think we are among the best officiants available, please don't take our word for it.   Ask the professionals.   Let your decision be an informed decision.

Third, Read the page titled, What Our Brides and Grooms Have to Say About Us.° 

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Dealing with Those Who Want 
to Choose Your Officiant for You:

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Occasionally a bride and groom will feel pressured by one or more family members to use a particular officiant,   Often they are requested to use the pastor from their parent's church or an old family friend from who-knows-where that one partner hardly knows and the other partner has never met.

If this occurs regarding your wedding, we recommend that you interview whomever you are being asked to use to be sure you are completely comfortable with him or her as your officiant and that you are also satisfied with the type of ceremony he or she will provide.

Ask to speak to some of the wedding professionals who have witnessed him or her officiating a wedding.°   If they don't have any professional references, ask to talk to or read comments from some of the brides and grooms for whom he or she has officiated a wedding.°   Watch his/her face and body language as he/she responds to your request for references.   

become offended     ...

If anyone becomes offended because you asked these questions, that's your signal to go elsewhere.   If you feel pressured to use a particular officiant, and you'd prefer that we (or someone else of your choosing)  officiate your ceremony, we have four suggestions:

First,  remember, it's your wedding, not your family's wedding.   You get to make the final decision.

Second, invite whomever is pressuring you to call some of the professional wedding service providers  on our reference list.°  

Third,  share with them the message titled,  A Loving Note to Parents.°  on our wedding rehearsal page.

Fourth, you may also choose to take advantage of our wedding gift and use one (or both) of the two, free, one-hour, Personal Success Coaching Sessions which we offer to all our brides and grooms.   (See the next section below.)   We can talk about a resolution to this dilemma or about anything else you'd like to talk about.    We look forward to serving you.   Please call us° so that we can set an appointment time for your free, in-person consultation.

Thanks again. 

Reverend Robert E. Cote'
Reverend Connie A. Poggiani
Rabbi Barry Tuchman

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Two,  Free,  Life-coaching  /  Success-coaching  Sessions:  

In addition to weddings, we also focus on Healing and Counseling.   We teach others how to apply practical spiritual principles to their  moment-by-moment, everyday lives.   We teach people how to connect with their inner Divine Essence  and how to live by the guidance and wisdom that comes directly to them as a result of that connection.  

As a wedding gift, we offer two, free, "life-coaching"  and/or  "personal success coaching"   sessions°  to all our brides and grooms.   When you talk to us simply express your interest and we'll guide you to a detailed description of our work.   Then, you  can decide if you'd like to accept our gift.

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Joy 101 --  Weddings with a Smile

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Home Page°  

Ceremony Details° 

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How to Choose Your Wedding  Officiant° 

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Complete  Site Map° 

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Fax:   (818)   727-0735

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Copyright © 2000 --  Revisions Copyright 2001-2005   Rev. Robert E. Coté

All rights reserved.     See:  Terms of Use°  

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Offended

(This paragraph refers to the above  text:
 
"If Anyone  Becomes Offended")

Competent, skilled officiants will welcome your inquires and easily be able to comply with your requests.   Those who are amateurs and those who are incompetent will not.   You've probably heard the old saying, "Offence is the last refuge of the scoundrel."   

As you probably know, pretending to be offended is often used as  a defense mechanism.   It's a way of intentionally distracting your attention from something the other person would prefer not to discuss.   If you run into a person of that nature, don't even  bother wondering what they are hiding, just go elsewhere.

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