Wedding Officiant · New York & Destination

The Words
That Make
It Real.

Eleanor Voss · Licensed Officiant

Every ceremony written from scratch. Every pause intentional. The room holds its breath — and then exhales in something that feels like relief, and joy, and belonging.

0+Ceremonies Written
0 StatesDestination Reach
0%Custom-Written
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The work

I'm Eleanor Voss. I've been officiating weddings since 2017, and I've written every single ceremony from scratch. Not from a template. Not from a script that got the names swapped out. From the actual story of the two people standing in front of me.

That means our consultation isn't a form — it's a conversation. I'm going to ask you about the moment you knew, the thing that still surprises you about each other, the way your families are complicated, and the one thing you want every person in that room to leave understanding.

Then I'll disappear for a few weeks and come back with something that sounds like you. Not like a wedding. Like your wedding.

Licensed in New York, New Jersey & Connecticut
Available for destination ceremonies nationwide
Interfaith, secular & non-traditional ceremonies
Elopements to 300-guest receptions

Questions Couples Ask at 11 p.m.

The honest answers.

"What if we're not religious — at all?"
Good. Most of the couples I work with aren't. What I write won't borrow from traditions you don't hold, invoke figures you don't believe in, or leave your guests squinting at language that doesn't sound like either of you. What fills that space instead is the actual story of your relationship — the specific, embarrassing, tender, funny, real version. The night you realized this was it. The thing they do that still surprises you. The reason this room full of people drove here today. Secular ceremony doesn't mean stripped-down ceremony. It means the meaning comes from you, not from a script written for someone else.
"Can you actually make people laugh without it feeling forced?"
The ceremony I wrote for Marcus and Dani in September had the groom's grandmother laughing so hard she had to hold the pew. She's 81. She does not laugh easily. The difference between ceremony humor that lands and humor that lands wrong is specificity. I don't do generic jokes about marriage. I find the story that's already funny — the one you told me on our first call, the one that made you both start talking over each other — and I frame it so the room is laughing with you, not at a bit. The laughter earns the tears. That's the sequence. Every time.
"How do you handle complicated family situations — divorced parents, estrangements, step-relationships?"
This is the question that separates a ceremony from a performance. I've written ceremonies where the bride's parents hadn't spoken in eleven years. Where two sets of step-parents sat in the same row. Where someone important wasn't there at all. The answer is careful language. Language that acknowledges without spotlighting. That makes everyone feel included without making anyone feel inspected. We talk through every family dynamic in our consultation — not for drama, but because the ceremony should feel safe for everyone in that room. You tell me what's complicated. I'll figure out how to hold it.

Ready to check dates? See our availability →

"We've both been married before. Can this feel new?"
It can feel more intentional, actually. Couples who've been through a ceremony — and a marriage — before tend to know exactly what they want this one to be. Less performance, more presence. Fewer borrowed words, more chosen ones. I've officiated second marriages where the couple wrote vows so specific and honest that people in the back row were crying before the exchange was over. Not because it was sad. Because it was true in a way that first-ceremony nerves sometimes crowd out. Experience makes you braver. I'll write you something worthy of that.

From the couples

What the room
remembers.

We gave Eleanor one phone call and a Google doc of rambling memories. What she handed back was the most precise, funny, true thing anyone has ever said about us out loud. My dad — who cries at nothing — cried at everything.

Priya & Tom Harrington

Brooklyn, NY

Ceremony at The Green Building · October 2025

We'd been to six weddings where the officiant clearly met the couple that morning. Eleanor knew our story better than some of our friends do. The pause before our vows — she just knew when to hold it. The whole room felt it.

Celia & James Okafor

Oahu, Hawaii

Destination ceremony · March 2025

Second marriage for both of us. We told Eleanor we wanted something that felt earned, not recycled. She wrote us something so specific to who we are now — not who we were — that we couldn't get through the rehearsal without crying.

Margot & Daniel Szabo

Chicago, IL

Intimate ceremony, 28 guests · June 2025

The next step

Your date might
still be open.

Eleanor books 18–24 months out. Most couples check availability before they're ready to commit — that's exactly what the calendar is for.

No forms. No pressure. Just a calendar.

Responses within 24 hours · All ceremonies fully custom-written