Miranda & Ryan

November, 2006

August 1, 2007

Hi Paul,

In regards to our ceremony there is honestly nothing that we would've changed or done differently.  All of our meetings got to the point, accomplished what needed to be done, kept us very much at ease about the entire ceremony, and you gave us good ideas and directions on things we weren't too sure about.  And we still get comments to this day on how beautiful the ceremony was.  Actually rekindled some broken relationships with the words that were said!  They said they could just feel the love and the happiness throughout the entire wedding.

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day and we were so glad that you could be such a special part of that!  You have an amazing personality and wonderful ideas/resources.  We enjoyed getting the chance to meet you and wish you the best!

Ryan and Miranda

Jessica & Jon

October, 2006

Hi Paul,

As you can see, I am not exactly punctual at returning e-mails but I am happy to hear from you.

In my opinion we had the best wedding ever. I was just at my brother's wedding last week and it really illustrated how different couples desire different things from their ceremonies. His ceremony was very short, and was held outside. It was a beautiful ceremony, but it felt less personal. As you know, I wanted ours to be outside but when it came down to it, there was nothing that could have changed how happy I was walking down the aisle. I feel that we had a very unique ceremony and you struck a great balance of sentiment, humor, and celebration. I was happy to hear from our guests that they felt as if they were part of the ceremony due to the way it was delivered. Not only the friends and family that were mentioned in our stories but everyone commented on how beautiful it was. One of my cousin's husband commented on how cool and original our ceremony was and that he wished that his mother in law had been less involved in the decision making process. He would have liked to have a more casual ceremony and was really impressed with the job that you did. One friend said that they felt as if they were in the presence of a strong union and that the ceremony reflected what she thought of our relationship. To sum this up, I think that the ceremony was an honest reflection of the road we had traveled and it brought forth exciting anticipation for the life ahead of us.

There is literally not one thing that I would have changed. I know that Jon would say that at first the long meetings seemed overextended, however this time is needed to get a sense of all the details. In the end I think he was as pleased as I was with the final result. We were both very happy to have spent the time on the details of the ceremony and are so thankful that we found you to perform the ceremony.

We are loving married life!  Thank you for everything and good luck to you in your future endeavors.

Sincerely,
Jessica
 

Lisa & Danh                                         Original Letter      Page 1     Page 2

June, 2006

Dear Paul,

I am sorry this note took me so long to write. But here it is.

Danh and I were so happy that you were our officiant. Before we found you, we wanted a family member to officiate who knew us personally, but you got to know us even better than a family member.

We really appreciated all the hours and days you spent with us as well as all the work you did in the middle of the night to create the ceremony we wanted at the last minute.

I wanted an eclectic ceremony with non-traditional words spoken and rituals from different cultures. I thought I would have to spend weeks researching and writing the whole thing myself. What we ended up with was even better than I imagined. And I didn't have to do all that work.

You were so creative when you took my vague, ethereal ideas and turned them into words and rituals that represented what I was thinking. You came up with ideas that don't exist in cultural books.

We had a few multi-cultural rituals, but instead of being about cultures and religions our ceremony represented Danh and me uniquely. The water and rock ritual was priceless.

Most guests loved the ceremony and thought that you knew us personally. I told them that you do. A few quests even told us it was the best ceremony they'd seen. They enjoyed hearing "our story" that you described so well and humorously.

You are easy to work with and passionate about what you do. We are lucky to have found you. Our ceremony caused us to cherish our relationship even more that we did before. We really enjoyed our whole experience with you and want to continue the friendship.

Love,
Lisa and Danh
 

Lindsey & Mike

May, 2006

Paul,

We cannot thank you enough for how wonderful you made our wedding - the ceremony was everything we wanted and so much more!! Your personal touch and dedication to telling our story was marvelous. I know you hear this a lot, but everyone at the wedding was floored by how awesome you were. You made the ceremony just what we wanted - fun and romantic. Everyone both laughed and cried! You were perfect!!

If you ever need a referral, feel free to give them our name, numbers or email addresses - we'd be more than happy to tell them how excellent you are!!!!

Thanks Again!
 

Mike

Stephanie & Sam

July, 2005

Hi Paul,

Hope this finds you well. It's been a while since we've seen you. Sam and I are enjoying married life.

Please pardon the fact that it's taken me a while to sit back and answer your questions. I think I gave you some feedback already, so I'll just address things as I see fit.

We, and our guests, loved that our ceremony was very personal. Everyone was very happy with the non-denominational, yet spiritual and personal tone to the ceremony. Our guests really liked your vibe, as did we, which is why we chose you in the first place.

We were very happy that you told our story so well. So many people did not know it, so it was good for them to hear as well as very entertaining, which you could tell from their laughs. It is so often that you do not get that. It only makes sense to know a couple's story if you are attending a wedding. We also loved that there was a nice bit of humor in it. We really wanted people to enjoy themselves and they did.

We loved how you included the musical part. It was truly a magical moment for me. Sam enjoyed it too. He just was not one to show it. He managed to stand still and poised while I had to jump up and down.

I also will say that previous to the ceremony I was having a hard time with the weather situation and the decisions that needed to be made. When you came to say hi to me, I was so happy and I felt more calm. You truly have a great personality and heart for your work, which we felt when we first met you. We could not imagine having anyone else perform our ceremony and we truly take pride in the ceremony you gave us. It is a fabulous memory we will have for the rest of our lives. I really do not think anyone could have done a better job.

Please let us know if we can ever provide a reference or do anything to help you. I hope that someday I can convince someone I know to work with you when they get married, so we can see your work again!

Wishing you the best.
 

Stephanie

Stephanie & Sam

July, 2005

Paul,

I wanted to write and tell you again that I thought you performed extraordinarily, officiating at Sam and Stephanie's wedding on July 23. It was evident you had spent time getting to know the couple. The service was anything but mechanical and impersonal. I appreciated you demeanor as well. You struck a great balance between respect for the sacredness of the affair and an attitude of warmth and lightness. You set the tone in dealing with the weather that encouraged all of us to accommodate Stephanie's desire for an outdoor ceremony. Nobody seemed to mind the few drops that blessed the affair. At my age, I've attended more weddings than I can count and this was truly an exemplar. It was a perfect symbolic start to Stephanie's and Sam's new life as a couple.

Thanks for such a wonderful job,

Jim C. 

(Uncle of Groom)

Jessica & Eli
June, 2005

Hi Paul,

I'm sorry for the delay in our response.  We thought that the wedding couldn't have gone any better.  Our guests had a blast and that's very important to us.  We got a number of compliments on the ceremony, people saying that they appreciated the obvious effort and time you put into making it personal.  This made us very happy to hear because we invited people from all across the country to be with us for a very short time, and were hoping to create a strong if short-lived sense of community among the guests.  We thought that you really helped that happen.
 
As for specific feedback, we both agreed that the best part of the ceremony was the story of our "courtship."  You filled it with very specific details of our life together, often making people laugh or helping them know us better than they had before.  The effort you put into getting to know us really paid off there, and you were able to tell the story in a light-hearted way that we both enjoyed a great deal.  Just about all our guests commented that they loved that part, too.
 
Another thing we liked was your pacing.  You kept your cool and didn't rush even though the sky was threatening rain.
 
So there you go.  We were thrilled with how it all went.  By the way, people really got a kick out of discussing their personality types with you.
 
We hope you're doing well.  Take care,
Eli and Jess

Katharine & Ian

May, 2005

CoCreative Journeys - Paul Paiva - A++++

Paul was just amazing! We had a difficult situation with this because DH and I were both raised catholic and have some grandparents that are still very catholic, but we are now nondenominational. Paul was perfect since he is nondenominational, but a former catholic priest. He is not one of those people that you write your ceremony and he reads it. He wants to be a part of the whole process from the get go. We met with him three times each lasting about 4 hours (we all really got along) and through those meetings he created a ceremony with different options then DH and I went through and chose the options and the vows we liked the best. So it was a big collaborative process. It turned out just wonderful too. No one got bored and it didn't seem too fast either it was perfect and so many people commented on how nice the ceremony was. It just oozed of us. Then to top it all off he came to the reception and talked to one of my grandpas and one of Ian's grandpas and apparently they talked and laughed for hours. He was great!
 

- Katharine & Ian

See original posting from TheKnot.com.  Scroll down to the eighth paragraph.

Christina & Jason

October, 2004

Hi Paul,

We really enjoyed working with you. The ceremony you created was very special. We could not have achieved the same uniqueness without you. We really loved the incorporation of the story of our relationship into the ceremony. This is a clear differentiator between you and other officiants and should be maintained. We had several people approach us after the ceremony with compliments regarding the ceremony; they were very impressed!

We appreciated the effort you put into writing our vows. We wanted to reflect our values in the ceremony and through your patience, we achieved this goal.

Your balance of religious and non-religious was appropriate. The length of the ceremony was also appropriate; not too short and not too long.

We have been editing the tape from the wedding and will eventually produce a DVD. We would be glad to send one your way, if you're interested.

Jason & Christina

• We thought that you did an excellent job of listening to our religious/spiritual beliefs and tailoring a ceremony to that.  As we have somewhat "nontraditional" views in this area, it was very important to us.

• We also really liked the overall structure of the ceremony.  It was a good mix of introduction, sermon, personal info about the 2 of us, and ceremony.

• We were very happy with several of the more creative portions of the ceremony.  The poem where different people stood up and each had one line went off without a hitch.  It was the true high-light of the ceremony and we got a lot of great feedback from our guests.  Also, the part where you encouraged all of the guests to let Colleen and I know how much they approved of the wedding "thorough any noise, yell, clap, whatever..." was really neat.  I was actually surprised at how involved everyone was. 

Laura & Chris

June, 2004

Hey Paul!

We thought it was absolutely beautiful and were very happy with what we created together. We were grateful to have had an officiant who was willing to totally customize the ceremony to our wishes. You thought of details that Chris and I couldn't have thought of ourselves. We couldn't have made this ceremony without you.

You had a confident stage presence and did a good job at taking control of situations i.e. the rehearsal and wedding ceremony. It felt good to work with somebody who was competent in what they were doing. We were able to trust you, relax, and know that you had everything handled. Also your communication with us as a couple was outstanding. We really couldn't have asked for more.

The last thing we want to address is your speech at the ceremony. It was a tough crowd to speak to considering the diverse range of backgrounds. We felt you did an awesome job at applying your speech to everyone in the room. You were spiritual without forcing it down anyone's throat. You stuck to the topic I asked you to speak about and choose some really cool things to talk about. We loved your comparison of Chris and I to Yogi and Pogo. It was hilarious, yet true. Your overall message was really cool. It was really special because your speech actually reflected that you had gotten to know us, our friends, and our family.

Thank you Paul!
Love Laura and Chris

Margaret & David
May, 2004
 

Hi Paul!
 

Thank you for writing!  The ceremony was everything I wanted.  It was intimate, non-traditional, stress-free.  I particularly liked how you incorporated everything we talked about into a ceremony that made our family and friends wonder if YOU were one of our friends because you knew us so well.  I liked your interpretation of the readings we selected, and I liked how you let the participants know why we selected those readings.  I like how everything was orchestrated by you so that no one was fumbling or wondering what was next.  This was one of the main reasons we wanted to hire an officiant -- so that the ceremony would be organized by someone other than ourselves and thus free us to enjoy and concentrate on the words, and not on structure.

 
I liked hearing your sermonette, which was a culmination of 6 hours of our meetings.  It was such a wonderful summation of who we are and why we were getting married and what that commitment means to us.  I liked how our family and friends had an opportunity to speak and participate (and they remarked on that as well).

I don't have any negative feedback.  I felt that our preliminary meetings were the ideal amount of time.  It made us both ponder the meaning of the wedding and the commitment, which is important.  The ceremony itself was well-received and just what I envisioned.  I'm attaching a photo from the ceremony.  We have more if you'd like more for your website or whatever.
 

Thank you again and keep in touch!
 

Margaret
 

Gretchen & Sean

March, 2004

Hi Paul,
 
To sum things up, we loved that you were so open about your history and really wanted to get to know us before committing to the engagement.  Although we knew what we wanted when we first met, having the opportunity to really discuss those desires with you helped to cement them in our minds.  We really appreciated your history and understanding of different religious traditions and your questioning about what words and phrases would be appropriate for us, our families and their religious expectations.  Although I know you usually prefer to do more of the ceremony planning and meetings on a more spread out timeframe, we actually enjoyed doing them so close to the actual wedding because they kept us focused on why were were getting married and what our relationship was and meant to us rather than getting caught up in all the stress of planning a wedding.  We loved the opportunity to just sit and talk with you as a friend and share our stories with you.  It was a wonderful chance for us to brag about the other with them getting to listen in.  Those evenings were ones in which we felt very connected and were reminded about how special our relationship really is.
 
The ceremony itself was beautiful.  We especially liked the guests being invited to greet each other.  This took some of the tension off of us and our attendants and brought everyone back to a very calm, happy place.  The sermonette was good, and we have to tell you that "love sandwich" has become quite an amusing inside joke for our friends and family :)  Obviously being able to write our own vows was very important to us and we appreciated all your help with that.  We got lots of compliments about how beautiful and personal the ceremony was and how much people enjoyed the quotes and the vows.
 
We really appreciate how much time and attention you devoted to getting everything right.  It was a wonderful day and one that we will remember forever.  Your help with having a very personal and meaningful ceremony was a very significant part of that.  We will certainly recommend you to our friends and family that want a personalized ceremony and would be very happy to serve as references for you in the future.
 
Also, let us know if you want any pictures or anything for your website, we would be happy to share them with you. 

Take care and we'll keep in touch.  Thank you for all that you've done.
 
Gretchen & Sean