About
On WeddingWire since 2024
Last update: January 2025
We are a queer/woman-owned officiant/celebrant service in the Lower Mainland, and we would love to help you craft a meaningful ceremony!
Beth Carlson-Malena is an award-winning officiant, having performed at more than 300 weddings in the lower mainland. Based in Vancouver with her wife Danice, together they are able to provide ceremony services along with sound and music - whether you just need someone to play your cues for the ceremony itself, or if you're looking for a wedding DJ for the full night!
Pride + Joy Ceremonies knows that your love story is different from any other. When you gather your family, chosen family, and friends to celebrate with you, you want to make sure the ceremony reflects who you are and what you value. Together, we can reflect on how far your love has brought you, and find the best words to carry you into your next chapter. Whether you love timeless traditions or you prefer to think way outside the box, we can't wait to join you in crafting this central part of your day.
Here are some of our values as a team:
Listening for what matters.
We take time to listen to your story so we can weave it into the larger narrative of the ceremony. We will come curious about what matters to you, and we can consider together how our ceremony can honour the complexity of who you are (or, in the case of a Celebration of Life, who your loved one is), whether it's weaving in family/cultural traditions, quoting from a favourite song or film, or finding a role for one of your family members to play during the ceremony.
Thinking outside the box.
The last thing we want is to plug your name into a pre-written template. We will come to our meeting with ideas from past ceremonies, so we don't have to start from scratch, but we'd love to hear your ideas and brainstorm together as much as possible. We love trying new things, whether it's putting a new spin on a time-honoured tradition, creating a new ritual with elements unique to your venue, or adding a moment of humour. We see this as our collaborative effort to make meaning of this event in your life, which will never look exactly like it does in someone else's life.
Prioritizing inclusion and belonging.
It can feel vulnerable and risky to gather together in a ceremony, especially when emotions are raw and when we're awkward in trying new things. As we consider how to introduce and frame your ceremony, we focus on building a safe container so people can risk as much vulnerability as is healthy for them. As queer team members, we know what it feels like to be excluded from ceremonies, so we try to choose language, themes, and shared practices that explicitly include all kinds of people, creating belonging for each individual who has made the choice to be there, so that they know their presence matters.
Giving you peace of mind.
We'll keep making adjustments to the ceremony until you're fully comfortable with our plans. We're also very capable of rolling with unexpected last-minute changes and surprises. We are trustworthy and reliable hosts and facilitators, and our goal is to free you up to simply show up and experience it, along with the other people you've invited to participate, instead of having to fret about the details.
PLUS+
Did you know Beth has also done ceremonies in French? (All those years in French Immersion at school finally came in handy!) Contactez-nous si vous voulez discuter une cérémonie bilingue ou une cérémonie en français.
Beth is committed to making her work ecologically sustainable by going paperless and using her e-bike to travel to any meetings, rehearsals or ceremonies within Vancouver city limits. Let us know if you're hoping to keep your wedding as green as possible - we might be a good fit for you!
Pride + Joy Ceremonies is a wedding officiant based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Frequently asked questions
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Meet the team

I grew up playing piano at weddings in my church in Saskatoon, watching my Dad officiate beautiful, personalized ceremonies as a pastor. I was drawn to the way story-telling could be interwoven with ritual to create a marker in time.
Fast forward many years… I moved to Vancouver, met Danice, came out as queer, and we decided to get married. Our churches wouldn’t host our wedding, but we worked with our officiant friend Jane to find ways to mark the day with with creativity and intention.
After our wedding, I got my own license to officiate weddings, in hopes of helping out some of my queer friends who had been similarly excluded by churches, or by their family members. What started as a hobby soon blossomed into a career as I realized how rewarding it could be to sit with a couple, listen to their story, build it into a ceremony, and proactively hold space for them to celebrate their love and say their vows, while creating belonging for their loved ones.
Since then, I have officiated over 300 weddings, almost all non-religious (though I’m quite happy to do religious weddings too). I have also enjoyed preparing other kinds of ceremonies to mark significant moments in people’s lives: births, deaths, griefs, milestones, and transitions.
When I’m not working on ceremonies, you’ll likely find me hanging out at Open Way (the little queer church I helped start up in 2017), baking zucchini bread, giving botany tours at Van Dusen gardens, reading/watching science fiction, or organizing for climate justice and a free Palestine.

I am proud to be the operational mind behind Pride + Joy. I love using my administrative skills to assist couples with bookings, and to keep Beth’s life organized!
You may also know me by my alter-ego, DJ WhySoSerious. I have over 12 years of experience as a DJ for parties and weddings, most recently through my company Serious Beats, including monthly gigs at Home By Midnight at the Anza Club. I love to play everything from 60s-70s classic funk, disco, and soul, through 90s hip hop and R&B, to the club hits of the 2000s, and any fresh hits that make you want to move.
My favourite party to DJ is: full of queers and queer-adjacents (you know who you are); wherever I can drop an original mashup, or the latest Beyoncé or Janelle Monáe banger; and any wedding where I can work alongside Beth. (If you’re looking for an officiant AND wedding DJ, look for our packages at the bottom of the wedding page!)
When I’m not sending emails to couples or sampling music, you can find me drinking craft beer, rating local tacos, reading queer YA, and following women’s basketball (especially cheering on the Seattle Storm!).