Simply Ceremony

Lisa was extraordinary! She guided and prepared us well for the celebration of our special day. She was extremely engaged, and created a custom, perfect ceremony for us. She was inclusive of our family and guests, and made them all feel welcome and a part of our story. The whole process was designed to really see each other and ourselves in each others eyes and to culminate in a fun, glorious ceremony that we will cherish forever. Lisa is an angel.

My husband and I decided to do a surprise ceremony at our "rehearsal dinner" for our 30 closest family and friends at the end of May. Lisa happily helped us coordinate our happy prank, as well as helped us refine our hand-written vows. She was very flexible about the passages we wanted read and very accommodating to our mixed spiritual backgrounds. Thank you, Lisa!

Lisa was an absolute pleasure to work with from the first meeting, to receiving our marriage certificate in the mail just this week. Our ceremony was the most important aspect of our wedding given that this was my first, and my husband's second marriage. He has 2 boys that very much wanted to be integrated into the ceremony and celebration. We had already written our ceremony and vows, then only a month before the wedding we started our search for an officiant when we came across Lisa Hartley, family celebrant (I'd never heard that term). We found her website and listened to a radio interview she'd done. I immediately liked her voice (this is important!) as it was strong and calm, as well as her philosophy.

Flexible and accommodating are 2 of the first words that come to mind. How she structures her offerings reflect this -as you can have as much or as little guidance from her as you wish. Because we had most of our ideas in place, Lisa worked with us to structure it, strengthen it, and make sure it flowed on the day. She managed our rehearsal like a pro- which we needed given that our wedding party consisted of us, plus 5 kids aged 9-12 yrs. And while we had the words we wanted- she physically "staged" us so that the boys were seamlessly integrated and we moved as a family unit throughout the ceremony. It was absolutely beautiful- and we would never have thought of the level of detail she brought to our planning.

On our actual wedding day- despite that the skies opened up into a torrential monsoon skewing all of our grandiose outdoor plans- she was able to quickly move to our "Plan B", setting the tone for the day by thoughtfully sending us an email first thing in the a/m, about the beauty of rain on one's wedding day signifying "fertility, cleansing, unity, renewal, tears...happy tears".

She helped everyone focus on the silver lining in the dark clouds and the significance of our day, and in the end it was more beautiful and memorable than we ever could have imagined. Consistent with the weather, the room was full of happy tears and Lisa was an instrumental part of making our day one that we will never forget. Thank you, Lisa!

p.s. Lisa brings her own inconspicuous wireless head set and speaker which is a godsend in many settings. Her mic is bionic and easily picked up our voices, precluding us from having a big handheld mic in our faces and wedding photos throughout the ceremony.

Lisa is a natural when it comes to creating a ceremony. She asks specific questions and uses her years of expertise to tell a story and bring your vision to life. We are full of gratitude after our beautiful and meaningful vow renewal. Her services are worth every penny. Highly recommend!

Lisa officiated at our wedding on the Sunshine Coast, BC in July of 2019. We planned for a casual-ish event at the home of the groom's parents. We were really keen to weave in stories and traditions from our families and cultures. Lisa did a great job of explaining some of the Jewish traditions we included (chuppah, breaking glass) and took the time to appreciate the location and our family stories.

We were so happy with how the ceremony unfolded and appreciated all she did in advance, behind the scenes, and in the moment. We particularly loved the collaborative feel of working with her and how open and encouraging she was of our ideas.

Many of our guests commented on the intimate feel of the occasion and for that, we thank her.

My wife and I strongly recommend Lisa Hartley as your celebrant for your wedding day because her talent as a celebrant is only surpassed by her positive energy. Lisa's professionalism, creativity, and calming demeanor made for an experience that went above and beyond our hopes for a perfect ceremony. We were impressed at the dedication she provided us, not only during the ceremony, but beforehand as well. Lisa's attention to detail was demonstrated when she personalized our ceremony in a way that allowed us freedom of expression and through our collaboration, brought a truly unique experience. Having Lisa as our celebrant for our wedding gave us peace of mind because we knew the ceremony was in more than capable hands.

We cannot recommend Lisa Hartley strongly enough. She took the time to get to know us, work out what we wanted, and what we didn't want.

The first draft of the ceremony was virtually spot on and needed very few amendments.

The result was fun and light-hearted ceremony which was exactly what we wanted.

My brother (and Best man) later said of Lisa:

"... she was excellent. We all thought it was a really nice and intimate ceremony."

He then asked for the transcript as his own daughter was getting married later in the year and he was looking for ideas!

We had Lisa as the wedding officiant for our ceremony and we wouldn’t have had it any other way. Lisa was very attentive from beginning to end of the entire process despite our long distance (Hong Kong – Vancouver): arranging a Skype meeting and following up with emails, getting to know our relationship story, to finally meeting in person a week prior to the ceremony and the service itself on the big day. She showed both care and creativity writing our ceremony, designing cute rituals tailored to us and suggesting readings based on our story. On the big day, the weather was terrible, but she made sure she came early anyway, to talk with the banquet manager, making sure that everything was going to go according to plan, and most importantly to settle us down, and our nerves! We especially love her for taking the time to get to know our guests prior to the start of the ceremony which we found key, as a way to connect not just everyone but her to us and our group given that she barely knew us, doing so made us feel that she is not a stranger but part of the wedding party. While our ceremony was small and simple, Lisa made the service warm and moving with unique touches. We are so grateful for all her wonderfulness and so glad that she signaled the start of our married life. Thank you, Lisa!

This review is well overdue, as my husband & I got married last September. Lisa was phenomenal and made our wedding day so special. From the moment we met with her, she was professional, calm and so pleasant - we never felt any pressure to move forward with anything that we didn't feel comfortable with. In the end, we chose a simple ceremony and we received so many compliments from our guests about how great Lisa was. Our wedding ceremony did not go as expected to begin with, in that it rained and we had issues with our sound system - Lisa was incredible at managing the crowd and everything went smoothly after that! Thank you Lisa for everything, you made our day unforgettable. I would without a doubt recommend Lisa to any couple looking to add something special to their ceremony.