Celebrate Love Chicago

We first met with Jeffrey about one year before our wedding. He was out of our budget for an officiant but we were having trouble finding a non-​religious officiant that we liked. After meeting with Jeffrey we decided it was worth it to shuffle around our budget and spring for the full package including the pre-​marital sessions.
The pre-​marital sessions were great. We talked about things that my then fiancé and I hadn’t thought to discuss and Jeffrey made everything easy and comfortable (and he has a really cute dog). When planning our ceremony he asked us several questions that we hadn’t even thought about (like if the maid of honor carries the ring, where will she put it? And which readings were too long for our hopefully short ceremony) and proved to us that he was very knowledgable and experienced.
Jeffrey drove an hour and a half out of the city to our rehearsal the day before our wedding. Before getting started with everything, he pulled me and my fiancé aside and talked to us for a minute. He asked how we were feeling and had us talk to each other and just basically helped us slow down and appreciate each other for a second during the craziness.
The next day, he again drove an hour and half out to our ceremony. Right before the ceremony, we had a severe thunderstorm come and we had to move everything inside. He again, pulled my fiancé and I aside and talked to us. Made sure we were doing ok, gave us some advice and calmed us down.
The ceremony was perfect. He used what he had told him in our meetings and made everything very customized and perfect for us. He referenced our personalities and inside jokes and experiences. We got many compliments and he really did a great job of making a very meaningful, but non-​religious ceremony. He was also extremely quick with paperwork, and we received our marriage certificate in the mail almost immediately!
My husband and I are both very happy with our choice to go with Jeffrey for our officiant. Your officiant can really make or break your special day and Jeffrey was very sensitive to our personal wants and we would both highly recommend him.

I read somewhere that premarital counseling is positively correlated to successful marriages. My own opinion of marriage was dubious after witnessing seemingly unhappy marriages and happy divorces all around me. I surveyed many married people about the secrets to their success and always cringed when they responded in a sarcastic manner indicating that their relationship was no longer as glowing as it once was and it was merely a habitual status quo of ennui. I wanted none of that for myself!
Finding a premarital counselor proved harder than expected. I asked the Unitarian Temple in Oak Park and the Congregational Church across the street. Neither of them provided the services I sought nor did they offer up any referrals. I found a non-​religious organization online that offered something like five sessions and a workbook outlining specific lessons; however, they never returned my calls. That’s when I found Celebrate Love Chicago and Jeffrey.
Jeffrey and I played a fine game of phone tag that resulted in our first contact being way too exuberant and familiar on my part than his want. I definitely caught him off guard and he seemed skeptical of me. We scheduled our first consultation.
I learned from his website that his first consultation was free and also that he had a premarital counseling deal that’s $ 450 for five sessions. We told him we wanted to take advantage of that deal and he agreed. At our second meeting I was disappointed that he sprang on us that our first meeting (the consultation) was included in those five sessions.
I quickly learned that Celebrate Love Chicago is a small operation. Although it definitely has it’s charm being in Andersonville, having free drinks, samples, and literature in the waiting area, and a therapy dog… Well. I think that Jeffrey runs it all by himself which explains all the phone tag, occasional lost emails, and no formal billing process. It’s a lot to handle and I am pretty sympathetic about it all even though I was initially annoyed.
We learned a lot about how to format the framework of our relationship from Jeffrey. I won’t disclose the points that he taught us but I will say that sometimes our tempers flared when he poked into certain problems. Our relationship is rosy and our disagreements are small. We didn’t like it when we would dwell on one of our hiccups when we already considered it resolved. Now we understand Jeffrey’s method and we know he was simply using those problem points as an example for his framework.
We have found his framework to be extremely helpful and now we observe other couples and think that they need a little Jeffrey in their lives too. Fortunately he gave us plenty of cards to distribute and I’ve already handed out four!

Throughout the ceremony planning process, Jeffrey provide kind, thoughtful, and creative guidance. We chose to do premarital counseling sessions as part of our ceremony package, which provided a great opportunity for us to explore our relationship and craft a ceremony that fit our personalities and values. Jeffrey was an invaluable resource in helping us create a ceremony that reflected our secular views, but honored our respective Jewish and Christian heritages. Jeffrey always had our best interests in mind, and even on the day of the wedding, took us aside for a quiet moment to reflect on the meaning and significance of the impending ceremony.
After the wedding, we received many compliments on the ceremony and Jeffrey. We highly recommend Jeffrey for anyone seeking a unique and personalized wedding ceremony.

Jeffrey was great. From our initial consultation to follow up meetings and back-​and-​forth emails, Jeffrey was really down-​to-​earth about our whole wedding, which was basically the vibe we were going for. He really took the time to get to know us and understand our relationship. We were totally comfortable being candid about our relationship and its quirks. By the time we got to the ceremony, it felt like an old friend was marrying us.
I was a little skeptical at the rehearsal, when Jeffrey wasn’t putting all his cards out on the table. He sort of glossed over some things a bit, and I thought to myself, «it’s odd that he’s not being more specific about what we’re supposed to do/​say». But at the ceremony it all made sense! It was such a lovely surprise to hear everything that Jeffrey had prepared for the first time as the ceremony was unfolding. It was like watching a movie, but we were in it!
Seriously though, we couldn’t have been more pleased with how the ceremony turned out. It was light-​hearted and warm, just as we wanted it. Jeffrey put together the perfect words to describe our relationship and our goals for our marriage. He made it so personal and unique to our relationship, no cookie-​cutter ceremony template here folks. He also made it interesting for our guests, they were really engaged and felt like they were a part of the ceremony too, which was important to us.
Not only is Jeffrey a pro at running a wedding ceremony, he is just such a thoughtful and loving person and really gives so much of himself to the process.
Say «I do» to Celebrate Love Chicago!

Working with Jeffrey was one of the best decisions we made during our planning process. We wanted a ceremony that felt familiar to our guests, yet unique and genuinely reflective of us as a couple. Jeffrey expertly helped us craft exactly that. He is easy to work with, detail oriented, an insightful listener, and a warm, gentle soul – exactly what you’d want from a wedding officiant. I’d recommend him to anyone.

Jeffrey married us on May 16^th at the Chicago Illuminating Company. We opted for the 3 premarital sessions as a way to get to know him better so he could personalize our ceremony. It was kind of expensive but worth every penny. During the 3 sessions we focused on communication and finding balance during the wedding planning period, as well as our vision for our ceremony. We really didn’t know what we wanted, and he was very helpful in guiding us through the ceremony planning process. Jeffrey had us complete a «ceremony builder», in which we answered a lot of questions about us and our relationship. This was helpful as it actually forced us to think about the ceremony and the marriage, which is really the whole purpose of the wedding! Jeffrey did an excellent job with our ceremony. The ceremony builder and the 3 sessions really enabled him to know us, and the ceremony he created was very personal. He was able to infer things about us that I don’t even remember telling him — I was very impressed. We are not religious and there were no religious references at all, as we had requested. Both of my parents are deceased and he spent a moment honoring and remembering them, which was very important to me. He really listened to what we wanted and included everything we requested: emphasizing love, friendship, respect, trust and community. Our guests were also very impressed by how personal and touching the ceremony was. During the ceremony I felt like Jeffrey was a pillar of strength — when I was becoming emotional or nervous I found comfort and reassurance in him. He is truly a professional and really makes an effort to be supportive and helpful during the planning process. He also personalizes the ceremony and puts a lot of thought into creating the ceremony that suits the couple.
Overall I would not hesitate to recommend Jeffrey to anyone who wants an officiant that will create a ceremony with you that really is about you. Ours was perfect and I wouldn’t change a thing about it.

My husband is a UK citizen and flew to Chicago, my hometown, for our wedding. We were already a bit nervous about the logistics of it all, and when our original officiant canceled on us a week before our date, I had NO idea what I was going to do!
I called Jeff after reading some glowing reviews on Unilocal!He was incredibly understanding and kind. He offered us a lot of options and I was immediately thrilled with how warm and friendly he was. We eloped in his office, and it was exactly perfect. Even if I had years to plan it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing — most of all, Jeff. His words were incredibly beautiful and really touching. I’m pretty sad we moved overseas afterwards and don’t have a chance to see him more often!
I can’t say enough good things about him. I’d give him 10 stars if I could!

So, the fiancé and I hired Jeffrey Sumber to be our officiant and part of the costs require three pre-​marital sessions. Since we wanted ours to be non-​religious/​secular, Jeffrey had asked us to come in so he could get to know us better and help us shape our ceremony to be befitting of us — what a great concept!
Our first intro session was FREE (yes, some things in life are free which is very very nice, especially if you’re paying for a wedding anyway) and then, he also gave us a 50% discount after four pre-​marital sessions with him — we’ve found his pre-​marital sessions are extremely helpful — it’s nice to have things laid out in a different manner. He’s helping us see past the present and really help us lay out the foundation for our ‘culture’ together and for our lives together as one. He’s also helping overcome little obstacles and something as silly as «why we fight over the center of the bed» — we’re very confident in his abilities and look forward to having a beautiful ceremony that is catered to our personalities and our relationship.
I highly recommend him as an officiant (if you’re going the non-​religious route) and a counselor. Plus his office is right next door to Hopleaf and La Donna — another bonus right there, too!
With less than three weeks away for the wedding, we’re very pleased with the outline of the ceremony and how it’s turning out exactly what we could have imagined — it’s very personalized to the two of our personality and relationship. I’ll edit this after the wedding.
EDIT: Our ceremony was fabulous and Jeffrey definitely added quite a bit of personalization and flair to our wedding. He even made a little slipup which was actually really endearing because you could tell that he’s spent quite a bit of time with us! Thank you again, Jeffrey!