Rev. Ray Van Winkle

Ray provided a great service for a fair price.
We had a productive (free) consultation over coffee at Panera, where he quickly put us at ease. He explained that while yes, he is a reverend, he is happy to do secular ceremonies. In fact, the ceremony book he provides helpfully (explicitly) calls out any religious wording in case you wish to include or avoid it.
From there, it becomes a «build-​your-​own» ceremony by patching together segments from his book, or of course you can provide your own. Reassuringly, Ray double-​checked the pronunciation of my commonly mispronounced last name, and had it phonetically spelled on his notes on the wedding day.
Speaking of the wedding day, Ray did a great job. He showed up a bit early to go over the ceremony with me, my bride, and our wedding planner. This was definitely appreciated as he was unable to attend our rehearsal due to our conflict (though still tried to make it when his schedule briefly opened up again). He knew I was incredibly nervous and helped to be reassuring.
When proposing, I hadn’t guessed we’d end up going with a for-​hire officiant, but I’m very glad we did. Ray is a practiced and confident speaker and does great work.

Ray is a true master of his craft. His command and presence is powerful yet welcoming at the same time.
My wife and I were able to structure our ceremony the way we wanted it — short & sweet with a few wrinkles that were distinctly us.
And whereas some officiants like to steal the show, he is a tremendous facilitator that allows the focus where it should be — on the wedding couple.

We were referred to Reverend Ray by a friend who had recently gotten married, Ray was unavailable on our date, but referred us to Jack Loos. We had a great experience with Jack, he was professional, quick to reply to emails, on time to our rehearsal and wedding ceremony, and we thought that his experience with wedding ceremonies was very helpful in getting the details just right for our ceremony. We had no complaints.

Since he was already booked the day of our wedding, Rev. Ray Van Winkle recommended one of his associates, Rev. Jack Loos, to do our wedding ceremony. We met with Rev. Jack in person, and initially we were very pleased, so we we booked him. Big mistake!
Rev. Ray & Associates use a ceremony template program (this was nice), which my fiancé and I took the time to fill out and personalize for us as a couple. We sent it to Rev. Jack via e-​mail a month before the ceremony, so I was surprised when he asked me a week before the wedding where it was. This was the first red flag.
The day of the rehearsal, our officiant was nowhere to be found! After 30 minutes of waiting around, I called Jack and asked if he was lost. He informed me that he thought he was not supposed to show up for the rehearsal and mentioned he had never confirmed this with me. After reviewing e-​mails between us, I found a confirmation from Rev. Jack where he stated our rehearsal was «in the books.» He then promised he would arrive at the ceremony early so he could review things he had missed during the rehearsal with the wedding party. Sadly, this didn’t happen!
Much to my chagrin, Rev. Jack arrived 30 minutes before the ceremony was scheduled to start (he had promised 45, and this was before he failed to show at the rehearsal), and he informed me that we would need to sign the marriage license «right away» following the ceremony because he had to leave. The ceremony went fine (except that he forgot to ask our guests to sit down, so they were left standing awkwardly) which is why I gave 2 stars, but the level of professionalism leaves much room for improvement.
People seem to like Rev. Ray, and I will say, we went through pre-​marital counseling with him (Rev. Ray) and he was great, but as far as officiants go, steer clear of Rev. Jack!

Rev. Ray Van Winkle is an amazing officiant! We were recommended to him by our DJ Adams DJ Service. He was so friendly and make the entire process so easy. His process of writing our vows was so user friendly and really helped us. He was very professional and truly made our ceremony so special. He took all of our ideas and went with them and even provided us with some great ones! Thank you Rev. Ray for making our ceremony absolutely amazing! I highly recommend you to anyone who wants a beautiful night!

My, now husband, and I were recommended to Rev. Ray by a co-​worker of mine. We had e-​mailed and called a few other officiants that we found online but they were either WAY over priced and were going to charge us for everything but a «Hello» (and if they could I know they would), or they did not believe in equality as my husband and I do. Ray was inexpensive and he does — we were nearly sold on that alone. Then we met Ray.
Ray was… after the food the best part of our wedding. He was inexpensive ($ 350 and no travel fees), funny, professional, and understood what we wanted. I am a VERY detail oriented person, and very hands on. His style of ceremony is… YOU make it. He e-​mailed us a ceremony book and we made our ceremony. That was PERFECT for us — that alone made me want to give him the check right then and there. And we did by the end of the meeting.
At rehearsal he met us 15 minutes early to make sure everything on the marriage certificate was accurate and to go over some details of our ceremony, and to make sure everything was correct before the rehearsal actually began. During so he was funny, charismatic, engaging, and overall a blast to work with.
Day of… wow. He helped to calm me down (and from what I heard helped the other side calm down too! For the ceremony he was fantastic! He made the entire ceremony go off with a breeze — it was perfect.
I would, and have, recommended Rev. Ray Van Winkle to any bride I know looking for an officiant. He was, besides the food, the best part of our day. He was fantastic! And you know what? So were we.

Ray was perfect in every way! Our wedding was unique to say the least with the blending of two very different family values and cultures. But we are very happy with our choice in selecting him for the most important factor of our day! The Ceremony options for readings was especially nice, as no two weddings can ever be the same with so many options to fit every couple’s personality. We especially loved the interaction our guests had which made them feel so much more apart of our big day! If and when we ever renew our vows, I can only hope Rev. Ray is available to perform our service!
You will be satisfied and stress free, knowing he will take care of the most important factor of your day! THANK YOU, Rev. Ray! –Kendra and Lotu

Rev. Ray was amazing to work with. He responded very quickly to all of our phone calls and emails. We loved the idea of being able to completely customize our ceremony. Rev. Ray had many choices for each part of the ceremony available and encouraged us to edit and change anything to meet our needs. Choices ranged from traditional to modern, and religious to spiritual. I highly recommend Rev. Ray for any wedding ceremony!

As my husband noted, Ray was a wonderful officiant. The service options he provided allowed us to pick our (very atheist) service and be inclusive of all the extended family, without excluding anyone. He provided us with great ideas, got our processional organized in record time and did a wonderful job with the service.

Ray was so organized and efficient. The rehearsal and wedding ceremony went perfectly. Thank you so much!

Having Rev Ray officiate our wedding was an honor. He was exteremely helpful and professional in early meet and greets, and basically ran our rehersal. This was a huge help to us, and saved us the stress. Reverend Ray also let us pick the ceremony we wanted, rather than using a generic ceremony. Highly reccommend for service, professionalism, and price.

What a great and easy process this all was! The rehearsal was quick and efficient, Rev. Ray was funny and easy going and even though I was totally emotional the entire ceremony, he went at my pace and made us feel so special!

Reverend Ray was a joy to work with. Very personable, funny, instantly put me at ease, and very professional. He also does not charge exorbitant fees, like some other officiants I looked into. The ceremony was done exactly how we wanted. Very highly recommended.

We were very happy with Reverend Ray. He was helpful in organizing the ceremony beforehand and was a wonderful officiant. Several guests commented on his presence, voice, and professionalism. As the bride, I appreciated his directiveness during the ceremony (when I felt a little like a deer in the headlights). I also liked his respect/​relaxed approach beforehand that allowed my husband and I to create the ceremony we wanted. He brought a close knit and relaxing feeling to our ceremony despite only having met us once before. Definitely would recommend him.

My husband and I are so glad we found Rev. Ray! He is much more reasonably priced than many other competitors in town. He also is very easygoing and open-​minded. For instance, our wedding had Dr. Seuss elements to it, which he was enthusastic to jump into. Very professional, very sweet, very fun to work with!

We love Rev. Ray! He was so much fun to work with and was very accommodating for how we wanted our ceremony. Our friends have even used him for their wedding after seeing how great he was at our ceremony.

We really enjoyed working with Ray as our wedding officiant. He is very enjoyable to work with, funny and easygoing yet extremely professional. We would definitely work with him again and readily recommend his services to others.