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MINNEAPOLIS

A ceremony you’ll never forget in the city with plenty of sun is just a few clicks away.

how to become a wedding officiant near me
Photograph by Allison and Nick

All of our packages include an innovative, immersive ceremony writing process.

It’s your story. Tell it through your ceremony.

Pricing ranges between $400-825.

1

Getting to Know You Through Unlimited Meetings

We’ll send a questionnaire to learn about you two. Your answers will help us guide the following conversations together. We like to keep our conversations casual like friends chatting. We’ll ask some questions to help you tell your story, probably over dinner or a glass of wine. If you’re open to it, we love talking to family and friends to obtain more insight into you.

*applies to all packages except our base package, an affordable option for couples with limited budget.

2

Writing Your Story 100% Template-Free

Our writing process is truly like none other. We’ll send a link to a Google Doc so you can be part of the process while we write your ceremony 100% from scratch. We’ll setup additional meetings to keep learning about you and revise the ceremony until it’s perfect. We don’t use templates or filler material.

3

Prepping You for Your Day

No matter how big or small your ceremony is, every couple has access to The Vow Journal, Vow Sessions and The Rehearsal Guide, all materials to help you prep for your day. You’ll head into your ceremony with nothing to worry about – we’ll guide you through the entire thing!

We had the pleasure of working with Liz as our officiant for our “minimony” this past October and will be working with her again next year for our “sequel” wedding. Working with Liz has been an amazing experience! She wrote the most beautiful and customized ceremony that I could have only dreamed about. She took the time to learn about both of us and was more than willing to have meetings with us throughout the writing process. She was so helpful before Covid hit (not only with wedding things but also with travel recommendations for a trip I was taking to London) but once we realized we had to start looking at different options she was the first vendor we reached out to. At this point she was not only our officiant but also a friend. She was able to help us figure out what our next steps would be and even shared some things that she had seen other brides doing as we were flying blind. We are so excited to work with her again for our ceremony next year, she is such an amazing person to be around! I couldn’t recommend Liz or the rest of her team enough!

— Lauren

Liz was amazing. Planning a wedding during a pandemic is hard, but Liz was great with virtual meet ups and a safe social distanced meet up. She asks questions to find out about you as a couple, but does it in such a relaxed way, it truly felt like talking with a close friend. In fact many of our guests asked how we knew Liz. She was professional and receptive to feedback. My husband and I both hate public speaking and so we opted not to write our vows, but we had input into what was and wasn’t said at the ceremony and Liz wrote some modernized vows that were perfect for us. I know she helps couples write their own too if that’s something people are interested in doing.

— Callista

There are not enough good things to say about Liz! She was incredible in every way. When looking for an officiant, it was important for us to have someone that appreciated people from every background because we have such diverse friends and family. From our first zoom conversation, we immediately felt comfortable and excited. When we received the first draft of our ceremony, we were in awe. She truly listened and learned about who we are as a couple and individuals. Our ceremony was fully customized, fit our vision and truly expressed our love for one another. We cannot recommenced Liz enough to anyone who wants a full expression of their story, who they are as individuals and their journey forward as a married couple.

— Brittney

Your Team of Officiants

All of our officiants are professionally trained storytellers and writers with prior experience telling stories. Read and watch a bit more about them below!

Liz

Founder + Officiant

(she/her)

Liz founded Liz Rae & Co in 2015 during her best friend Maranda’s engagement. Her friend, Timmie, at the time also struggled with finding an LGBTQ-friendly officiant that custom-wrote ceremonies. Liz believes the ceremony is the best part of the wedding day and wanted to make a change in the industry by emphasizing not only the important of marriage ceremonies but insluvity as well.

When she isn’t writing ceremonies, she works for a tech company during the day and a film production company by night. She’s been writing her whole life, but gained her storytelling knowledge through Faber Academy’s novel program and UCLA’s TV and Film Writing degree. You can read some of her writing on her website, Liz Rae and more notably on Thought Catalog.  She writes freelance for a variety of clients in various industries.

She speaks Spanish, some French, and some Italian, and she’s lived in France, Italy, Spain, Peru, the United Kingdom. She’s traveled to every continent except Antarctica.

She loves writing weddings of all kinds — her favorite part about the job is figuring out how to tell each and every story! She can’t wait to get to know you and be part of your wedding. 🙂

Dan from Liz Rae Weddings

Dan

Officiant

(he/him)

While Dan may tell you he’s always been a Minnesotan, claiming “Minnesota Nice”, he moved to Minnesota in 2008 from a small town in South Dakota where he was raised. He’s proud to call Minnesota home, even when braving the bitter cold. 

Outside of the Chicago Cubs, Dan’s true passion is people. His positive attitude, desire to help and persistence is his driving force. Although his goal at one time was to be a police officer, he’s found that his passion to help has led him in other directions focusing on more customer centric roles.

Dan was first asked to perform a friend’s wedding ceremony back in 2009. From this moment, he fell in love with celebrating the magic that happens on a couple’s special day. Since this time he has had the opportunity to celebrate with several couples and looks forward to many that are yet to come!

Dan from Liz Rae Weddings

Mark

Officiant

A native of Minneapolis who spent his summers at his grandparent’s lake place, Mark is a Minnesotan through-and-through, even though at various times he has also called Colorado, Missouri, Iowa, and New Orleans home.

A poet who started out filling notebooks during cross-country jaunts on innumerable Greyhound busses and also while working nights at a small donut shop during high school, he brings a unique perspective to every situation, every story that needs telling. Storytelling with unique insight and honest affection.

Especially when that story needs to be told with a laugh, or a smile.

A former radio announcer, and stage veteran of high school and community theatre, there is rarely a situation that Mark won’t embrace with gusto or that catches him off-guard. You’re in good hands with him at the helm of your wedding.

Looking for a different approach to your ceremony? The more off-beat, the better.  If you have a wedding idea that you’re holding back on because you’re not sure ‘if you can’ Mark is your guy.  Whether it is a groom singing with his in-moments-mother-in-law or a family-blending knot tying for five (one that you do not learn in scouts!) to reading (in Swedish) an email from a wedding couple’s Swedish Vallhund,

Mark is the guy you want to take your ‘not sure’ to ‘yeah, piece of cake.’

Mark looks forward to working with you and making your day everything you want it to be.

Dan from Liz Rae Weddings

Victoria

Officiant

Like a fellow Minnesotan F. Scott Fitzgerald, Victoria loves “the inexhaustible variety of life”. Becoming ordained in 2018, after having worked on the catering side of weddings for so long, Victoria wanted nothing more than to continue to be part of peoples love stories.

Born and raised in the Twin Cities, her heart is and has always been in northern Minnesota, she attended the University of Minnesota Duluth, where she had to ski to class… more than once. Once she had her B.A. in French Studies and her B.B.A in Organizational Management, it was time to pass the skis on and come home to the cities.

When she isn’t writing ads or legal notices, Victoria loves to cook, play video games, garden, paint, and spend time with friends.

She can’t wait to meet you and help create the greatest day of your life!

Dan from Liz Rae Weddings

Troy

Officiant

(he/him)

Troy grew up in a small tourist town in Northern Wisconsin. Raised in a family of athletes and performers, Troy transitioned from athletics to theatre as he grew up and got a degree in Theatre Performance from Viterbo University. 

His adventures in the arts took him from Texas to Colorado and back to Minnesota and Wisconsin. After years as an actor, director, designer, stage manager, and even founding a theatre troupe, he moved to St. Paul with his wife in 2011. 

Soon after moving to the cities, he used his theatre background to start a new path in the wedding industry, working as a wedding DJ for the past 10 years. Over hundreds of weddings, Troy developed a reputation for making his clients feel welcome and being able to turn any situation into a successful event. His favorite memories are working with clients who had their own unique vision for their special day that he could help bring out and enhance. From high end weddings at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, to rustic barn weddings, to Renn Faire weddings with night time lightsaber battles, Troy has seen it all and would love to use his years of experience to make your wedding ceremony amazing. 

Apart from working at hundreds of weddings as a DJ, Troy has also performed ceremonies for close friends and family from Minnesota to Mexico and beyond. In May of 2021, he was honored to perform the ceremony for his sister’s wedding in Ohio. His favorite part about performing wedding ceremonies is being able to craft a unique story for each event and sharing that story with his clients’ closest friends and family.

Dan from Liz Rae Weddings

Sam

Associate Officiant

(she/her)

Sam has lived several places in her life, grew up in Southern California, spent some years in Tulsa, Oklahoma and has called Minneapolis her home for the last few years.

 After spending time so many other places it is great to have somewhere that finally feels like home.

Sam went to school for theatre and loves to read, but is also very into technology, coffee and helping people.

She lives with her partner Bek and their two cats, Maybel and Opal.

 When she’s not performing ceremonies, she is likely at her day job helping people at a software startup.

 Sam can’t wait to get to know you and help make your day memorable.

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