A More Perfect Union

Hope was brilliant from start to finish. She was our pick from the very beginning. After we skyped her for the first time we knew we had the perfect lady to conduct our wedding ceremony. Bright, bubbly and very thorough. A lady who you knew just loves her job. Always there if we needed her and always prompt in her responses. Being from Australia and get married in NYC wasn’t a difficulty with Hope. She did such a beautiful job with our ceremony and we will never forget her for playing the special role that she did.
Danielle & Josh

I am so glad I found Hope. She is super friendly and positive energy that make my all my nervous went away.

We found A More Perfect Union through Unilocal Reviews for pre-​martial counseling and her program was exactly what we were looking for! It covered the big topics (Finances, Beliefs and Values, Roles in marriage, Children and Parenting, etc.) and things that are sometimes hard to talk about. We learned different techniques of communicating and had many opportunities to talk to each other while being guided by Hope. I liked that we had little homework assignments after each session and also prepped for each session by filling out some questions about the progress we were making and topics we wanted to discuss. Hope was very professional and made us feel very comfortable to discuss anything. We really enjoyed the whole process and felt energized and closer after our sessions. We had skype sessions which made it convenient and comfortable for us to do it from home too. Hope also was able to help us out with a document that proved we had pre-​marital counseling that will help us with the marriage certificate in the state that we are getting married in which was much appreciated.
In addition to the pre-​marital counseling, I also attended the Zen Bride Workshop that Hope hosted in NYC. It was so nice to connect with other brides and feel supported. It was a really nice program that I would recommend to any bride! I can say the preparation was all worth it and I believe it’s really helped me sail through the engagement period and feel more grounded surrounding my wedding.

Hope is the best. She is truly a caring, genuine, and responsive professional. I found her through Unilocal and my fiancé and I used her for four pre marital counseling sessions. I highly recommend doing this, even if you don’t think you «need» it because everyone can better work on how to better communicate and learn more about their partner. Marriage is a hard, long road and it’s really good to speak to a professional about what to expect. Not to mention, my fiancé and I aren’t religious so we’re sort of not applicable to Pre cana and such, so turning to Hope is a great secular alternative. (Though, as an officiant, I believe she can definitely tap into all religions and spiritual beliefs!)
Her program is structured to discuss the major things you’ll encounter in marriage (finances, roles, beliefs/​values, etc — you can pick/​choose or use Hope’s help to decide which is most important to you!); she asks a lot of prodding questions to help you speak about them honestly and openly. She’ll also give you weekly homework assignments which will help you identify/​communicate what’s most important to you and your partner in relation to what your sessions are about; for instance, my fiancé and I learned what we’re truly thinking about things by stating our «dealbreakers» in a relationship. Sure, you could discuss these things on your own but I think the key is that Hope gets you thinking and set aside time that’s dedicated to doing it. She also taught us effective ways to communicate to diffuse any arguments, etc and she sends a lot of reading about general wellness and relationships. She is also really keen on receiving feedback and listens to what you have to say.
I loved working with her and would highly recommend taking the time to do her counseling program –esp you, brides! After all, it’s your lifelong marriage that’s the hard part — not planning a big party for one day! We may work with her again to help write/​structure our ceremony! My fiancé and I feel much closer after meeting with her!

My husband and I were thrilled with the ceremony that Hope Mirlis performed for us on 11÷20÷15. We met with her once in person, and then corresponded with her frequently over email right up to the day of our rehearsal. Hope did a wonderful job of listening to our various ideas for our ceremony and made recommendations, which helped us settle on something that represented us perfectly. She was articulate, passionate, expressive and humorous, which helped our ceremony come to life — it felt welcoming to our guests, deeply meaningful, and also light-​hearted. More importantly, we had rave reviews from our guests! Some people even thought Hope must have been a close friend of ours, which speaks the most her passion for her work. We highly recommend her to all couples looking for a NYC wedding officiant!

Hope was a truly fabulous wedding officiant! She understood the vibe and philosophy we were going for based on ongoing discussions, including a fun and helpful questionnaire. She never judged or imposed, but instead guided us toward a unique and magical wedding ceremony. She was easy to work with and brought positive energy to our special day. Highly recommend!

We were so lucky to come across A More Perfect Union in the lead up to our wedding. We initially engaged her services for a single pre-​marital counseling session, but several months later we have had a full-​service experience with Hope and have been so pleased with the journey.
Hope was referred to us through a friend of a friend, and having been together for 8 years, my fiancé and I felt we just needed to check-​in with each other and fine-​tune our communication patterns in a non-​religious, non-​psychiatric sort of way.
We originally spoke with Hope about doing a one-​off session, which she was more than willing to accommodate. But one session turned into four just because we found them so useful, and Hope was flexible in re-​working her agendas to suit our revised 4-​session approach.
We then ran into some snags with our officiant on the Wedding Day, and Hope swooped in to help us out which was a major comfort in a stressful situation. She made our ceremony experience personal to us and delivered it with great poise and humor.
As the previous posts have described better than I can, Hope is just a pleasure to be around and offers a warm, judgement free environment in which to communicate with your partner. Before the first session, and in between, Hope emphasizes that the couple has to do the work and has to come prepared… but she gives you the tools to then make the most of that preparation and learn how to be more present in your relationship.
Thank you Hope!

We definitely made the right decision in choosing Hope as our ceremony officiant, pre-​marital counselor, and yoga instructor! We had a great experience with Hope from our first email exchange to the quick follow-​up post-​wedding with our marriage certificate. We were looking for an officiant who would work with us on personalizing our ceremony and bring just the right amount of faith and spirituality into the ceremony. Hope fit this perfectly. Hope is very warm and personable and was also very responsive, offering her advice and feedback throughout the planning process. On the morning of the wedding, Hope led me and my three bridesmaids through a lovely yoga session that she customized to my preference, a perfect start to my special day! Our families all commented how eloquent and well-​spoken Hope was during the ceremony. She was also very authentic and genuinely just as happy for us as our family and friends. We would recommend Hope to any couple!

Hope officiated our wedding earlier this month and we loved what she offered as options for our vows. It fit in well with our personalities and the feel we wanted for the wedding with personal touches as well. Several people commented on how much they liked her afterwards and I was so pleased with our choice. She is very friendly and easy to work with and I couldn’t be happier with the way everything turned out!

We used Hope for premarital counseling. We had already chosen a friend to officiate our wedding, but wanted to do something like pre cana but a secular version. We first tried to do this through a standard «couples therapist» — but that was not helpful (the therapist was basically like, «tell me about your relationship, go.»). Hope, on the other hand, was exactly what we were looking for:
— She kicked off the 4-​session package with a questionnaire that helped us identify areas that were working well and others that we needed to work on
— She had a set number of topics to cover during these sessions (finances, family planning, how we demonstrate and receive love, how we relate with each other’s famly/​friends, etc.)
— She was extremely responsive via email and phone, and was able to accommodate our difficult schedules by meeting us for evening appointments (7pm and after) at our apartment.
In addition to providing this more workshop-​like counseling that we were looking for, Hope was just a pleasure to be around. No judgments, really open and warm. We’ve been raving all about her to our friends and even some that are already married have started to see her for a structured way to «touch base» on their relationship/​marriage, which i think is a great idea. Thank you, Hope!

Choosing Hope to be our officiant was one of the best decisions we made throughout the wedding planning process. She brought warmth, originality, humor and humility to the wedding ceremony and made everyone at the wedding feel that they were a part of our union that day. Hope had a tall order, creating a formal wedding that was also joyful, non-​denominational, multicultural, and not boring :)
We had many individuals come up to us after the wedding and say it was the most meaningful ceremony that they had ever been to. Hope did a wonderful job of making the ceremony feel truly «us.» Everyone from my 93 year old grandmother to the more rowdy guests appreciated her ability to bring everyone together in support of this new marriage. Very few women had mascara that did not run that day. Thank you so much Hope we could not have found anyone who could have aligned our ceremony any better with how we wanted to feel that day!

Having Hope as our officient was the best decision we could have made. She immediately made us feel comfortable with the entire process. We were able to meet with her via SKYPE prior to the ceremony, and because we were living in Florida at the time of the planning, she made the entire process easy and comfortable. Hopes welcoming and warm attitude was reassuring, and she was extremely professional. We could never thank her enough for her professionalism during the planning of our wedding. Hopes dedication to our ceremony made us feel as though we were her only priority.
Whitney and Sandy Boursiquot

My husband and I aspired to have a wedding ceremony that deeply reflected our relationship and love for one another… But how does one put that into words? We had ideas, but Hope was the one who synthesized those ideas and created a beautiful ceremony that was more meaningful than we could have ever imagined. Her suggestions with regard to the vows and flow of the event gave my husband and I the ability to tailor the wedding ceremony equally to both our preferences. Almost every guest (from both sides of the family) remarked on how wonderful an impression Hope made. We got questions like «How long have you known Hope?» or «How long have you been friends with Hope?» To everyone’s surprise, we had met Hope the evening of the ceremony! She is truly that awesome! She made our closest friends and family feel as though she had known my husband and I (as a couple) for years! She is a beautiful person that clearly loves what she does and in turn, those qualities made everyone at our wedding love her. She was so helpful in the planning stages too. As soon as we had our first phone conversation, we could tell that Hope had a tremendous amount of experience. Then when we read the first draft, we were blown away. Her preparation and vision is inspiring. Months leading up to the wedding, we knew the ceremony would be amazing. It was one less thing to be nervous or anxious about. Hope is pro! For us, no one on earth could have done a better job.
Thank you so much Hope. We love you. All the best, Ann and Mike (The October 2014 Brooklyn Wedding)

We are so grateful we found Hope to lead us through pre-​marital sessions and our ceremony. She led us from our very vague ideas of what we wanted our ceremony to be to a ceremony that felt so personal and that achieved what I thought was impossible: to feel grounded and present amidst what otherwise could have felt overwhelming. Hope is supportive, warm, open, funny, and vibrant and that is clear one on one and in the ceremony. I had many guests tell me it was the most moving wedding they have ever attended and we have Hope to thank for that! The sessions were light hearted and incredibly fun AND she knows how to get through any pre-​wedding stress freak outs! Other than deciding to get married in the first place, having Hope as our officiant was, without a doubt, the best decision we made during the whole process.

If the sounds of sobbing during our ceremony were any indication, Hope is absolutely FANTASTIC! My husband and I immediately clicked with her during our initial meeting, and I loved her warm aura and genuine interest in us as a couple. You can tell she really loves what she does, and this shines through in the beautiful ceremony that she writes.
We both sat down and worked on a short questionnaire separately, and then answered a few questions together, and she took all of our responses and wove them into a truly tear-​jerking ceremony that captured our relationship perfectly. She was also extremely helpful as we both chose to write our own vows — offering advice, sample vows, and excellent feedback, which we both really appreciated!
Hope was such a doll to work with through the process, and was so accommodating and resourceful. She even sent us a few articles that she thought we’d appreciate, which was such a delightful, personal touch.
I couldn’t recommend Hope any higher! We’re still getting rave reviews from friends and family about what a beautiful ceremony it was. :)

Hope is fantastic — a guiding beacon of Zen in the midst of a prolonged and stressful planning process, and on the day of the wedding her presence with my bride and I up in front of the crowd was just the epitome of warmth and welcome.
Raymond’s review does a good job of summarizing Hope’s planning process. I’ll just add that we felt comfortable with Hope immediately, and that she was constantly giving us guidance towards making the wedding planning more manageable and in creating a ceremony that worked well for us. We also were looking for a more customized ceremony, and Hope worked with us through many drafts (and changes of mind) to bring together a ceremony that felt very fresh and that really captured the essence of our relationship. Her fee was very reasonable compared to other officiants we looked into, and was very well deserved based on the amount of time and work she put into the ceremony.
During the ceremony Hope’s presence was great, and really helped to relax me and pull me into the moment. Her delivery was clear, natural, and genuine. She was able to make the crowd laugh a bit to lighten the moment, and struck a perfect balance between a light, happy feel and the significance of the day. We developed our own unique unity ceremony, and she executed it as easily as if it had been done a million times before.
After the ceremony everyone raved about the personal touches and about Hope’s delivery of them, and all of my family who had some time to speak with her mentioned how sweet she is.
I’d like to add one last thing. We did not have a wedding party, so for most of the ceremony it was just me, the bride, and Hope up there. During a portion of the ceremony where a friend of ours read a poem, I noticed that Hope quietly stepped over behind the bride and adjusted her veil, so it fell better on both sides of her body. It is this ease of presence and attention to detail that make Hope great at what she does. I’d recommend her to anyone.

I can’t recommend Hope enough. Weddings are normally a stressful time for couples; from meeting her initially all the way through to the wedding itself, she was always easy to contact, responsive, and accommodating, thus making our preparations so much easier. We had only 30 guests at the ceremony (all standing at a restaurant’s foyer space). We wanted the ceremony to be less formal, more fun, relaxed and intimate.
Hope suggested we meet first informally before agreeing to anything. We met her and we immediately liked her. She was funny, easy going but always professional. She wanted her client’s ceremonies to be as customized as possible. Not a cookie cutter boring ceremony.
We are very impressed with how through her questionnaire (about 10 simple questions), she crafted such an intimate and unique ceremony for us. She captured each of our personalities into the writing, and also figure out a way to tell our love story in an engaging way.
At the ceremony, she spoke eloquently, and had a wonderful presence. All our family and friends thought she was fantastic (she also got them laughing a bit) and it was such a beautiful ceremony.
Since most couples are worry about budget, we thought her price was reasonable in NYC. She really puts a lot of time into the drafting stage (we easily went through 5 revisions with her, mainly because we would edit little things here or there).

I was lucky enough to have Hope not only serve as our pre-​marital counselor and officiate our wedding, but also to guide me, my maid of honor and two close friends in a wedding-​day yoga practice. Hope got us out of our heads and into our hearts. The focus on breath and heart was so soothing, and was absolutely perfect — just what I needed to settle myself before our ceremony. I felt truly centered, awake and aware, and because of that, I was able to be fully present as I entered marriage.
Our ceremony, written primarily by Hope, was deeply personal and full of meaning. She was accommodating and encouraging of the Buddhist tone we were looking for, and provided some lovely touches by way of her own research. She asked everyone sharing the day with us to close their eyes and reflect on what it means to be a witness, and to bring their full attention and hear to the task at hand. It brought each person there closer to us and to one another. We received so many compliments on that special piece of the ceremony — everyone absolutely loved it.
I cannot express how grateful I am to have had her support by way of yoga, officiating and serving as a personal centering point for me on that day.