Interfaith Wedding Ceremonies – Reverend K. Jeddah Vailakis

We were very lucky Jeddah agreed to work with us on our short timeframe (1 month!). She was very attentive to the type of ceremony we wanted, and took the time to get to know us individually and as a couple. The ceremony was outstanding — our family and friends loved her! She was structured and organized, and guided us through the nervous moments by creating both a fun and romantic ceremony. We would recommend Jeddah to anyone — she is fantastic to work with and a caring, warm person!

We are so grateful that we found Jeddah to celebrate our wedding. From the very first time we met her in person, we felt that she emanated warmth and empathy and knew that we wanted those qualities to resonate in our ceremony. Jeddah was so thoughtful in her approach in getting to know us, and made sure to dig deep into our relationship and push us to do the same. We found her to be responsive, flexible, caring, generous, and calming. The latter quality is certainly something that is imperative on your wedding day, as emotions run high and lots of nervous energy and excitement builds!
Jeddah really went above and beyond when she graciously agreed to speak with one of our sick family members who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to be involved in the process. We found this to be such a testament to her character and her willingness to make a connection with her couples.
In the end, Jeddah performed the most beautiful ceremony for us at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, weaving family traditions and nods to our heritage with hand picked readings and her own thoughtful kind words. Overall, it was a moment in time that we’ll treasure forever and we can’t thank Jeddah enough for orchestrating and sharing in it with us.

We are so happy we found Jeddah to perform our baby blessing ceremony!
Having grown up religiously but no longer practicing, my wife and I struggled with how to honor the birth of our child and strike the sacred and joyful balance we wanted, create a ritual that felt authentic and meaningful to us, yet was respectful to to our parents’ religious background. Jeddah helped us do all of this, creating a ceremony that was intimate, spiritual and celebratory. In the months leading up to it, we talked to her several times and also met in person, and she took the time to really get to know us and help us hone in on what we wanted from the day. While she had us fill out an extensive questionnaire that really helped us to get clear on our wishes for the ceremony, what was even more helpful was that Jeddah already had a host of beautiful ideas and a framework for a baby blessing ceremony that we just loved.
She was wonderful to work with, brought a calming and sacred energy to the ceremony, and helped us to involve all of our family members in a unique and beautiful blessing that our parents are still talking about. We highly recommend her and should we be blessed with another baby, we will definitely ask her to officiate again!

Jeddah was a pleasure to work with from start to finish: warm, interested in getting to know us, and a knowledgeable adviser in helping us to think through the elements we wanted to be included in our ceremony. On the day of the wedding she also proved to be a great support, checking in with us both and putting us – as well as our families and the rest of the wedding party — at ease. Ultimately, Jeddah designed a ceremony that felt both meaningful and particular to us, and it really set the tone for a joyful rest of the night. Afterward, we heard from many of our guests who said it was one of the most beautiful and intimate ceremonies they’d ever been part of.

We were so fortunate to find Jeddah to perform our ceremony! We live in Seattle and decided to have our very small ceremony in NY, which made it necessary to plan long distance, quickly and to a great extent, trust our instincts. From start to finish, Jeddah was outstanding! She knew exactly how best to communicate to get to know us, be efficient and glean the important information to allow her to create a wonderful ceremony.
Her questionnaire was well thought out and she had GREAT ideas to weave in our beliefs and incorporate our family presence in, though they were not in attendance.
If you are lucky enough to have Jeddah be your officiant; CONGRATULATIONS!

Jeddah preformed our son’s baby blessing this past weekend at his 1^st birthday party. Throughout the entire process she really wanted to ensure the ceremony was tailored to our beliefs and wants and reflected our hopes and wishes for our son. My husband and I are of different religious backgrounds but neither of us belong to a particular church. That can sometimes make you feel awkward when approaching a spiritual or religious leader but at no point did Jeddah every make me feel uncomfortable or judged. We had a Skype session a few days before to go over the details and she made some wonderful suggestions as far as music and the overall flow of the ceremony. Her words were beautiful and made me feel like what we offered to him that day was truly special. I’ll never forget when she did the blessing of the senses our son intently looked her in the eyes the entire time like he felt the gravity of the moment. It was a really spiritual encounter that could not have been planned. She just has a very warm and welcoming spirit and a humble persona. I would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a memorable baby blessing for their child.

Jeddah is a wonderful officiant and an amazing person. She has such a positive energy about her and is just amazing to talk to and listen to. She is warm and truly dedicated to making your ceremony as special as can be. She conducted our baby boy’s blessing and we couldn’t ask for a more perfect day. We met with Jeddah beforehand and she had such wonderful ideas for the ceremony and was also completely open to hearing our ideas and making sure she really knew us as a couple. She made sure to check in with us again before the ceremony and walked us through it. All the guests absolutely loved her and there were many smiles and tears. It was such a special day for our family and our baby boy and we will never forget it. We can’t wait to use Jeddah again in the future.

Let us first just say that Jeddah was simply amazing to work with. From our initial meeting through the day of the wedding, Jeddah was patient, kind, understanding, thoughtful and professional. Her ability to field our many questions and concerns not only put our minds at ease, but made us so excited for our wedding day. Jeddah provided us with heartfelt advice, extensive experience, and a meticulously crafted questionnaire which absolutely brought our ceremony to the next level, and incorporated so many wonderful ideas and concepts that, without her guidance, we would never have thought to include in our ceremony. Our wedding was absolutely perfect, we were able to focus on each other and our loved ones, be present in the moment, and take in this once in a lifetime experience. Jeddah constantly went the extra mile to make sure that we had everything we could need or want, from making the trip to meet with us in person, to always being available via phone for any questions or advice. We could not have imagined a more beautiful ceremony, it was everything we wanted and so much more. We have received so many compliments from all of our friends and family regarding how beautiful our ceremony (and our officiant!) was. We are so happy that we were able to have the honor of Jeddah officiating our wedding. Jeddah helped us create the wedding of our dreams.

Congratulations! You’ve found the best officiant EVER. Jeddah is so warm and kind. She truly made our wedding day even more special, personalized and reminded us what the day is really about. Her calm disposition and experience was essential as tensions rose around and on our wedding day. Jeddah created a genuine and heartfelt, ceremony that made a room full of almost 300 people feel intimate. The service was personal, not preachy, filled with love, laughter and spontaneity. We feel privileged that Jeddah wed us. Of course this day will be joyous and memorable to you, but with Jeddah, her inner calm, spirit and exceptional delivery will make your ceremony memorable to everyone.

We feel so blessed to have found Jeddah 4 years ago when selecting an interfaith minister for our wedding. She made our service so personal and truly the best part of our wedding day. Since that time, she has remained a beautiful link in our family, officiating the Baby Blessings of both of our boys. She, again, made both services feel so personal and intimate, connecting with us and communicating with us to ensure she relayed the messaging and feel we wanted. We have felt so fortunate to have her as part of our lives and these special moments. She made each ceremony exactly as we had wanted, a spiritual milestone in our family despite our currently not being part of any specific religious community. Our extended family is «spiritually eclectic,» from atheist to strict Catholic, and each member has commented how incredible and inclusive her services have been, reflecting our current stage and beliefs and truly tailored to us and welcoming to all who were present. I cannot recommend Jeddah’s services enough, and we truly feel blessed to know her and to have had her play this special role in our lives.

Working with Jeddah to officiate our June 6^th wedding was absolutely wonderful from start to finish. Her contributions, spiritual and physical presence and care made the entire experience a truly transformative and special one. We can’t recommend her highly enough!

Jeddah made our ceremony everything that we wanted and so much more! My fiancé and I felt nervous about choosing an officiant, and how the ceremony would go, because our families are very religious (Catholic) and we are not religious at all. We wanted to be sure to respect our families and to have them feel that our ceremony was «real,» and while we also wanted a meaningful, sincere ceremony, we wanted to be true to our secular natures. The ceremony that Jeddah performed for us was absolutely beautiful and meaningful, and it brought everyone there together. Our families all loved it (including my extremely Catholic uncle), and hearing how much they loved it made us feel so good. So many people– including even the videographer– were crying happy tears! On top of the wonderful, sincere ceremony, Jeddah also took so much time with us throughout the process to get to know us, and to make everything so personal and comforting to us. We feel grateful to Jeddah from the bottom of our hearts for such an amazing ceremony that truly reflected us. We were so happy and relieved that it brought everyone together the way that it did, and that it expressed our love so personally and completely.

We used Jeddah for our Feb 21^st wedding and cannot say enough how happy we are with her.
We are very spiritual but not religious and wanted to find an officiant that reflected this. We absolutely found this in Jeddah. She seemed to just know exactly what we needed and wanted and really listened to us. She really catered to us individually and as a couple and made sure to make us both feel equally comfortable.
Everything about the process of working with her was great. She is kind, patient, understanding and has an aura of calmness and love about her that proved essential on our big day. The questionnaire she had us fill out was a great opportunity to reflect on our relationship and life together as a couple.
Jeddah showed up on time to our venue IN A SNOWSTORM and really helped to make sure everything went off without a hitch, which was especially important because our «coordinator» was not very helpful. Her calming energy and guidance really helped to sooth our nerves and the ceremony was absolutely beautiful!
Jeddah made our ceremony so special, spoke eloquently and was not one of those ministers that feels like they need to preach and put their 2 cents into it. Jeddah’s only agenda was making sure we were happy, that she spoke about what we wanted and agreed on and made our ceremony all about us and our loved ones.
Our families and friends were extremely impressed with her and a few even asked me for her contact information so they could look into having her officiate their weddings. I cannot even begin to express how wonderful it was to have Jeddah there to officiate our wedding. We are so very blessed, honored and grateful to have had such an amazing person marry us and the memories she gave us and our loved ones will be cherished forever. I highly recommend hiring Jeddah, you will not be disappointed. Thank you so much Jeddah!

Jeddah has a very warm and welcoming presence and we connected with her right away. She did a fantastic job officiating our interfaith wedding. She shared ideas of how we could incorporate both Jewish and Christian elements into our ceremony, and really took the time to get to know us and our story.
Our wedding was very intimate with only our parents, siblings, and their spouses, and Jeddah made everyone very comfortable and led them through each of their small speaking roles. Everyone commented on how wonderful the service was and how Jeddah really captured the moment. Thank you, Jeddah!

My husband and I got married in August. Even though it’s been a few months, the memory of that special day is still crystal clear – and that’s thanks in large part to Jeddah. One of the things Jeddah told us that really made an impression to me, is to take deep breaths and really stay in the moment – not focus on everything that is going around, just focus on your partner and the step you are about to take. That made the ceremony really special, because we were both so in the moment. I didn’t even notice anything else going on around us! Many people came up to us after the ceremony and told us that that was the most touching ceremony they’d ever seen – but also the most honest and real-​feeling. Jeddah really captured both of our spirits and the nature of our relationship. Plus, she’s super cool and fun to be around! I highly recommend to anyone getting married!

I’m one of those brides who thought the ceremony was just something one did before you got to the *real* focus of the night — the party. In fact, in our first meeting with Jeddah, she asked what our favorite wedding ceremonies had in common, and I answered, «They were short.» Jeddah gently suggested I might feel differently by the time we got there, and she was right. Our ceremony was by far the highlight of the day for us, and the reason we had the most incredibly amazing ceremony was entirely due to Jeddah’s influence.
From the first moment we met, Jeddah guided us through the process of crafting a ceremony that would feel both incredibly personal yet also accessible to all of our guests. She really took the time to get to know us leading up to the big day. She pushed us to think clearly and deeply about the meaning of the day, and what we wanted it to include, and then crafted a ceremony that was truly special to us and to our families. Our friends and family members have not stopped raving about the ceremony, and about Jeddah’s delivery and deft touch.
But any review I could write would not be complete without talking about Jeddah’s calming influence on the day of the wedding. She held my hand during a moment of need before the wedding, offered (correct!) advice while my makeup was being applied, and handled a technical difficulty with the microphone at the start of the ceremony with the practiced, unflustered manner of a someone who has seen everything that could possibly go wrong, helping us stay calm until everything was made right.
To all brides who are where I was 8 months ago: stop looking — Jeddah is the best.

Initially, my fiancé and I thought it would be a good idea to have a friend officiate our wedding. As we moved through the process and spoke with other couples, we realized we wanted something deeper to convey our spirituality, incorporate both of our cultures, convey the importance of having our friends and family together with us and our gratitude.
I did not know where to begin, but Jeddah was very responsive, took the time to get to know us as individuals and a couple, and shared with us a detailed questionnaire to answer. The questionnaire was such a helpful, thoughtful piece of our planning process. It forced us to sit and think through our MARRIAGE, what we wanted for our future, what we wanted to share with family and friends and so on. She guided us in writing our vows too and incorporated the Greek «stefana» crown tradition, as well as the Jewish Kiddish Cup, and reminded us to be present and take in the moment — it was so lovely!
Overall, Jeddah will work with you to facilitate a wonderful, spiritual and thoughtful ceremony filled with joy, gratitude, mindfulness and love. She is thorough, thoughtful and a calming energy during a time of intense planning craziness. =) I would absolutely recommend her to all my friends and family.

Oh my! Jeddah is this warm, calming spirit. We were recommended by another officiant who was unavailable on our wedding date. We first had a phone conference call, and then we setup an in-​person meeting which went so well. Jeddah sent us some reading materials, and a questionnaire to fill out. We had one last conference call with her before the wedding. And she just walked us through the ceremony, and what we should envision.
On the day of the ceremony, she came into our bridal suites and had us sign the marriage license, and explain the walk through.
During our ceremony, she quoted us and spoke to our family and friends as if she knew us for a long time which was very special. She even teared up a bit which made it feel even more real. Her voice is so calm, which makes you feel calm and something I think is needed especially since you may be feeling anxious, and nervous and just so emotional during that time.
I wish we could rewind and do the ceremony all over again. I still have flashbacks of moments from it and just want to tear up all over again!
Thank you Jeddah for your service! We will always cherish you.

In our quest to find a sensitive, funny, well-​spoken, (perhaps even cool?) officiant to marry us, my fiancé and I had nearly given up. It seemed an impossible task!
Then we found Jeddah.
Jeddah is a miracle ~ a beautiful, warm, graceful woman with a wonderful sense of humour and deeply spiritual mind. Now, there are many people out there willing to marry you, but a rare few will go to such lengths to really understand your story, your personalities, your vision for your wedding. Jeddah went to all these lengths and more. She was able to very skillfully weave together a ceremony that moved all of our guests, from the youngest cousin to the wisest grandparent, and everyone in between. The ceremony was personal, cheerful, thought-​provoking, and completely unique. When Jeddah speaks, she warms even the coldest hearts. I swear i even saw tears in the eyes of the hotel staff! Many, many guests told us it was the best ceremony they’d ever attended.
Time has passed, and long after the cake is eaten and the flowers have wilted, that incredible ceremony continues to live on as a source of joy for me and my husband. It launched our lives together in a perfect, glorious moment… and that is truly a priceless thing.
Hire Jeddah. After marrying the man of your dreams, it will be the best decision you make.

Jeddah put so much care and thought into making our wedding lovely and memorable. We loved the soul-​searching questionnaire she had us answer separately (and finding out how each other answered), and how she put our responses into a thoughtful and unique story. So many of our family and friends told us how much they enjoyed her presentation of our personal and heartfelt vows, which she helped us to write.