Photo by Carly McCray Photography
 Such a beautiful photo of Carly and Gage. Here is the sweet thank you note they wrote me.
“Dear Pat, Thank you so much for everything you did to create a truly unique and memorable day for us. Thank you for your patience and flexibility and allowing Griffin to share some parts of the ceremony with you. The ceremony was absolutely perfect! Much Love, Carly and Gage”
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 "Keith and I were married on October 9th, 2021 after becoming engaged in June of 2019. Well we all know what happened between June 2019 and October 2021. We were blessed to have Pat from Koru Ceremony with us through it all. After our initial meeting with Pat, we immediately knew that she would be perfect for officiating our wedding. Pat was with us ready to officiate our original wedding date in 2020, and after we postponed a year out, she made sure she was available to officiate the new wedding date in 2021. Pat is warm and open, and she is incredibly professional. She answered all of our questions about the not-so-romantic logistical parts of the marriage (how to get the marriage license, etc) and also helped us create the most beautiful and personalized ceremony. For anyone like us who doesn't belong to a church and didn't want a friend or family member to officiate our wedding, Koru Ceremony is the perfect option. We couldn't recommend anyone more highly!"
Sam and Keith were married on October 9, 2021, at The Eloise, Mt. Horeb, WI. Thank you, Sam and Keith, for your heartfelt review. I loved working with both of you. I particularly loved the beer toasting ritual we added. But most of all, I adored how present in the moment both of you were. Your warm, vivacious, fun-loving personalities came through and shone during the ceremony, and it swept your guests up in the emotions and joy of the ceremony. I do lots of ceremonies, and I want to tell you how unique your ceremony was, and that was because of the two of you!  "Rev. Pat was absolutely amazing. She delivered an incredible ceremony that didn't leave a dry eye in the room. I felt that Pat really made our story feel unique and special. Not to mention, Pat provided tons of material to help us write our own vows and customize our ceremony with plenty of options for every detail. She also gave our wedding party tips during rehearsal and talked about how she would be positioned to make sure the pictures turned out the best. I don't think our wedding day would have been as special as it turned out without Pat." Ava and Zach were married on October 8, 2021, at Lake Windsor Country Club, Windsor, WI. Thank you, Zach and Ava, for this heartfelt review. I loved working with both of you, and I agree, there wasn't a dry eye in the room by the end of the ceremony. Even I choked up during the benediction because I, too, was feeling all the emotions of such an extraordinary ceremony. Photos by The Wild Authentic Photography   "It was amazing having Pat officiate our wedding. I really had no clue where to even start with planning a ceremony, even the timing was confusing to me. Pat was so helpful, she had incredible resources that told me exactly what I needed to think about and gave me options, but that were also incredibly personalized. Our ceremony was anything but run-of-the-mill. Our procession order had a lot of moving parts and was a little complex, but Pat handled it with grace and was always so affirming, never making me feel like I was over complicating things. We wanted our friend to be involved in the ceremony, so Pat graciously invited him to present his own “charge to the couple” and even let him have the “you may now kiss your wife” line. I cried, my husband cried, we laughed, it was truly incredible. Pat was able to blend all of our hopes for our wedding so beautifully. It was truly unique and unforgettable and I can’t thank her enough" Carly and Gage were married on June 17, 2021, at Harvest Moon Pond, Poynette, WI.  In the 16 years I have been officiating weddings and the 100’s of couples I have worked with, I have never done a wedding jointly with someone else. But Gage and Carly’s good friend, Griffin, brought so much joy and laughter to the ceremony, it was delightful to do it together. First of all instead of a traditional flower girl, Griffin played the role of Flower Dude and had the guests in stitches coming down the aisle during the processional. He also shared a hilarious speech and helped me at the end pronounce them as husband and wife. Gage and Carly also personalized their ceremony by including the wine box love letter ritual and added the component of asking their parents and grandmother to write letters to them to add to the box, which they will read on their first anniversary. Then on their second anniversary they will add a new bottle of wine and write a new love letter to each other. Thus, over the years their love letters will grow, just like their love for each other will grow over the years. Although I love every single wedding I do, some weddings have a special magical quality about them that makes them so memorable. Gage and Carly’s wedding was one of those. I will remember this wedding for a long time and will remember their amazing vows and what a beautiful, sweet, and sincere couple Gage and Carly were to work with. Wishing them an abundance of happiness in the years to come.  Photo by Courtney Kessler Photography  “Pat was honestly so wonderful to work with! We are so happy that we found her to officiate our special day, and she helped make the day special. She helped guide us through the process of planning our ceremony and made it so simple! She kept in touch with us regularly and answered any questions we had. Our guests continue to make comments about how warm and comforting she was, and they loved how emotionally involved in the ceremony she was.” Dana and Dan were married on June 26, 2021, at The Wagner House in Freeport, IL. Thank you, Dana and Dan, for writing such a glowing review for Koru on Wedding Wire, The Knot, and Google Business. Photo by @caynayphoto When you officiate a lot of weddings, you have the chance to work with some photographers multiple times, and over time you have a few favorites you are excited to work with again and again. Caitlin Stemper from Caynay Photo is one of those. Here is a snippet of what she wrote about Dana and Dan's wedding at The Wagner House in Freeport, IL, and I couldn't agree more: "Dana and Dan are about as sweet as they come. From their families to their wedding party, the whole day felt like one giant HUG."   "Working with Pat and her company Koru Ceremony was one of the best decisions we could have made for our wedding. Pat has a great process that will produce the ceremony you have dreamt about. Pat did a good job helping us through the planning process for the ceremony. She was receptive to our ideas and tweaks that we wanted to make our ceremony unique. I would highly recommend Pat and her company to anyone needing her service. She truly helped make our day special." Kassi and Gibson were married on September 4, 2021, at her parent's house in Baraboo, WI. Thank you, Kassi and Gibson, for your wonderful review about the services Koru can provide couples on Wedding Wire and The Knot. I am very grateful. Your wedding was one of the most unique ceremonies I officiated this year. Getting married in the woods where you grew up made it special. It was such a magical day that I wouldn’t have been surprised if fairies and elves had come skipping and dancing down the aisle. All the details, such as branding a tree during the ceremony, we added to the ceremony, made it exceptional.   "Pat was wonderful to work with. 10/10 would recommend. Everyone commented on how wonderful, memorable, and unique our ceremony was, and there was not a dry eye in the house. She made the entire process easy and fun. The ceremony was very custom to us. Pat was very organized but also really listened to our wants and needs and input and was flexible. You can have as much or as little input as you want, and either way, you’ll have an unforgettable ceremony whether you let Pat do it all or are more hands on in the writing as we were. She is not only a great officiant but a kind person. She was always on time, organized, and very helpful with the license and even changing my last name after the ceremony." Emma and Nick were married on September 11, 2021, at The Atrium, Shorewood, WI.  "We really enjoyed working with Pat from the first time we met with her! She was warm, supportive, organized, and fun to talk with. She had super helpful handouts for everything we needed, and she was always on top of things. We loved our ceremony and had lots of compliments from our guests!" Review posted on Wedding Wire, The Knot, and Google Business Marc and Monica were married on September 18, 2021, at Vintage Fields at Farmin' Betty's, Columbus, WI Thank you so much, Monica! Your extremely kind words mean the world to me. I loved working with you and Marc, so I’m delighted to read how happy you were with the process and the ceremony. It was truly a perfect wedding day.
Photography by Anya Kubilus Photography Koru Ceremony is delighted to introduce you to a new officiant that will be officiating weddings for Koru in the Minnesota Twin Cities area. Here is a recent review Jill received: "Reverend Dr. Jill Johnson was incredibly helpful and a calm guiding presence leading up to and during our wedding ceremony. She helped us create an intimate, meaningful ceremony that exceeded all of our expectations." Paula and Eric  Hello! My name is Reverend Dr. Jill Johnson. While I continue to have a fulfilling career in higher education as an Associate Dean, I love the positive energy experienced during wedding ceremonies. This could seem like an odd combination, but with a mind for details, mixed with my strong managerial ability and warm and inviting demeanor, I can help you plan and carry out your perfect wedding day. I understand that weddings are a pivotal time for you, your friends, and your families. Each time a couple trusts me to contribute my skills to their ceremony, it is an honor I take very seriously and with great joy. I look forward to guiding you through the process of getting married.
  I have officiated hundreds of weddings, and every single one is special. It is always an honor and a joy to be present on one of the biggest days of a couple's life. But over the years, some couples' weddings stand out in your mind as some of your favorites. Amanda and Andy's is one of those. Happy 4th wedding anniversary, Amanda and Andy! Update: I found the review Amanda wrote after the wedding. Only one more year to go before you open the box your dad made and have the opportunity to read the love letters you wrote to each other on your wedding day. "Pat Werk of Koru Ceremony did a fantastic job for our ceremony! We could not have asked for an easier and more relaxing planning process leading up to the wedding. The entire ceremony was catered to us as a couple and we received an overwhelming amount of compliments from guests saying that the ceremony was their favorite part of our big day! She traveled out of her way to be a part of our wedding weekend and happily attended our rehearsal and reception to get to know us better as a couple. Last-minute the afternoon of the wedding, we asked Pat to add in a part to our ceremony for a wine box that my dad made for our 5th anniversary. She so eloquently came up with a quick add-in to chat about the importance of the box and the notes we each wrote in the box for each other to read in 5 years. I can't recommend Pat enough! Thanks, Pat, for making our ceremony so memorable and stress-free!"  Last weekend I married Ellie and Jeff in the backyard of the new home they had just purchased. It was an intimate ceremony but made more abundantly joyful and celebratory because of the family and friends that joined us remotely. With the small number of guests able to physically be present, we did a ring warming ritual before exchanging rings. In a ring warming ritual, the rings are passed around in a small bag for each guest to hold. Prayers, blessings, good thoughts, and wishes are bestowed upon the couple before the rings are exchanged. We also were anticipating the possibility of some unexpected guests. Jeff and Ellie have 2 families of wild turkeys that roost in their tree at night. During the rehearsal the day before, about 11 turkeys ran through the yard. Here is a review that Ellie recently posted on Wedding Wire and Google Business: "We contacted Pat via her website, she replied to us very quickly, set up a video call with us to discuss our special day, and got to know us. Thanks to her, everything went smoothly, and she created our perfect day the way that we envisioned it."   I had the honor of officiating a wedding today for a super sweet and fun couple, Sonya and Klaus. At our first meeting, we clicked right away. It was important to them to create a very unique and one-of-a-kind ceremony that reflected their relationship. They paid attention to the details and you could really see this at their celebration.
Milford Hills is such a unique venue for hosting a wedding. Check out their gallery of photos. Additionally, I do weddings all over the state of WI and I adore working with their wedding coordinator, Heidi. She too has an eye for the details so the wedding goes seamlessly.  Gail posted this review on Google Business after I officiated a memorial service for her brother, Allen.
"Pat Werk is an extraordinarily compassionate and detailed woman who listens carefully to her clients to deliver relevant and people-centered services. Recently I contacted Pat to help us with a celebration of life for my brother. Pat offered several options for the service and asked questions about my brother, our family, his friends and the outdoor setting. Her presentation was outstanding and included meaningful prayers and readings, brief speeches by me and several of his friends and inspiring music. Many of those who attended commented how impressed they were with the entire celebration of life. We could not have done this without Pat Werk." Thank you so much for your extremely kind review. It was an honor to help you celebrate Allen's life in such a meaningful and touching way that resonated with everyone present that loved Allen and mourned his death.  I would like to send Aaron and Katie my very best wishes as they begin their life together as husband and wife. On June 26, 2021, they were married at Vintage Fields at Farmin' Betty's Event Venue surrounded by their loved ones. Thank you for including me in your special day as your officiant! Thank you, Katie, for writing this really nice review for Sarah on The Knot: "We were looking for the perfect officiant for our wedding, and Koru provided us a wonderful match. After filling out a brief survey, we were matched with Sarah H. as our officiant. She was so personable, professional, and a perfect officiant to help us answer all our wedding questions/needs for the ceremony. We really enjoyed Sarah, and she helped us put together a beautiful ceremony! Thank you!"   Photo credit: The Siegers Photo + Video "Where do we even begin? From our very first consultation with Pat, we made an instant connection and knew at the very moment we wanted to work with her for our ceremony. Pat is energetic, thoughtful, and personable. You can really tell how passionate Pat is about what she does! We got great satisfaction knowing that Pat was there for us whenever we had questions throughout the planning process and helped create the perfect ceremony for us based on our preferences. We were very pleased with how responsive and organized she was - even assisting us with orchestrating our wedding rehearsal the night before - something we absolutely knew we needed help with. I can't speak highly enough of Pat! She did a phenomenal job!! I would highly recommend Pat to anyone looking for a wedding officiant."
Kayla and Paul were married on May 29, 2021, at RiverStone Premier Event Center in Fort Atkinson, WI. Thank you so much Kayla and Paul for your extremely kind comments about your experience working with me. The feeling is mutual. The two of you are the BEST and it was a complete joy working with both of you. I loved officiating your wedding at RiverStone and wish the two of you all the best in the years to come. To see more photos by The Siegers Photo + Video from this breathtaking wedding click here. I had an amazing wedding today with Dan and Dana at the Wagner House in Freeport, IL. We included a couple of very unique elements to their ceremony. They did joint vows, taking turns reading each line they said. And they did the Unity in Glass ritual. Here is the link if you want to learn more about it: www.unityinglass.com.
 "Peter was absolutely amazing and a wonderful addition to our wedding. We loved working with him, and he made the entire process so easy for us. We enjoyed creating a custom ceremony and having the guidance and expertise of Peter throughout the entire process. So thankful we went through Koru to make our ceremony special!"
Logan and Matt were married on June 12, 2021, at the Waterfront Hotel in Prairie du Chein, WI. Thank you so much for your glowing review of Peter Leidy and the ceremony he helped you create. We are tickled pink that you found the process for creating a customized ceremony easy, and you were happy to have found Koru Ceremony. Wishing you all the best in the years to come!  "Pat was a real pleasure to work with. A very sincere, genuine person who accommodated us in a custom experience. She is very responsive, outgoing, and flexible to work with. You can tell she is passionate about what she does. Highly recommended!"
Lily and Rick were married on June 20, 2021, at the Elmer & Edna Culver Wetland Conservancy, in DeForest, WI Thank you so much Rick and Lily for your generous words of praise! You are correct, I am passionate about officiating weddings and the reason is that I love rituals and I get to work with wonderful couples like you. I'm so glad you were happy with how the ceremony turned out.  "We chose Pat at Koru Ceremony to officiate our wedding. Pat was friendly, fun to talk to, and easy to work with. She kept a consistent line of communication throughout the ceremony planning process. We were thrilled that we could customize the ceremony as much as we did, making sure that it matched our personalities and highlighted the important parts of our relationship. Pat was so kind and helpful, and even after the wedding she made sure we knew all of our next steps to get licenses and change names. We would recommend Pat to anyone needing an officiant for a wedding ceremony."
Elizabeth and John were married on May 22, 2021, at The Tinsmith in Madison, WI Thank you so much, John and Elizabeth, for your wonderful review! You were a fun and laid-back couple and it was a complete delight to work with both of you. I am delighted to hear you were thrilled with the customized ceremony we created together and that you felt it matched your personalities and highlighted the important parts of your relationship. Those comments mean the world to me!  Rachel and Tyler's wedding at Harvest Moon Pond. Photo by Laura Zastrow Photography. One of the biggest challenges for couples is writing their own personal vows. Here is a great article on how to write awesome vows.
 I am always attracted to anything to do with the koru symbol.
The artwork of Raweyn Harris was used to teach first through fifth-grade students to create koru designs using oil pastels. In the lesson plan, their definition of a koru is: "The koru is the Maori name for an unfurling fern frond known as the ponga plant that grows in New Zealand. It symbolizes new life, growth, strength, and peace and is an integral symbol in Maori art and tattoos."  Woo Hoo! We won the Wedding Wire Couples' Choice Award again for the 8th year in a row. This award was won because of the number of positive reviews written in 2020 by real couples we married and is only given to the top 5% of wedding professionals nationwide. We are honored to receive this national award.
Here are some of the 2020 couples we married last year. We are incredibly grateful that we were still able to marry 50 couples despite the pandemic and how COVID-19 completely messed up the 2020 wedding season for so many couples. (I have listed the professional photographer if known at the time of this post. Please tell us if you know the photographer for a photo. We always want to give photo credit whenever possible.) Thank you so much Rachel for writing this wonderful review. It was a delight to work with both of you and I was honored to officiate your ceremony.
"Reverend Pat officiated our wedding ceremony. She was so wonderful to work with and made planning out our wedding ceremony not only easy but also uniquely ours. We received countless options and ideas for ceremony wording, music, vows, and more. Once we had made our selections, she did a great job organizing everything so it flowed well. Additionally, she was very familiar with our venue (The Barn at Harvest Moon Pond), having officiated weddings there before. This really helped things to go smoothly during the rehearsal and day of the ceremony. If you are looking for someone who is warm, personable, and organized to officiate your wedding, my husband and I highly recommend using Koru Ceremony!" Rachel and Bret were married on October 16, 2020, at Harvest Moon Pond in Poynette, WI. My favorite moment during the wedding was when Rachel walked down the aisle. I was told right before the wedding began that the radar said it was supposed to rain right when the ceremony started. We decided to go ahead anyway to see if we could fit it in before the rain began. While the wedding party walked down the aisle, it was super windy. But right as the gates opened as Rachel and her parents walked down the aisle, the wind suddenly died, and it was calm for the rest of the ceremony. I leaned over to Bret and said, "Did you see how the wind died?" It was so magical. The rain stayed away for the entire ceremony, but then it started to rain as I left. Here are a few photos of Harvest Moon Pond. Brian and Stephanie do an amazing job of running this incredible venue. It's true what they say on their website, "Owners who genuinely care, are super-organized and can’t wait to treat you like family." Be sure to check out the horseshoe picture and the close up of Rachel and Bret's horseshoe to commemorate their wedding day. Today I had two weddings. The first one was an elopement at Magnolia Bluff State Park in Evansville, WI. ( I am also officiating Chelsea and Donny's bigger celebration next year too.) So today was an opportunity for immediate family, including their adorable 4-year-old daughter, to celebrate their wedding with them on the perfect fall day.
In some cultures, it is believed that if a ladybug lands on you then that’s very lucky. Or if you see a ladybug that means good weather is near or that a person will soon have luck with love or money. Well, if ladybugs are a sign of good luck and love then this marriage is off to a great start. I was amazed at how many ladybugs were landing on us during the ceremony. Chelsea and Donny were married on 10-10-20. |
BlogWelcome to our blog. As officiants and ceremony coordinators we delight in assisting couples celebrate one of the best and most memorable days of their life. We hope you find this blog to be a source of inspiration and joy. Archives
September 2021
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