My story
The wedding that
started all of this.
Two years ago my sister asked me to officiate her wedding. It was one of the most flattering and terrifying things I had ever been asked to do.
After a couple of weeks of sitting with it and mustering up the courage, I agreed. If my sister wanted me to be up there with her on her wedding day, you could bet I would be there. That's when the real mission started — how am I going to make this day the best ceremony my sister could ever imagine? So I got to work. In the months leading up to the ceremony, the different elements I wanted to integrate started to come to me. But I had an idea on the back burner for years that I knew I wanted to execute: surprising her with a professional recording of a song I had written about her.
The wedding day came, and the ceremony truly felt like magic. The instrumental serenade in the lead-up, seeing my sister walk down the aisle with my parents, then standing and facing my brother-in-law — and I was right in the middle of it all. It was like a blip in the matrix. A moment with feelings so hard to fathom to this day.
I can't lie — doing the ceremony was one of the most emotionally intense things I have ever done in my life. And that's what pulls me towards this work. It's special. To me it feels sacred, and I honour it as if it is.
When the doors closed behind me after the recessional, I absolutely crumbled into tears with her bridesmaids.
It was a special moment for them and I — because I knew how much my sister means to them, and they know the same for me. It was a blessing for us to get to share tears of the overwhelming joy we all felt for her.
After dinner and speeches came the first dance. My older brother and I, in our mischievous brotherly ways, had planned with the wedding coordinator that we would interrupt the regularly scheduled agenda to say some words after the first dance. So before my dad had the chance to get up there for the father daughter dance — sorry, Dad — our hostile takeover of the dance floor had already commenced.
It was the kind of spontaneity that made everything feel fresh and re-energized. After my brother said some words and I expressed my appreciation for my new brother-in-law, it was time for the surprise.
"Sarah, if I start talking, I'm gonna cry — so in preparation for this moment, I recorded this song. You guys, Sarah is so, so special to me, and I just want to take a moment to have with her right now… DJ, would you please play A Song for Sarah."
— Ethan, reception 2024
It was this experience — and the overwhelming positive feedback I received about the ceremony — that planted the seed that would take a few years to sprout into my becoming a licensed wedding officiant.
Surprising my sister with A Song for Sarah made me see how profoundly music can impact the emotionality of a wedding experience. I knew I wanted to integrate my talents as a singer-songwriter and guitarist to create ceremonies that resonated with people on a whole new level. And I realized that nobody else is offering this — the integration of live acoustic performance with officiating.
So here I am. The 25-year-old wedding officiant with divorced parents who knows next to nothing about marriage and has never been married — with a promise to make your wedding ceremony feel profound, personal, and genuine.
"If life is a movie, this is going to be one of the best scenes in yours."
