Last Friday night. We were both a little tired from a long work week. Matt picked me up from work and we headed out to La Crescenta to meet Reverend Ronald David Beams in person. We were hopeful yet at the same time didn't want to get our hopes up. He sounded nice and warm over the phone.
But only a week earlier we had contacted another officiant up in the Santa Barbara area. We had heard good things about him and his reviews online were very positive. But when we finally talked to him on the phone he was short, not warm, and was even rude to us a couple times. He seemed to just want a deposit from us before he would go too much in detail of what he would do. His pricing seemed high too. He suggested a way to save money with him...that we not waste an hour meeting in person! If he just spoke to us over the phone and met us on the day of the wedding we could cut costs. In our opinion that shouldn't even be an option! How can you connect with the person marrying you if you don't even meet him?! He also bragged about marrying some famous people which doesn't matter to us at all (unless he can get them to come to our wedding! haha!). He seemed like it was all business and about making money. We hung up the phone really disappointed. We definitely hadn't thought it would be a challenge finding someone to marry us. Weren't all priests/pastors supposed to be super nice?
So it was with that experience fresh in our memory that we headed to La Crescenta.
I happened upon Reverend Ronald David Beams on a photography blog site where he officiated a recent wedding at the Smog Shoppe. I googled him and was led to his Project Wedding site. A small handful of really good reviews. Not giving that too much weight because the first reverend also had good reviews, we decided to give him a shot and booked a meeting. He invited us to his house for that Friday evening.
His house was the cutest on his street. Modest but nicely landscaped. There was a cute little fountain and walkway with stone hearts in his front yard. A little wooden bench sat across from the fountain and I imagine he and his wife sit there in the evenings.
As we walk up the front yard we're greeted by him through a screen window. His voice is warm, like a Grandpa. He jokes to us that if we go into the door we're headed to, we'll walk into the laundry room. We double back and meet him at the front door where he eagerly tells us to ring an old fashioned real door bell. How darling!
He greets us with warmth as we walk into his home. His dog runs around happily. He directs us to his living room. The room was filled with what looked like a life long collection of cowboy artifacts, good enough for a small museum. He was not kidding when he told us over the phone he would love Saddlerock Ranch because he was into horses.
He asks us all the right questions and really wants to get to know us. He wants to know how we met, how are families interact, how we interact, how we make each other better. And it's all from the heart, sincere, and completely genuine. Plus he has a good sense of humor. He shares with us his past and how he came to be where he is now. It is a truly heartwarming story and I'm amazed he is so open about his past.
An hour or so goes by and he walks away to get his examples of how the timeline of the ceremony will go. Matt and I look at each other and are both in total agreement. We have to book him. He's amazing. He's everything we were looking for in the person who would marry us. We want to feel totally at ease and filled with love while we're up there saying our vows to each other. It is very important to us to feel joy and positive energy from all angles - from our family, friends, and especially our officiant.
So we booked him!
To top it off his pricing was a third the cost of the first guy! I think he does this because he truly loves doing it. He also suggested a book for us to read. He said he had read through many marriage books and had narrowed it down to Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts. We bought the book from him and are considering taking his private premarital classes which are based on the book. It can't hurt and can only make our future life together better!
We couldn't feel more happy about our choice!
Posts
