Good morning, Brides and Grooms!

Rev. Courtenay and our staff would like to humbly thank all of the wonderful couples that we have worked with to create their dream ceremonies in 2019. Due to your word of mouth referrals and praise of our diligence and excellence in serving our couples' wishes for unique, personal, and heart-felt wedding ceremonies, one of our popular advertisers and bridal web hosts that you may know well has awarded us with the 2020 Couples' Choice Awards. You can read the official press release below. 

Once again, thank you for your support, reviews, and referrals to other potential brides and grooms looking for their perfect officiant/celebrant. It truly is a pleasure to have been a part of your most special day.

                       PRESS RELEASE
  2020 WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards® Firenze Wedding Ministries Named Winner in 2020 WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards®
 
Syracuse, January 27, 2020. -- Firenze Wedding Ministries was announced a winner of the 2020 WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards®, an accolade representing the top wedding professionals across the board in quality, service, responsiveness, and professionalism reviewed by couples on WeddingWire.

A leader in the global wedding planning industry, WeddingWire continues its celebration of local wedding vendors with the announcement of its twelfth annual WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards® winners. To determine these distinguished wedding professionals, WeddingWire analyzed reviews across more than 20 service categories, from venues and caterers to florists and photographers to find the most highly rated vendors of the year. These winners exhibit superior professionalism, responsiveness, service, and quality when interacting with the millions of consumers who turn to WeddingWire to help ease their wedding planning process each month.

Wedding professionals who win WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards® are members of WeddingPro, the leading B2B wedding brand. As the largest marketplace and community for wedding professionals, WeddingPro connects businesses with more than 13 million visitors per month who are planning weddings on WeddingWire and The Knot, as well as with hundreds of thousands of pros in the industry. Through its online marketplaces, educational programs and community-building events, WeddingPro is dedicated to helping wedding professionals build relationships with couples and pros that grow their businesses.

Firenze Wedding Ministries is honored to be one of the top wedding businesses in Syracuse on WeddingWire.com.

For more information about Firenze Wedding Ministries, please visit us on WeddingWire. To learn more about the WeddingWire Couples' Choice Awards®, please visit www.weddingwire.com/couples-choice-awards.

We are so honored to have been chosen for the 2014 Couples' Choice Awards! Thank you!

Syracuse, New York – Jan 22, 2014 – WeddingWire, the nation's leading online wedding marketplace, named Firenze Wedding Ministries as a winner of the prestigious WeddingWire Couples' Choice Awards™ 2014 for Wedding Officiants in Syracuse, Binghamton, and Utica, NY!
            
            The WeddingWire Couples' Choice Awards™ 2014 recognizes the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism. The esteemed awards are given to the top local wedding vendors in more than 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, based on their professional achievements from the previous year.
            
            While many industry award winners are selected by the host organization, the WeddingWire Couples' Choice Awards™ winners are determined solely based on reviews from real newlyweds and their experiences working with Firenze Wedding Ministries. Award-winning vendors are distinguished for the quality, quantity, consistency and timeliness of the reviews they have received from their past clients.
            
            "There's no better way to start the year than by honoring the hard work, commitment and success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Network," said Timothy Chi, CEO, WeddingWire. "It is exciting to celebrate a sixth year recognizing businesses whose clients believe they are committed to quality, professionalism and all around top-notch service. We are honored to recognize Firenze Wedding Ministries for their impressive achievements within the wedding industry."
            
            As a Couples' Choice Awards™ winner, Firenze Wedding Ministries is highlighted within the WeddingWire Network, which is comprised of over 200,000 wedding professionals throughout North America and abroad.
            
            Firenze Wedding Ministries is proud to be one of the top Wedding Officiants in Syracuse, Binghamton, and Utica NY in the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding sites such as WeddingWire, Project Wedding, Brides.com, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for taking the time to review our business on WeddingWire. We value all of our clients and truly appreciate the positive feedback that helped us earn the WeddingWire Couples' Choice Awards™ 2014.
            
            For more information about Firenze Wedding Ministries, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at http://www.firenzeweddingministries.com and http://www.weddingwire.com/biz/firenze-wedding-ministries-liverpool/d01a68c495035fa3.html.
            
            To learn more about the Couple's Choice Awards™, please visit www.weddingwire.com/couples-choice-awards.
            
            About WeddingWire, Inc.
            WeddingWire™, the nation's leading marketplace serving the $70 billion wedding industry, is the only online wedding planning resource designed to empower both engaged couples and wedding professionals. For engaged couples, WeddingWire offers the ability to search, compare and book over 200,000 reviewed wedding vendors, from wedding venues to wedding photographers. WeddingWire also offers a comprehensive suite of online planning tools for weddings, including wedding websites and wedding checklists, all at no charge. For wedding professionals, WeddingWire is the only all-in-one marketing platform for businesses online and on-the-go. WeddingWire offers one simple solution to build a professional network, improve search visibility, manage social media and reach mobile consumers. Businesses that advertise with WeddingWire appear on WeddingWire.com, ProjectWedding.com and other leading sites, including MarthaStewartWeddings.com (NYSE: MSO), Brides.com and Weddingbee.com.
       

When paying for a wedding nowadays, cost can range from $5,000 upwards to $100,000; it depends on the type of reception you'll be having, your themes, the level of luxury, quality, and ambiance.  It will depend on the amount of food, the choices you make in venue - even your attire.  Knockoff or designer dress? Payless dyable shoes, or Manolo Blahniks?

It's so very hard to save money when planning a wedding.  Where can you cut costs to give a little bit of extra budget to another category? One of the last things couples think about is honorarium, or investment in a Reverend or Justice of the Peace to marry them.

Often, it's the last thing on the list for couples who attend a particular church regularly, because they've already had to go through pre-marital counseling, or announce Banns in the church newsletter a specific amount of weeks prior to the ceremony.  Scheduling your pastor is as easy as meeting in the office prior to your counseling.

However, if you're not getting married in a church, very often your church pastor (if you have one,) won't follow you there.  Your denomination might have regulations against them celebrating the covenant of marriage outside of the church walls. They may even require convalidation, a secondary ceremony inside the church during their office hours, for the church to recognize your marriage.

This can quickly put couples off from attending certain churches, or put them off their ideal dream ceremony venue. 

I myself have no qualms of marrying inside or outside the church walls.  As I service all those who wish to be married, religious or not, my "office" is wherever you wish it to be.  If you require me to work with your current parish clergy or celebrant, I am happy to do so, and lend good recommendations for a convalidational testimony.  If you would like to be married in your church, but as an inter-faith ceremony with the presiding celebrant, I am able and willing.

You may not be religious at all, and wish to celebrate your marriage with a ceremony that speaks of your love, wherever you'd like it to be.  Specializing in custom ceremonies is what I do best, as my couples' testimony and reviews show.

Investment or honorarium for a Reverend without a "home church," or a Justice of the Peace can range in pricing, and quality - from $100 to $1000, the terrible to the extraordinary.  You'll want to be sure that you are receiving the best quality services for your investment. What may seem like an expensive venture for "only 20-30 minutes of service," is actually much, much more.  Between your consultation (in person, phone, or video chat,) e-mails, ceremony planning and writing, travel, rehearsal and ceremony time, and pastoral care, I will always be there for you.

Be sure to check the Reviews and Happy Couples page for testimonials!

Warmly,
Rev. Courtenay

Perhaps you're already moved in together prior to the wedding, and perhaps you're waiting to move in until afterwards.  Either way, this advice is the same, my friends.  Whether it be from stress, illness, or something else weighing on their mind - your spouse will never be able to give you 100% of themselves, everyday.  It doesn't leave any energy for them to exist.  You're partners in truth and in name, and partners in marriage must recognize the ebb and flow, the give and take that is congruent with such a relationship.  Sure, it isn't exactly like being with a co-worker, sorting out a project.  I'll tell you a secret though: the only difference is that your spouse knows you physically, whereas your co-worker does not.

You're marrying the love of your life so that you can share every moment spare, every intricacy, and walk together through life.  You're not marrying them so you can have a live in maid, cook, or servant and I'm sure they aren't marrying you for that reason either.  So, you're going to have to work together.  This doesn't mean if they do one chore, you do one.  It's about learning when they can, and when you can; such a thing requires intense communication between spouses.  You can't expect them to have space open during the weekend to help you garden if you don't ask them.  You also can't expect them to do half of it, just because they're your spouse. If they worked especially hard that week, small praise of them helping you even 10% goes a long way.  For all intents and purposes, you would have done it anyway with or without their help.  Even the smallest amount of effort counts towards a successful marriage. 

Remember, it's not about counting how many things they've done for you, or how hard they've tried.  If you know your spouse is trying their hardest in their current condition and circumstances (stress from work, illness, family obligations, etc.) be sure to tell them so. Feeling rewarded for loving you will extend your blissfulness far into your marital future.  Small tokens of appreciation like notes and kisses, thank yous and hugs for helping will help your spouse feel wanted, instead of chattel. You'll find as time goes on, and the more open and honest your communication about your wants and needs of them for the day, week, month, and year, that they will be more willing to give this time and energy to you.

A good way of expressing your needs is to simply ask.  Set a small time aside each day, or even each week, and discuss what you want from them - it can range help in the garden, help shuttling your children to and from baseball games, to even help feeling beautiful. Make it a priority to discuss this in percentages if it works for you. An example would be, "I need you to help me mow the lawn on Friday.  I know you might be tired from work, but I can't do it all myself.  How much energy (or time) can you set aside for me?" If your spouse knows you'd like them to help, they probably will think of it before going out late with friends the night before, and subsequently dragging through work on Friday, only to have 10% of energy left to help you with that lawn.  But, be flexible.  Sometimes, those late night friend emergencies can't wait, and things come up at work.  If they can offer only so much, be grateful for what is given.  With praise, love, and devotion expressed towards your helpmeet for doing their spousal duties, it will become clear that this is the kind of loving action that spans decades.  Even when you're too tired or ill to express yourself physically, or too mentally stressed to express it emotionally, the love of action speaks volumes.