Today I welcome Bethel Nathan, the Vice President of the International Association of Professional Wedding Officiants and the woman behind Ceremonies by Bethel and Elevate by Bethel to the podcast! This was a bit of big deal to me because when I first started Let’s Get Married SoCal, Bethel was one of the officiants who mentored me from afar without knowing it. Her inclusivity of the LGBTQ community, her transparency with her pricing and value, the warmth with which all her couples spoke about her all inspired me when I entered into the wedding industry. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of not only hearing Bethel speak at places like the Wedding MBA and WeddingWire World conferences, but have even gotten to socialize with her a bit on a personal level as well. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did!
This episode’s drinks: hot cocoa
Topics we covered:
- How Bethel got into officiating
- Why it’s so important for wedding professionals to have a business plan
- How Bethel helped influence me so much from the beginning of officiating
- Religious versus non-religious ceremonies
- How you can pre-qualify your wedding vendors by their websites and social media
- The two different wedding vendors: providing for your day and those with you on your day
- Why images are so important to show inclusivity and diversity
- How Bethel celebrates the cultural aspects of Jewishness without being religious
- How Bethel brings in her love of travel and language into the wedding ceremonies
- How Bethel and I make the unity ceremony in the wedding part of the relationship rituals
- Bethel schools me on how to pronounce “quaithe” in Gaelic
- How Bethel and I craft our ceremonies
- How we feel we bring a bit of our own good marriage vibes to our couples’ ceremonies
- Why Bethel does not stay at any wedding reception
- How extroversion and introversion affect the way we run our businesses
- The structure and style of a ceremony with Bethel
- The questions we ask our couples to get the best info
- “Sometimes you don’t know what marriage is until you’re in it.” – Bethel Nathan
- How our egalitarian marriages affect the way we word our ceremonies
- Bethel’s advice for figuring out their ideal client and how to attract them
- Why you must meet Bethel before booking her
- Why I’m totally cool with strangers booking me without ever contacting me
- For wedding pros, it is important to price according to your value
- For couples, understand pricing is based on value NOT cost
Links to the awesome things and people mentioned:
- Ceremonies by Bethel
- Elevate by Bethel
- IAPWO (International Association of Professional Wedding Officiants)
- Evolve Your Wedding Business Podcast
- Wedding MBA
- WeddingWire World