Our most popular dates and times are usually booked out at least six months in advance. For example, we usually begin turning away weddings for popular October dates in April. However, if you are flexible about the day of the week and time for an elopement, you can book us closer to your wedding date. We have booked plenty of Popup Elopement Packages with just a few days notice!

If you will need a permit for your event from the City of Savannah because of your group size (20 or more in your party, including you), they require at least 90 days notice.

We take bookings up to a year in advance, or further in the future if you already have a contract with a venue. If you are planning to rent a square or park for your wedding, the City of Savannah will only rent it out a year in advance.

If you would like us to attend a rehearsal to review the ceremony cues with your wedding party, the fee is $100. We can also run and coordinate the rehearsal for $200 if you are not working with a wedding planner. We can give you advice on whether we recommend a rehearsal for your event. The Create Your Story package includes a rehearsal.

If you are choosing to include any rituals in your ceremony, you will bring your own ritual kits and we can give you advice on where to buy those, if needed.

Tracy is a business nerd so she loves this question! 

If you do not work in the wedding industry, you may think that an officiant’s main job is to show up on a Saturday and read a ceremony for a few minutes. In reality, the performance part of the job is usually the least time intensive of all the work we do for my clients.

Most of our time on any project is spent writing your ceremony and preparing for your day, as well as answering questions leading up to your ceremony. If you read our reviews, you can see that we are there every step of the way and it is not unheard of to exchange 60 emails with a client before we actually meet them in person! Compared to other officiants, we also spend a fair amount of money on technology and staff to make the process easy and seamless for you. We also have full time staff and it shows in the level of service we provide.

We love doing vow renewals and commitment ceremonies! We’d be very happy to help you create a ceremony that reflects your relationship. All of our packages can be applied to a vow renewal or commitment ceremony. If you were legally married before your ceremony, that is okay too, even if no one knows except us.

As long as the location allows dogs, absolutely! We love dogs. Here is a photo of Tracy’s dog. 

The simplest answer is that once you invite more than a few close relatives or friends… you are really having a wedding and it needs more care than we can give for the prices we offer. As the wedding industry has changed, the term “elopement” has lost its original meaning, which is a quick and secret wedding. We appreciate that, but for us, an elopement has (1) fewer than 6 to 10 guests (so we can use any downtown location in Savannah without a permit), and (2) requires no setup or structures (decorations, chairs, etc.).

We do not count guests under the age of 2 in our guest numbers, but venues and restaurants where you celebrate may count them for their purposes.

Anything you want, whether it is casual wear or formal bridal attire! Since we’ll be walking, make sure you wear comfortable shoes. Savannah streets and sidewalks include cobblestone. Flip flops or bare feet are common at beach elopements.

We have a “style guide” that features outfits that other couples have worn (this is only a very small sample).

We are wedding officiants first, and offer these limited planning services for our elopement and intimate wedding packages. We offer them to compliment what we love to do, which is writing and performing ceremonies. We believe that the heart of the celebration is the ceremony and it makes sense to have wedding packages that are officiant-led.

As Tracy officiated more weddings, she have naturally become an advocate and champion for intimate, small celebrations of love. In fact, she is frequently quoted in the press about this, like in these pieces for NBC News, How Stuff Works, and Glamour.

That also means that if you want to work with us on one of these packages, you’ll need to use our officiating services. We do not plan ceremonies for other officiants, whether that is your pastor, father, or sister. Our hope is that having one of our team members as your wedding officiant makes you excited!

We’re so glad to hear that!

Please contact us with your date, time, venue (if known) and package option, and we’ll go from there. We can also answer any questions you still have. 

We are a team of officiants and photographers so we likely have someone available for your event. Partner Officiants perform ceremonies prepared by our central team. Our central team team also handles all client service until the script is delivered.

Once you let us know that you’d like to move forward, we will send you a new client email with a link to an order form, contract, and invoice and it is due back to us within three days. We’ve made it an extremely simple process so you can focus on more important things!

A 50% retainer is required to book your ceremony. The retainer authorizes us to turn down other clients for your date and start work for you immediately. You’ll pay online and we accept every major credit card. Your balance is due seven days before the ceremony unless you are paying your balance in cash. We do not accept checks.

Because we turn away potential customers once we book you, and begin work immediately on preparations for your wedding, retainers are non-refundable if you cancel your package with us.

Your date and time will be locked in once you provide a retainer and sign your contract.

We are closed every year from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving through the Friday following, and a few days before Christmas through the 26th. We also close for the St. Patrick’s Day parade. 

We are all ordained Reverends through the Universal Life Church (ULC) The ULC certification is recognized in 40 states, including Georgia and South Carolina.

The Universal Life Church believes that all people are naturally endowed with the right to control their own spiritual life and so do we. As officiants, our job is to facilitate a wedding that reflects your faith, not mine. It is also an inclusive organization that advocated tirelessly for marriage equality over the last decade and that makes us proud to be members. 

The Universal Life Church credential allows us to work with couples of all spiritual and cultural backgrounds, including those who identify as atheists or prefer a secular lifestyle. In Georgia, unlike other states, a Justice of the Peace is a magistrate judge who deals with court matters and not someone who oversees legal marriages. That makes Universal Life Church Reverends essential for couples in our region who want to marry outside the traditional church structure.

What really qualifies each of us to be your wedding officiant is our experiences from marrying 2,700+ couples, as well as those we gathered before we married the first one! You can read more about our backgrounds on our team page.

That is a great question! We have a blog post that explains how we work with our clients, including communicating with them, and when we do specific types of tasks in the preparation timeline, like check in with you or write your ceremony.

Each client receives a link to a personal Document Center to keep track of invoice due dates, questionnaires and event details, too.

Couples who book our Intimate Destination Wedding or Intimate Destination Wedding Package Plus also receive access to interactive planning tool called Nifty to monitor their concierge tasks.

We work with couples of all faiths, whether they identify as Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Pagan, Humanist, an atheist, or something else. If you would like to include your spiritual beliefs in your wedding ceremony, I am happy to create a ceremony that calls in and includes God, or whoever you believe in. That could include an opening prayer, a closing blessing or simply mentioning that we are in God’s presence.

While we shy away from complete, standard ceremonies that come from specific religions, we are also happy to include biblical quotes that you identify, and weave them into the ceremony text. However, we do not write custom religious content for our ceremonies and do ask that any religious content provided to us is inclusive and optimistic in tone. We do not replicate ceremonies you might hear in a church since you are not choosing to get married in a church.


As for content we will not include, we stay away from messages that encourage the submission of a wife to her husband, including rituals and biblical quotes that emphasize that dynamic. We will also not use words like “obey” in a ceremony.

We are advocates for marriage equality and we are excited to help honor your commitment or your friends’. When same-sex marriage became legal in Georgia in 2015, Tracy threw a celebration in Forsyth Park that was covered by the local media and even appeared on the national edition of NPR’s All Things Considered!

We also believe Black Lives Matter.

We cannot guarantee perfect weather for your date, but if it rains, we will have still have fun. You can check out how we’ve worked with rain in the past to make sure you enjoy your experience and leave with beautiful photos.

Great question. The Tracy’s Choice package is simply the way it is described- we choose the ceremony. Every season, Tracy prepares 1-2 pre-written scripts and we offer a package at a lower cost with these scripts because they take less preparation time. They will be like the samples on our Ceremony Example page, but not those exact ceremonies. You will get a final copy (no changes) of what we will say via email before your ceremony and if you’d like, you can include personal vows. We’ll send a questionnaire after you book your ceremony and you’ll also let me know your basic spiritual preferences.

If you would like to add a ritual (like a sand ceremony or handfasting), a reading, or make some edits, you can upgrade to our Choose Your Own Adventure package. If you are looking for something more custom or a very personalized experience, the Create Your Story package is the way to go. 

Finally, we limit this package to small events with 50 or fewer guests. 

Over the last 8+ years, we have developed a small list of vendors who we know do great work and are highly recommended by previous clients. They also love elopements (not all wedding vendors do), can work with a diverse set of clients,  and are LGBTQ friendly. While we refer to them as “our squad,” because we think they are great! We do not get any kickbacks if you choose to work with our recommended vendors.

After the ceremony, we will sign your marriage license. In Georgia, only the officiant signs the marriage license. In South Carolina, you will also sign the license. There are no witnesses required in either state.

Due to COVID-19 procedures, we will return the marriage license back to you after the ceremony for you to file on your own via mail. You will get your certified copy from the court in 3-6 weeks.

In Georgia, you must obtain a valid marriage license on your own prior to the ceremony from the probate court. Due to COVID-19, the Chatham County probate court is requiring couples to apply online and make an appointment. This process can take awhile and we encourage you to do this at least 30 days in advance.

You will need a copy of your government ID. If you have been married before, you will also need a certified copy of your divorce decree.

If you are a permanent resident of the state you can use a marriage license from another county in Georgia. Please check with them about any different procedures due to COVID-19.

In South Carolina, you must apply directly at the courthouse and there is a 24 hour waiting period before you can pick up your license. You must have a government ID and proof of your social security card.

We have more detailed instructions on our marriage license page. 

Yes! We have married many international couples, including those who have visited us from Canada, Mexico, Sweden, the UK, China, Nigeria, and Australia, among others. You will need the same documents to apply for a marriage license as a United States citizen.

If you are in a country governed by the Apostille Convention, you will need to take an extra step to have your marriage certificate notarized and receive an Apostille certificate, which is usually easy.