Who is Bethel?

Fun Facts & Highlights -

• Before officiating weddings, I spent 9 years working for two large investment banks (yes, former Wall Street person here).

• Avid traveler and scuba diver (300+ dives so far). Past faves: Africa, Australia, Italy, Hong Kong, Fiji, and Galapagos.

• My previous chapter had me living in Tokyo, New York City, and London.

• I love baseball, even when my Padres aren’t always easy to love, and rarely miss Opening Day.

• I speak Japanese and get more than a bit of joy surprising people who don’t expect to hear it coming from me.

• My first wedding was in 2006. It was for my brother.

• Officially launched Ceremonies by Bethel as my full-time business in 2009 with 12 weddings. In my second year, I had 71. And by now, I have had the pleasure of celebrating over 1300 couples!

• All of my wedding ceremonies are customized for and with my couples. I have no generic couples, thus no generic ceremonies.

• “Ordained Officiant Open To All” is a perfect title for me since I always want it to be perfectly clear: I support and celebrate love in all couples. And, so that you know, my pronouns are she/her.
  Also fittingly, I’m now endorsed as a Humanist Celebrant by The Humanist Society.

• I get to marry really awesome couples for a living, and I love it!

A Bit More Detail -

My life started in Philadelphia, but we moved to Cape Cod when I was just a toddler. Then, just before I started high school, we moved again, this time across the country to San Diego… which I will always consider home (no matter where in the world I am). And although many who know me now have said that officiating weddings is what I was meant to do, my early career path had nothing at all to do with weddings.

That path started at the University of California, Berkeley (Go Bears!) for undergrad in Political Science and Asian Studies - Japan. And, after first living and then working in Japan, I received my MBA from Thunderbird (aka Thunderbird School of Global Management). My journey took me to living in Japan for the third time (yes, I really do speak Japanese), then to New York, and finally to London. During this time, I lived the Wall Street life, working for two large investment banks, and loved having the opportunity to live and travel frequently all around the world. And although I succeeded and prospered over those nine years, it just wasn’t the life I wanted anymore.

So, I quit the job and left the life behind, moving back to San Diego. Still not sure what would give me the life I wanted, I took some time off and then started working for my family’s business. I also met and started dating the wonderful man who would become my life partner (never say no to a blind date suggestion from a mutual friend!). And although I was making a lifelong commitment to my perfect partner, and putting my business skills to use in my family’s business gave me a sense of pride, I still hadn’t found my own professional passion for what came next.

Then, one day in 2006, when having trouble deciding on who would perform their interfaith but non-religious wedding ceremony, my brother and future sister-in-law asked me. They wanted a personal and meaningful wedding ceremony that fit them and their guests, and would not be religious nor uncomfortable to either side. Although I had a great deal of public speaking training and experience, and greatly enjoyed speaking to a crowd - plus was immensely honored that they asked - I was rightfully nervous when I said yes.

With the legal part being the easier part, I began focusing on the more important part, which was to figure out what makes a beautiful, meaningful, touching, and memorable wedding ceremony, fitting for those two people specifically, to kick off their celebration (and their marriage) in a genuine way. I researched weddings, spoke with many couples about their ceremonies, and took the time to get opinions from people who were around weddings for a living. I also spent a large amount of time working directly with my couple, learning their story from both perspectives and creating their vision of a wedding ceremony. And although it was my first wedding ceremony, I was told by the couple and many of their guests that it was wonderful and something so focused on that couple, who they greatly cared about.

Two years later, I found myself doing this same thing for two more couples, close friends of mine who were also non-religious and coming from interfaith backgrounds, and I had found my passion! Today, over 1300 wedding ceremonies later, I still follow that same formula with every ceremony and every couple - and still greatly enjoy helping awesome couples in the San Diego, Temecula, and Palm Springs area make their wedding ceremony genuine and theirs, and truly worthy of what they share!

Banner Image at page top: Image by Michael Bezman Photography, Joelle + Prakash, Los Angeles River Gardens