Long Island Wedding Officiants brings together an experienced team of professional officiants serving couples throughout Nassau and Suffolk Counties and beyond.

Our officiants bring different backgrounds, personalities, traditions, and specialties to their work, but we share one goal: to create and deliver a wedding ceremony that feels genuine, personal, and completely right for the couple standing in front of us.

From custom-written celebrations and simple civil ceremonies to secular, religious, interfaith, bilingual, and multicultural weddings, we’ll help you find the officiant – or officiants – who best fit your ceremony.

Joe really loves weddings. And it shows. He brings an enormous amount of compassion, humor, and joy to every ceremony he performs, along with a genuine curiosity about the two people standing in front of him. For custom ceremonies, Joe spends a little time getting to know his couples – their story, their quirks, what makes them laugh, and what brought them to this moment – and then somehow turns all of that into a ceremony that feels like he’s known them for years. In fact, one of the things we hear most often after Joe officiates a wedding is, “Wait…how long have you guys been friends?”

Joe is an ordained Interfaith Minister with a background in writing, performance, meditation, and public speaking. He’s also second cousin, twice removed, to St. Padre Pio! Rev. Joe knows when to make a room laugh, when to let a quiet moment breathe, and when it’s time to get everybody back to the reason we’re all there in the first place: two people who love each other are getting married, and Joe thinks that should be an awful lot of fun.

Meet Reverend Joe →

Aviva has a wonderful gift for making people feel comfortable, understood, and genuinely cared for. As both a wedding officiant and a clinical social worker, she brings empathy, warmth, and a remarkable ability to listen to every couple she meets. Her soothing voice and reassuring presence help couples feel at ease, even when wedding-day nerves start creeping in.

She loves creating heartfelt, personal ceremonies that reflect each couple’s story, whether they’re planning something traditional, spiritual, interfaith, or entirely their own.

And yes, Aviva has a playful side, too. She’s a lifelong music lover who happily embraces a creative theme or unexpected pop-culture reference when it feels right for the couple. But whatever kind of ceremony you’re imagining, her approach remains the same: listen carefully, celebrate your love, and make sure you feel supported every step of the way.

Meet Reverend Aviva →

Brenda believes every love story is beautiful. And she has a gift for telling those stories in a way that makes couples laugh, brings happy tears to their families’ eyes, and reminds everyone why they’ve gathered together. Warm, funny, and wonderfully expressive, Brenda creates ceremonies filled with romance, personality, and heart. She listens carefully to each couple, looking beyond the familiar details of how they met to discover what makes their relationship uniquely theirs.

She’s also our bilingual English-Spanish officiant, creating ceremonies that move naturally between both languages. Rather than repeating everything twice, Brenda weaves English and Spanish into one seamless celebration, helping families feel welcomed, recognized, and included.

And when wedding-day plans go a little sideways? Brenda stays calm, takes charge when needed, and keeps everyone focused on what matters most. As she likes to say, “Every love story is beautiful.”

Meet Minister Brenda →

Long Island Wedding Officiants exists because, back in 1997, April had an idea about what a wedding ceremony could be: personal, meaningful, funny, spiritual (or not), and above all, completely true to the two people getting married. More than 6,000 ceremonies later, that idea is still at the heart of everything we do.

April is a gifted writer, storyteller, and public speaker with an uncanny ability to get couples talking, capture what makes them them, and turn it into a ceremony that can have a room roaring with laughter one minute and reaching for tissues the next. Her voice, her philosophy, and her belief that there is no single “right” way to get married are still very much part of who we are. Now in retirement, April only steps out to officiate occasionally. But when she does, the couples she gets to work with are in for something truly special.

Meet Pastor April →

Rabbi Brian has a wonderful way of honoring Jewish tradition while making everyone in the room feel like they’re part of what’s happening. He’s especially gifted with interfaith couples, helping them decide which traditions feel meaningful, explaining the why behind the rituals, and bringing everything together in a ceremony that feels natural rather than stitched together. He’s warm, funny, thoughtful, and deeply respectful of where each person, and each family, is coming from.

Brian believes traditions can be honored without being frozen in time. Whether he’s officiating a Jewish wedding, blending two faiths into one ceremony, or working alongside another officiant, he brings an openness and generosity that puts people immediately at ease. Most importantly, he never loses sight of the two incredible people standing under the chuppah.

Deb is warm, outgoing, funny, and has a wonderful way of making people feel genuinely welcomed and celebrated. As an openly gay officiant, she has spent much of her career creating that kind of space for LGBTQ+ couples; not simply accepting their marriages, but being genuinely joyful about celebrating them.

Raised in an Italian Catholic family and married to Rabbi Sara Shonfeld, Deb also has a very personal understanding of what it means to bring different faiths, families, and traditions together. She and Rabbi Sara frequently work side by side on interfaith weddings, helping couples honor what matters to both of them without turning the ceremony into a religious obstacle course. Deb brings a big heart, plenty of experience, and a great sense of humor to every ceremony. We’ve known and trusted her for many years, and we’re always happy when we get the chance to bring her together with one of our couples.

Sara is quite possibly one of the most joyful human beings on the planet, and it shows in every ceremony she performs. Born and raised in Israel, Sara is a seventh-generation Israeli, a native Hebrew speaker, and an ordained Rabbi with a background in education and Jewish studies. She brings a deep knowledge of Jewish tradition to her ceremonies, but never assumes that everyone under the chuppah or sitting in the audience knows what all of it means.

That’s part of what makes her so wonderful with interfaith couples. Sara can explain traditions, find the places where different faiths connect, and help couples decide what feels meaningful to them. She can officiate in English, Hebrew, or both, and frequently works alongside ministers from other faiths – including her wife, Reverend Deb Viola. Traditional, modern, religious, secular, somewhere in between…Sara meets her couples where they are. And wherever that happens to be, she brings the joy.

That’s okay. You don’t need to figure it out before you contact us.

Tell us a little about yourselves, what you’re planning, and what you’d like your ceremony to feel like. We’ll help you find the officiant—or officiants—who make the most sense for you.

Contact Us and Tell Us About Your Wedding →