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Rev. Nick McDonald
I love officiating indoors and outdoors in beautiful Western North Carolina and the surrounding area. Every elopement, lifelong commitment ceremony, or renewal of vows is an opportunity to tap over thirty-five years of experiences as an ordained pastor and chaplain in church, healthcare and public safety settings. My ceremonies have ranged from very formal evening nuptials to informal sunrise vow exchanges on a beach or mountaintop. Couples looking for faith-based ceremonies will discover that I am well-versed in many denominational and interfaith traditions. Alternately, couples seeking spiritual or non-sectarian ceremonies will find me open to exploring language and actions that resonate with their values and experiences. Hallmarks of my ceremonies include a warm conversational style, a sense of humor, flexibility and a spirit of welcome and inclusion.
SERVICES
Your Wedding Day is a wonderfully unique occasion. Whether you dream of a small, intimate gathering, a massive celebratory production, or anything in between - I hope to help you.
Custom Wedding Package
∙ Customizable Ceremony that includes Selection or Personalization of Vows whether spiritual, religious or secular.
∙ Couple Rituals e.g. Hand-fasting, Sand, Wine Box, Highland Quaich,Unity Candles, "Tying the Knot", etc.
∙ Family Rituals e.g. Thanksgiving for Children, Family Dedication or Blessing
∙ 30-min Video conference review of the ceremony with the officiant.
Marriage license Filing
Honorarium $500
Additional Services
Rehearsal - $200.00
∙ 5 minute sermon, homily or meditation - $100.00
∙ Sunrise Service - $100.00
∙ Providing one (1) additional witness - $50.00
Other Information
∙ I am happy to perform ceremonies in the beautiful outdoor settings that our area has to offer. I do, however, suggest that each couple have an indoor backup plan in place. For outdoor services, in the case of inclement weather and/or alerts by the National Weather Service - I will delay or postpone rehearsals and ceremonies until the conditions are safe for the couple, their guests and myself.
∙ Parking and/or Tolls for the ceremony (and rehearsal) shall be reimbursed in full. For more extensive travel, all expenses will be reimbursed including hotel accomodations, commercial travel expenses and a food per diem of $50/day.
∙ I subscribe to and endorse the use of The Premarriage Awareness Inventory © as a tool for exploring concepts related to marriage, skills important to nurturing a marriage, and potential areas of challenge in marriage.
∙Copies of the Classic Ceremonies referenced in the Elopement package are available upon request. For Elopement Packages, these services may only be modified to add names of the couple where appropriate and/or to remove specific sections. Any further customization would fall under our Basic Package.
∙To reserve a date for your Ceremony, we require a deposit equal to one half of the Honorarium plus add-ons is due. The balance is due to be received 10 days prior to your ceremony. Upon receipt of the deposit, we will issue our standard letter of agreement.
Testimonials
posted 1/21/23
The Perfect Custom Ceremony
We hired Rev. Nick for our post-wedding celebration/vow renewal in Sept 2022 (we got married in June 2020.) When we first emailed him, we were clear that we had a lot going on: we were already married and didn't want to put on a "show" wedding, more of a vow renewal; our families are different faiths, with my dad being a minister and having some strong opinions on officiants; we had a baby now who we wanted to incorporate; and we wanted it to both carry weight, and be lighthearted. He didn't miss a beat. He put us at ease right away, and helped us craft the perfect ceremony for where we are in our lives, and where we want to go. My dad still raves about him (very high praise, I promise you!) I'm so grateful we found Rev. Nick as he ended up playing a huge part in the shaping of our day.
posted 11/30/2022
Reverend Nick was an absolute dream to work with! He was kind, organized, and responsive when we needed. He allowed us the opportunity to fully customize our ceremony, and really made our day feel so special. I could’ve have dreamed up a better officiant for our wedding 💕
posted 06/11/2022
Rev. Nick was the perfect officiant. He was so easy to work with and made the process fun and enjoyable. He helped us customize our ceremony to fit our personalities and add some fun. What I loved about Rev. Nick was he was open to things we wanted as a couple. He will make it as serious or as playful or for us in the middle as much as you’d like. We was very clever when writing our ceremony, when giving him a subject that was important to us and that we wanted to be included in the ceremony, he came up with the perfect way of adding it! He was very professional and friendly. He was on time and helped with all he could. I would highly recommend Rev. Nick to anyone as he made our ceremony a dream and something I will remember forever. Thank you Rev. Nick!
posted 06/08/2022 by Kayla B
Nick was an absolute blast to work with! He made our ceremony so stress-free and perfect! I 100% recommend going with Nick! He is amazing!
posted 02/16/2022 by Julianna D (updated 12/15/2022 )
Rev Nick and his wife are absolutely the sweetest people and we couldn't have asked for a better officiant! They tailored our ceremony to us perfectly and I honestly couldn't imagine it having gone any better than it did, it was truly a special occasion. Rev Nick was also super quick with the paperwork and got everything handled for us so we could relax after the wedding and not worry about the marriage certificate, etc. He kept us updated and handled everything in a timely manner. Thank you so much Rev Nick!!! Xoxo, Julianna & Sam
posted 10/25/2022
...just WOW! Rev. Nick was truly incredible. Not only was he the most communicative vendor we had, he was the most professional & friendliest. Nick helped us nail down our entire ceremony months prior, and made sure we had all the final edits in a revised version so we could sign off on it. We will 100% recommend him to any and all of our friends wanting to tie the knot. Both of our families (who fall on the religious end of the spectrum) loved his style and warm spirit, and all of our guests (who mostly fall on the secular / some spiritual side) also found him to be an amazing officiant who helped capture our style and lead us in love. Nick really pays attention to detail & what we as people wanted, and he delivered as a true professional, but also kept it extremely personable. Nick even showed up for our rehearsal dinner when his wife was bitten by a copperhead the night prior. Of course he made sure his wife was ok beforehand, but if that doesn't show commitment, I don't know what does! All of that to say, if you DO choose Nick, you will not be disappointed one single bit. He is the real deal and was such a pleasure to work with.
posted 02/01/2022
Reverend Nick officiated the wedding of my sister and her fiancé in December and the ceremony was nothing less than magical. He managed to convey what was really important to the couple in ceremony that was both spiritual and religious. I hadn’t met Rev. Nick prior to the ceremony, but he touched me with his words and I could feel the love he had for them as well. He was incredibly sweet and kind! I highly recommend Reverend Nick to anyone out there looking for a great experience.
posted 12/6/2020
Warm, patient, flexible & humorous...
We couldn’t have have dreamt of an officiant more perfect for our wedding than Reverend Nick. My husband and I have differing religious/spiritual beliefs, but share a deep love for nature, family, friends, and our pets. Reverend Nick so carefully and patiently worked with us to create a ceremony and vows that were meaningful to each of us and to our families. In mid-November 2020, we were blessed with a beautiful, sunny, warm(ish), yet windy day. Reverend Nick married us on a grassy hilltop in Banner Elk, NC surrounded by breathtaking mountain views — a last-minute change from our our originally planned indoor location — which he took in stride! And speaking of taking things in stride... our very energetic 80# Chesapeake Bay Retriever ‘puppy’ was part of the wedding party. Reverend Nick handled him and all his bounding & blunders like a pro. Reverend Nick is warm, patient, flexible, humorous, and reliable. We highly recommend him if you’re seeking the same!
posted 11/8/20
Choose Rev. Nick!
Rev. Nick was a great choice for our small, family wedding during COVID. He was extremely flexible in adjusting the ceremony to our needs and was very respectful of other guests. We were very impressed with his responsiveness to a lot of specific requests in our ceremony. Also, he has a great voice! Would certainly recommend him to anyone.
- Matt
posted 3/11/20
We could not have asked for a better officiant for our winter elopement! Nick braved the freezing temperatures, high winds, and a moderate hike in order to marry us in the perfect spot! He also indulged my love for Outlander and all things Scottish/Irish and added a "hand-fasting" portion to our ceremony! He was very accommodating to all of our requests for the specifics of the ceremony and was extremely helpful for any questions we had! I honestly cannot say enough good things about him, and I would highly recommend him for your ceremony!"
-Kennedi
posted 10/21/20
"Nick was very professional, personable and easy to work with. My husband and I found him a month before our wedding during the COVID pandemic and were able to plan the ceremony with one phone call and several email exchanges. We were able to craft a ceremony together that fit both my husband and my personalities and background. Highly recommend!"
- Ruth
posted 10/12/2021 by Summer G (updated 11/03/2021 )
We couldn't have chosen a better person to officiate our wedding than Reverend Nick! Even before the event, he made planning our ceremony easy and enjoyable. We emailed back and forth during the months leading up to our wedding, and he made sure that every detail was exactly to our liking. He arrived on our wedding day with a smile on his face and the calmest, most sincere energy about him. We especially appreciated the way that he was able to ease our wedding day jitters by providing discrete directions to us under his breath during our ceremony. The prayers that he said over us were incredibly touching, and the way that he spoke during the ceremony was so joyous, you could tell that he was really enjoying his work. Reverend Nick is an exceedingly kind and professional man, and we could not recommend him more.
posted 08/29/2020
"Nick was wonderful! I would hire him over an over again!"
-Olivia
posted 09/05/2020
"Rev. Nick was the perfect officiant for our small, family wedding. He helped tailor the ceremony to our preferences. We greatly appreciated his service!"
- Timothy S.
posted 9/18/2020
"We absolutely LOVED Nick! We had no idea what to expect going into this... Nick was so kind to set aside time one evening a few days before our ceremony to go over things with us—the things that I procrastinated on for months! 😅 Talking to him for thirty minutes and feeling like we had known him for years! We both felt so comfortable with Nick!"
-Robin M.
