Dear Reader,

 

I'll give you a little background on me. My husband Steve and I have been married for 31 years, and we have two adult daughters. In addition to officiating weddings, I work part time at The Waldorf School of Atlanta, where our daughters went to school for preschool through 8th grade. Also, I love to sing and play guitar, and have an acoustic band with some neighbors.  We started playing together during the pandemic, outdoors, to pass the time.  Then we started playing in a neighbor's front yard for socially distanced yard music.  

​

My own spiritual focus has been a meditative path, and I share that with Steve. It has been great to share our core focus in life together. The main teaching is that the source of our joy and connection is inside. 

​

Inclusiveness is really important to me. I like to be treated with respect, and I therefore treat others with that same respect. People's spirituality, religion, or non-religiousness is such a personal thing. I honor each person and what is meaningful to them. Over the years, I have done a lot of volunteer work at the meditation center, and one of my favorite things to do is to host the programs: to welcome everyone warmly and authentically, and try to express everything clearly and with a pleasant and projecting speaking voice. People say I'm good at it, and they feel welcomed and inspired when I MC. It feels good to hear that. I'm also comfortable being spontaneous in public speaking if the occasion calls for it.

​

How did I get into officiating weddings? Back in 2013, I was visiting my brother and his wife Karen in Colorado. My brother Chris has been officiating non-denominational weddings, baptisms, and funerals for around 40 years (in fact he came to Atlanta and married Steve and me in 1990). His wife Karen had been performing weddings off and on for a long time, but that spring had recently started doing a lot more. Chris said, "Karen is so great at doing weddings! When I go watch her sometimes, I have tears come to my eyes." When he told me that, I had a big flash of insight: I would love to do that! And I think I would be a natural at it! So Chris and Karen started training me (over the phone), with all their years of experience. I saw them again at our family reunion at Thanksgiving that year, and they gave me face-to-face training.  In fact, the day after Thanksgiving, I did a practice wedding on Chris and Karen. Our Dad, who thought it rather odd that I would be doing this, was nevertheless a great sport, and walked Karen up the "aisle" in the living room, while the kids watched. I guided Chris and Karen through the ceremony, vows and rings, etc. They had tears come to THEIR eyes. That felt good!

​

Over Christmas/New Years of 2013-2014, I performed my first 4 weddings in one week! It was a very exciting beginning.  In the ensuing seven and a half years, I have officiated for 184 weddings.

 

There's a little background on me. I hope I can be called on to help make your day stress-free and joyful.

​

Warmly,

Carol Lane

​​

​

​​