Credit: Destify
Weddings get more and more extravagant and expensive every year. As a result, it is no wonder that more and more couples are opting to have destination weddings. According to a recent article by tripsavvy, about 25 percent of weddings are destination weddings. That means that a quarter of weddings are planned long distance—which is twice as stressful for the couples.
Couples who have local weddings already have completely full plates. They have the organize the venue, the food, the décor, the wardrobe of the bridal parties, the officiant, and so much more. Take all of those details, slap on a plane ticket and lodging, and you have the stress of a destination wedding. Most couples are unable to visit the venue before the wedding, which means just about everything is booked blindly. Couples don’t know for certain what to expect until days before the wedding.
Credit: Leslie Jones Weddings
Booking a wedding officiant is one of the most important aspects of a ceremony that many do not consider until it is time to find that officiant. Officiants can make the ceremony warm, thoughtful, and personal, or they can make the ceremony cold and detached. No one wants the latter, but if they do not do enough research beforehand, they may arrive to their destination wedding and be let down.
This unpredictability can cause great distress for the couple. In Cancun, Mexico, Rabbi Stephen Spiegel has seen just how that stress can wear on a couple’s happy day, and he does what he can to make sure he can abate some of that nervous energy. No matter who he is marrying, Rabbi Spiegel—or Rabbi Steve, as he is known by the locals and his clients—creates a special ceremony that the couple and their guests will rave about for years to come.
But how can Rabbi Steve make a ceremony tailored to the couple without meeting them before the wedding? Easily—he meets them online.
“…From the minute I had my first conversation with Rabbi Steve, my worries to put to rest,” one happy bride says. “By the end of the conversation – I felt like I had been talking to my own dad. …When booking a rabbi in another country, you worry about what/who will show up that day – but Rabbi Steve makes such a professional and lovely appearance. …But mostly, he made me and my husband feel like we were the two most important people in the world and he delivered on every promise made. This is a special man and I am thrilled to have had the pleasure of working with him!”
Technology allows couples to connect with the people involved in their destination wedding without traveling to that location. Rabbi Steve feels it is highly important to know both partners in the couple long before the date, so that he can craft a customized wedding ceremony that accurately reflects both of them. He sends the couple individual questionnaires so he can get to know the two on a far more personal level.
Rabbi Steve doesn’t jut take the questionnaires and call it a day, however. He regularly communicates with the couple through email, phone, Skype—whichever is their preferred mode of contact—in order to not just get a feel of who these people are, but so that the couple is comfortable with him. Many couple say that by the time they actually meet with Rabbi Steve, they are not strangers. They are like old friends. This further adds to the passion Rabbi Steve inserts into the couple’s ceremony.
Whether it is a traditional Jewish wedding, a contemporary Jewish wedding, or an interfaith wedding, Rabbi Steve approaches each with the same level of professionalism and compassion. By communicating with them online beforehand, couples can be confident their wedding is in the hands of the best rabbi in Mexico.
For more information, call (888) 593-8486, email rabbisteve@mexicorabbi.com, or fill out this contact form.