Wedding Officiant Sara Shendelman

R Sara Shendelman is a remarkable and spiritual person. She made our friends and family laugh, she made them cry, she made them think, and she made them learn, and in the end she got us married :) She helped and supported us every step of the way and provided the anchor of calmness in the midst of a busy and eventful day. We are forever grateful!

Rabbi Sara was a life blessing for us!! She made our marriage ceremony a magical, spiritual experience. We continue to express our gratitude for her unique gifts, knowledge and incredible soul. It is our delight to attempt to put into words how wonderful she is!! She continues to make an incredible contribution to our lives in her advice, insights and friendship. Rabbi Sara is a life treasure.

Rabbi Sara not only gave a heartfelt and enjoyable ceremony, but she provided a much needed head leveling when my maid of honor did not show up on time. My fiance and I were unsure of where to begin looking for our vows and ceremonial scripture and she coached us gently and professionally in the right direction. We were very satisfied with how beautiful the ceremony was.

Rabbi Sara, all I can say is that she is one of a kind. She made our wedding very special. Rabbi Sara did an excellent job of incorporating Jewish culture into our wedding. It was very heartfelt and meaningful. She is obviously a very learned Rabbi, however; she knew when to bring humor to the ceremony. Most importantly, she incorporated everyone in to the ceremony. She made sure everyone was involved, even those with non-speaking parts. She also made sure that everyone knew what was going on by providing explanations throughout the ceremony. Her focus was always on the bride and groom; checking in on us constantly.

I highly recommend her. She is very special and will make your ceremony just as special. She is the best!

We are absolutely in wedded bliss! Getting married is by far the best thing we've ever done ;) And so much thanks goes to Rabbi Sara - she made the ceremony, and the day, just perfect for us. The moments we spent together, both before and after the wedding... we can't thank her enough.

She is an amazing woman with such a huge and open heart - we both learned a lot just from spending time with her. We're so grateful she could marry us

Our wedding and ceremony were more spectacular than we could have ever dreamed. We are endlessly grateful to Sara for generously sharing her gifts of talent, spirit and beauty with us and our guests.

Rabbi Sara Shendelman created an exquisite, personal, meaningful and moving ceremony. We truly felt blessed on our wedding day. Every single person in attendance really loved the service! One couple told us they wanted to be married again by her! She has such a dynamic spirit, a gorgeous singing voice and a spiritual wisdom that shines so brightly!

Rabbi Sara Shendelman has performed several beautiful services for my wedding clients. She was very thorough and conscientious with each client, helping them to create a unique and heartfelt ceremony that truly represented their vision for their marriage and their wedding day. Rabbi Sara's intelligence, oratory mastery, and her ability to connect on a deep level with each couple resulted in wedding ceremonies that touched everyone who attended. One of my couples even returned the area to renew their vows with her on their first anniversary.

Rabbi Sara is a comforting emotional support for those planning their wedding from afar. They will feel they have roots here once they connect with Rabbi Sara!

My husband and I were absolutely thrilled with Rabi Sara's ceremony. It was all so amazing and we loved every part of it so much. Everyone has been saying how amazing the ceremony was and informative for those that hadn’t been to a Jewish wedding before. One of my friends was evening asking if she could have a Jewish wedding without being Jewish!!

Working with Sara was such a pleasure and in the short amount of time we spent with her we really felt that she got to know us and reflected this in the ceremony. We absolutely loved all her anecdotes about the traditions. It made it such a fun and loving ceremony.

Can't recommend her highly enough.

If you have come to know Sara, you have come to know her for a reason. She is not for the fainthearted. She is not for the "there is a pink elephant in my livingroom and no one is going to admit it" type. If you found Sara, it is because you are seeking the truth. If you don't like the truth of the message. don't blame Sara. Instead, look deep within your self. Ask for help, if needed.You probably know the answer already. So, stop with the drama and ask yourself..what is it I really want? What is REALLY bothering me? What do I need to do to be happy? When you start to ask yourself these questions, you will find the energy around you start to change. Go with it...discover...the answer lies within you. Trust in yourself.

I thought about this review for a long time and waited for Sara to respond and she did not. Below, you will find a copy and paste of the letter my husband and I wrote to her 2 days after the wedding, after I had some time to cool off. If you do not have time to read the whole summary, it includes details of her not being responsive, her disregard of our desires at our own wedding, lack of accountability, and she did not bring our vows or ring language. Unfortunately, we did not enjoy our wedding ceremony at all. Please think thoroughly if you decide to use her services.

This letter serves as a follow up to our phone conversation today on June 20, 2011 at 12:43 pm whereby you agreed to forego the remaining payment of $518.00, provide a written apology for your inexcusable performance (actions listed below) and the receipt in which you agreed to donate the deposit of $182 to the Berkeley Animal Shelter. Also, enclosed, please sign and return the Release From All Claims document.

As explained to you on the phone in which you agreed, you did not follow our requests and made the following mistakes:

1. During our first meeting on January 28, 2011, X and I were very clear that we did not want any singing or chanting during the ceremony. We also indicated this in X’s email to you on April 13. We subsequently repeated that on May 28, 2011 at 10:00 am, when we met for the second time along with X’s parents. You did not adhere to this during our wedding ceremony.
2. Our original plan was for the evening ceremony to be co-officiated by you and our other officiant for the day, Father. We discussed this with you during our January 28th meeting and you had offered to independently reach out to him if we introduced him to you. On May 11, X sent you and Father an email in which he provided a rough outline of the ceremony, introduced you to Father and asked you to take the lead on recommending the next steps. We did not receive a response. On May 25th, X’s mother left you a voicemail and an email indicating that we had been trying to get a hold of you and were anxious to move forward with the ceremony planning and invited you to her house to have a discussion. You sent a response to this email saying that perhaps X’s email went into your spam folder, and that you preferred to meet at your house instead. At no point during our wedding planning process did you proactively check in with us to: (1) help move along the ceremony planning, (2) check to make sure we had what we needed, (3) tell us what we needed to do to be prepared for our ceremony, or (4) remind us of anything you were missing.
3. During the May 28th meeting between you, us, and X’s parents, you had shared with us some options for language to use as vows and the exchange of rings and indicated that you would send them to us over email. You subsequently did so in separate emails on May 31, 2011 and June 1, 2011. On June 10, X sent you separate emails with our selections for ring language and vow language which we selected from the options that were emailed to us by you. Please refer to the attachments which serve as written evidence that we reached out multiple times to remind you to send the vow and ring language and other instances of email exchanges. Before the ceremony on the day of the wedding, X asked you whether you had everything you needed to conduct the ceremony and you responded, “I have everything I need.” During the ceremony, when you realized you did not have the vow language with you, you first gave us someone else’s vows to read, and then put us on the spot by insisting that we add some personal vows after we first responded no. We were understandably flustered by this and our vows did not come out well and did not sound well thought out. We heard a lot of feedback from our friends and family that we looked unprepared for the vows. You made us look foolish. Further, I am personally offended that I had to recite religious ring language that I specifically did not want because you claimed you did not receive our selections and did not follow up with us to obtain them.
4. At the end of the ceremony, you rattled your tambourine and blew the shofar. We did not instruct you to do this, nor did you ever give any indication that you would do this, in writing (ceremony outlines, etc.) or verbally. The recessional song, “Ode to Joy,” was requested by X’s grandmother because she wanted it played at his father’s wedding but he was not able to arrange it so we wanted to make it a special surprise and have it played during the recessional of the wedding. We arranged with the harpist to have “Ode to Joy” played for X’s grandmother’s enjoyment and no one heard it because of the distraction you provided.

In conclusion, please provide a written apology for your inexcusable performance and the receipt in which you agreed to donate our deposit of $182 to the Berkeley Animal Shelter. You agreed to return these documents by July 21, 2011. Also, please sign and return the Release From All Claims document by July 21, 2011.