Maryland · Washington DC
Ceremonies written for the two people standing in them.
Wedding and commitment ceremonies in Maryland, Washington DC and the surrounding region, plus premarital preparation for couples at any stage. Ordained interfaith minister.
All couples are welcomed, respected and celebrated here.
Dani Dow-Little — officiant, minister, Prepare/Enrich facilitator
Not a template with two names dropped in.
Most wedding ceremonies sound like they were written for somebody else. A template with two names dropped in, delivered by someone who met the couple twenty minutes earlier.
That is not how I work. Every ceremony I write starts with a conversation about who you are, what you believe, who is in the room and what you want them to feel. Then I write something that could only be read at your wedding.
I am an ordained non-denominational interfaith minister. I work with couples of all faiths and no faith, LGBTQIA+ couples, interfaith and intercultural couples, blended families, and couples marrying in English.
How it works
Three stepsWe talk
A twenty-minute call about your story, your families, your beliefs and the tone you want. No script, no questionnaire.
I write
You get a full draft sixty days out and two rounds of revisions. Change anything. It is your ceremony.
I show up early
I arrive forty-five minutes ahead, check your license before we begin, and file it with the clerk inside the legal deadline. You will not think about paperwork once.
The part nobody tells you to ask about.
A ceremony can be beautiful and the marriage still fail to register, because the license was filled in wrong or filed late. It happens more than couples realize.
I verify your license before the ceremony begins, photograph it after it is signed, and file it within the deadline for your jurisdiction — following up for confirmation of receipt wherever the clerk's office provides one. You will get an email from me when it is done.
What couples say
Early feedback“We laughed, we cried, and my grandmother said it was the most personal ceremony she had ever heard. Dani asked us questions nobody else had thought to ask.”
“We did not want our wedding to become a statement about who we are. Dani centered our relationship and our story, not our identities, and it was exactly right.”
“We were worried our two families would not blend during the ceremony. Dani found the right words and the right pacing so everyone felt included. My mother cried twice.”
“I have watched Dani hold a room for twenty years. Watching her hold a ceremony — two hundred people, dead silent, hanging on every word — was that same skill at its most intimate.”
Early feedback from couples and people who have seen Dani officiate and facilitate, shared ahead of launch. Full names and wedding photos are added with permission as couples send them.
Ceremonies that do not look like other ceremonies.
If your ceremony sounds strange when you say it out loud, we are going to get along.
Handfasting. Jumping the broom. A wine box sealed with letters you do not open for nine years. Vows in costume. A ceremony at 2am, or on a trail, or in a bookstore, or at Halloween with the whole party in black. Your dog in the processional with a job to do. Something nobody in either family has seen before and a few of them will have opinions about.
I have no interest in talking you out of any of it.
What I will do is make it work. The reason unconventional ceremonies fall flat is almost never the idea. It is structure. A ritual dropped into the wrong place stalls the room, a joke that lands in rehearsal dies in front of a hundred people, and a ceremony that is all novelty and no weight leaves everyone feeling like they watched a bit. I spent twenty years designing curriculum, which is the same problem: knowing where the beats go, what has to be set up before it can pay off, and how long an audience will stay with you.
So bring me the idea. I will tell you honestly where it sits in the ceremony, what it needs around it to land, and what will feel like too much by minute twelve. Then it will be strange and it will also be moving, which is the version you actually wanted.
Spiritual ceremonies outside a church.
Plenty of couples are not religious and are not secular either. There is no easy word for it, which is part of why it is hard to find someone to officiate it well.
If you want a ceremony with real spiritual weight and no denomination attached, that is squarely what an interfaith minister is for. Earth-based and seasonal traditions. Ancestor recognition and an empty chair for someone who should have been there. Candle lighting, ring warming, water, breath, silence. The lazo and arras from Latino tradition, and the tea ceremony, and the breaking of the glass, brought in because they belong to you and not because they photograph well.
Two things I will hold to. I will not perform a ritual borrowed from a culture that is not yours without a real conversation about it first, because your grandmother's tradition and something seen online are different things and the difference matters. And I will not fake belief I do not hold. What I will do is build a ceremony that takes your beliefs seriously and gives them the room they deserve, which is a different skill and, honestly, the harder one.
Ceremonies and pricing
Four ways inFour ways to do this, depending on how much ceremony you want. Every option includes the license handling.
The Signing
$200A short, warm ceremony and the legal signing. For courthouse weddings, backyard ceremonies and couples who want the moment without the production.
The Elopement
$325A custom ceremony for a party of ten or fewer. One planning call, a written script, delivery on the day. Weekday friendly.
The Signature
$475The full ceremony. Intake call, a script written from scratch, two rounds of revisions, and delivery on your day. This is what most couples book.
The Signature Plus
$650Everything in The Signature, plus rehearsal attendance and coordination with your planner or venue.
A 50 percent deposit holds your date. The balance is due two weeks before the ceremony. Travel outside my core area is a flat fee quoted when you book, never a surprise on the invoice.
- Ceremony writing only, if you have someone else officiating$225
- Rehearsal attendance on its own$175
- Bookings inside 21 days, when I have the date$125
- Vow renewals, commitment ceremonies, baby blessings and naming ceremoniesSame as above
The wedding takes a day. This is about the rest of it.
Most couples spend a year planning the wedding and almost no time planning the marriage. Not because they do not care, but because nobody hands them a structure for it.
Premarital preparation is that structure. It is a short series of guided conversations, built around a research-based relationship assessment, covering the things couples benefit from talking through before they marry: how you communicate, how you handle conflict, money, family, expectations, and what you each assume the next ten years look like.
You are not being evaluated and there is no pass or fail. The assessment shows where you already align and where you have not talked yet. My job is to make those conversations easier to have.
I am an ordained minister and a certified Prepare/Enrich facilitator. I am not a licensed therapist, and this is relationship education, not counseling or therapy.
If something comes up that calls for clinical support, I will say so plainly and help you find a licensed professional. That is not the process failing. That is the process working.
Couples of all faiths and no faith. LGBTQIA+ couples. Interfaith and intercultural couples. Blended families. Engaged, newly engaged, or committed and thinking about it — this works the same, and you do not have to be planning a wedding at all.
Sessions are held online by video on weekday evenings. If I am officiating your wedding, take $100 off any package.
Packages
InvestmentAssessment and Debrief
$325The Prepare/Enrich assessment for both of you, plus one 90-minute session walking through your results together.
The Preparation Series
$750The assessment plus three sessions, working through communication, conflict, money, family and expectations, with a workbook you keep.
The Extended Series
$1,150The assessment plus five sessions, adding deeper work on finances, family planning, and merging two sets of traditions.
Where I serve
Core area & travelAll of Maryland, the District of Columbia and the eastern panhandle of West Virginia — Annapolis, Baltimore, Frederick, Columbia, Silver Spring, the upper Eastern Shore, Harpers Ferry and Shepherdstown included.
New YorkI am originally from New York and hold a few dates each season for the five boroughs, Long Island, Westchester and the Hudson Valley. They are set in advance and fill early.
A limited number of ceremonies further out each season, with a flat travel fee quoted when you book.
- Delaware: Wilmington, Lewes, Rehoboth Beach and Bethany Beach.
- Pennsylvania: York, Gettysburg, Lancaster, Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Chester County.
- Maryland: Ocean City, the lower Eastern Shore and Deep Creek Lake.
- New Jersey: The southern counties and the Shore.
Destination ceremonies are priced as a full weekend, travel and lodging included. Only a few each year, so reach out early.
I have spent twenty years standing in front of rooms.
I am an ordained non-denominational interfaith minister and a registered wedding officiant serving Maryland, DC and the surrounding region.
Before this, I spent two decades building and running workforce and training programs, which meant standing in front of rooms of people and holding their attention on days that mattered to them. That turns out to be most of this job. A wedding ceremony is a short, high-stakes piece of public speaking in front of everyone the couple loves, and doing it well is a skill, not a personality trait.
I work with couples of all faiths and no faith, LGBTQIA+ couples, interfaith and intercultural couples, blended families, and couples marrying in English. If your family is complicated, if two traditions need to sit in the same ceremony, or if someone important is going to be difficult about it, tell me. I have handled harder rooms.
You can write your ceremony yourself from start to finish. You can hand me a few notes and let me build it. You can do something in between. All three work, and I will tell you honestly which one I think fits you after we talk.
What I do not do is plan your wedding. I handle the ceremony and the marriage license, and I do both carefully. I am glad to recommend a photographer, a florist or a venue when you want one, but your day stays yours to plan.
Ceremony moments
A few frames
Questions couples ask
Good to knowDo we have to be religious?
No. I write ceremonies that are fully secular, fully religious, and everything in between. I will ask what you want and build to that.
Can you marry us if we are a same-sex couple?
Yes — gladly and wholeheartedly. Your ceremony will center your relationship, your story, and the people and traditions that matter to you.
We come from two different faiths. Can you handle that?
Yes. Interfaith and intercultural ceremonies are a large part of my practice. The work is finding the shape that honors both traditions without turning your wedding into a negotiation, and that is a conversation I have had many times.
Can we write our own vows?
Please do. I will tell you where they fit best and how long is too long, which is the part most couples want help with.
Do you handle the marriage license?
Yes. You obtain it from the county clerk. I verify it before the ceremony, complete my portion, and file it within your jurisdiction's deadline — and where the clerk's office offers confirmation of receipt, I follow up until I have it. Requirements and deadlines vary by state and county, and I track them so you do not have to.
Tell me your date and where you are getting married.
Send me your date, your venue or town, and anything you already know about the ceremony you want. I reply within one business day, usually sooner. Interested in premarital preparation instead, or on top of a ceremony? Mention it here — it is a standalone service.
Maryland · Washington, DC · Eastern panhandle of West Virginia