Today's Guest: Miriam Jerris of The Wedding Connection in Huntington Woods, Michigan
Today's Host: John Bentley
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Miriam Jerris Transcript Page
Miriam Jerris Expert PageANNOUNCER: Welcome to the VTalk Radio Bridal Spotlight brought to you by www.weddingdetails.comyour complete planning wedding source. Now here's your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: Today on VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight we have Miriam Jerris. She is out of Hunting Woods, Michigan. She is the founder of the Wedding Connection. She is also a humanist minister and a psychotherapist, and we certainly appreciate you joining us on the program today, Miriam.
MIRIAM: Great, John, I'm happy to be here.
JOHN: Why don't you give our listening audience a little overview of what is the Wedding Connection and what are you up to?
MIRIAM: Sure. The Wedding Connection is primarily a wedding ceremony and wedding consultant business, although we do much more. We called it the Wedding Connection, because we really wanted the focus on weddings, and then we just branched out into a number of different things. We served the needs of people throughout their lifetime. So from birth to death, baby celebrations which are secular christening, and I do marital counseling and individual counseling. I do memorials and funerals in addition to all of the things related to the wedding industry.
JOHN: Ok, now you are an ordain minister, correct?
MIRIAM: I am.
JOHN: Ok. You are also a humanist minister.
MIRIAM: I am.
JOHN: What is a humanist minister.
MIRIAM: Well a humanist minister is somebody who ministers to the needs of people, and we focus on the human beings as being the center of whatever it is that we're celebrating. So in a wedding ceremony, the couple is the center of the celebration. It celebrates their love, their friendship, their commitment, their connection to family, and their connection to heritage. A humanist minister is a secular minister which seems a little bit like an oxy moron, but it really isn't. It's a person who focuses on the human aspects of the ceremony and the relationship of the couple, rather than on any kind of relationship with a God or any kind of supernatural being.
JOHN: Ok, now as well as being ordained in that area, you're also a Rabbi, aren't you?
MIRIAM: I am. I am. And the commonality is really the humanism. I do come from a Jewish background. I am trained as a Rabbi, but I'm also a humanist Rabbi, so again, it's the same kind of thing we focus on Jewish culture, Jewish identity, but the relationship is to the human aspects of those celebrations.
JOHN: Good. Now I understand you have a partner in your business.
MIRIAM: I do.
JOHN: Why don't you tell us who that is.
MIRIAM: It's Stephen Stawicki, and we have been together in this business since 1990. We thought that would be very good partners in that he detail oriented and organized. He comes from an advertising production background, and he was very, very well suited to be an event planner, a wedding planner, wedding consultant, wedding coordinator, and we'll talk about all those different kinds of things, and we're a very good match in that way, because I do the ceremonial aspect of things and the psychotherapeutic aspects of things, and he does the planning and coordinating.
JOHN: Now I understand he is a master bridal consultant and there are only a few of those in this country, let alone the whole world.
MIRIAM: Exactly. I think there's less than 40 in the world, and he's designated a master bridal consultant by the Association of Bridal Consultants. He went through their entire professional training process and the master bridal consultant is the highest designation you can receive.
JOHN: Now, not only is he your partner in business, he's your partner in life, isn't he?
MIRIAM: He is.
JOHN: That's wonderful. Sounds like a great connection you two have together.
MIRIAM: It's a pretty good combo.
JOHN: Yeah, sounds like it. Ok, let's talk about the different aspects of the service that you provide. Now you hear different people, or you hear different advertisings for wedding planners, wedding consultants, bridal consultants, wedding coordinator. What is all of this, and is it all the same thing?
MIRIAM: Well when you're facing a wedding production, you've got various stages of that production. At the very beginning, somebody needs to plan the whole event. And obviously the bride, her mother, and her girl friends can do it, or you can hire a wedding planner who comes in at the very beginning of the process and helps put everything in place. Finding the place, getting your vendors in place and the rest of that. A consultant would do something a little less than that in that they'd say, ok, here's a list of photographers go get them. Here's a list of caterers. Check them out. Where the planner would probably go with you to many of those meetings and help you more specifically in the process. And then the coordinator is somebody who basically handles all of the details of the wedding day and you basically hire them some months before the event, you give them a list of your vendors, they help you create your time line so that the whole day goes smoothly, and then they execute the wedding. They make sure it goes smoothly and that everything is in place on the day of.
JOHN: Well believe it or not, we need to take a break, and we've got so much more to talk about. This is such a broad type business that we could really get into some specifics. Before we take the break, though, could you kindly give your website and contact information, Miriam.
MIRIAM: Sure, I'd be happy to do that. It's www.theweddingconnection.net.
JOHN: Is there a phone number that people can reach you by?
MIRIAM: Sure. (248) 543-7396.
JOHN: We're in the studio with Miriam Jerris. She is out of Hunting Woods, Michigan. She is also a humanist minister and a psychotherapist of The Wedding Connection, and you're listening to VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight. We'll be right back after these messages.
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ANNOUNCER: We now return you to VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: Welcome back to VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight. We are in the studio today with Miriam Jerris. She is out of Hunting Woods, Michigan, and she is the founder of The Wedding Connection. She is also a humanist minister and a psychotherapist, and we are happy to have her on VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight. Welcome back, Merriam.
MIRIAM: Thank you.
JOHN: We've been talking about many aspects of...or some of the things that you do as a service to bridal couples. Let's talk a little bit about the community that you're serving. Obviously, you're in the southern part of Michigan. Tell us about some of the communities that you're working out of.
MIRIAM: Sure. We really serve metro-Detroit. We go in all the areas here from the city of Detroit itself to Dearborn and all the way up to Rochester, Michigan, out to Ann Arbor, and I will go anywhere in the world that somebody wants to bring me.
JOHN: Very good. Have service; will travel.
MIRIAM: Absolutely.
JOHN: What about facilities down there in Michigan. Are there any particular facilities that you seem to do a lot of work out of?
MIRIAM: Yes, there are, and I'm very, very privileged to work at some wonderful facilities including the Henry Ford Museum in Greenfield Village, the Henry Ford Estate, Dearborn Inn in the Dearborn area. Atison Oaks out in Romeo, the Royal Park Hotel in Rochester, Michigan. I deal with a lot of the Marriotts in Livonia and other places. Been out to Greenmead and this last weekend was in Ann Arbor. I was at Cobblestone Farm, and we go to Wellers a lot which is in Flint, Michigan. So it's a pretty broad based area. The golf clubs, the country clubs, anywhere that people look to have a non-traditional wedding. It's really kind of the market that we serve. People that are looking for something a little different, a little unique. Someone that will deal with non-religious, non-denominational, multi-cultural. I do a lot of mixed culture marriage. They look for places that are a little bit unique as well.
JOHN: So you service a broad array of types of customers, don't you then?
MIRIAM: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, one of my specialties is working with couples where one partner is Jewish and the other partner comes from another background. And that's where my wedding coordination comes in, but this last weekend, I did a Jewish/Buddhist ceremony. I do Jewish/Hindu ceremonies, and I work with a lot of people who are just secular. Grown up Catholic, not particularly observant, looking for a meaningful ceremony rather than a ceremony that is denominational in some way.
JOHN: Now, Miriam, do you also service the gay community?
MIRIAM: Absolutely and it's just such a privilege and honor to be able to work with gay couples and the fact that you can get married legally in Ontario as a gay couple is a wonderful thing, and I am certified to be able to do those legal ceremonies in Canada and Ontario.
JOHN: Ok, now you officiate or take care of other events outside of the marriage ceremony too, don't you?
MIRIAM: I do. And again, with modern couples who are not necessarily attached to a particular religion, they still want to celebrate the birth of a child, and so I do birth celebrations and baby namings and they're wonderful events. Very moving. And it's particularly gratifying when I'm working with a family who I've married, and then get to name their babies. That's particularly delicious, and I also work on the other end of the life cycle. I officiated a wedding some years ago and somebody came up to me and said, do you do funerals, because I like your style, and I know that if you did a funeral or a memorial service, what it would be about is who I am...I was speaking to the person who was actually curious about the funeral, who I am rather than some kind of a religious based ceremony, and that's really how I want people to remember me.
JOHN: Now being a trained minister and psychotherapist, you're uniquely qualified to provide counseling for couples too in these situations, aren't you?
MIRIAM: Yes. What I say to a lot of...first of all as a benefit of my services, I give every couple I marry one free counseling session. And that free counseling session is good from the day of their wedding til their first wedding anniversary. And I do that because I want to show them that I am not only committed to making their wedding celebration a wonderful event, but I'm committed to their relationship and want to be there to help them when they hit the bumps, because we all do.
JOHN: Certainly. Now I'm going to get this in, because I know that a lot of couples these days are non-traditional and are actually involved in writing the ceremony themselves. Do you provide a service that helps people write the ceremony?
MIRIAM: Absolutely. I offer a Create Your Own Ceremony booklet, and every couple gets that. They go through the booklet, make choices, and then I'm there to help them put it together and make it work well. I give them suggestions for readings. I give them suggestions of vows so if they don't feel they can write, they've got the material where they can create something that's very, very meaningful for them. And what I hear most often is we loved the ceremony. It was so them, and that's my goal. To make the ceremony about the couple getting married.
JOHN: Excellent. Now we are in the studio Merriam Jerris. She is out of Hunting Woods, Michigan. She is also a humanist minister and a psychotherapist of The Wedding Connection, which is your one stop business for personal service as well as with her husband, Stephen Stawicki. He's a master bridal consultant. We certainly appreciate you joining us today on VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight, Miriam.
MIRIAM: Well it was great to be with you and thanks so much for the opportunity.
JOHN: You're welcome. Now before we go, why don't you give us your website address and phone number real quick.
MIRIAM: Sure (248) 543-7396; www.theweddingconnection.net. You've been listening to VTalk Radio's Bridal Spotlight. I'm your host, John Bentley, signing off. Have a great day everyone.
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