Elopement vistas are prevalent on the Central Coast. Finding the perfect location for your wedding is not easy when you don’t live where you want to get married. Best to ask your Wedding Officiant. Featured photo: Tim Latendresse Officiant Ric Latendresse is a seasoned and skilled wedding Officiant that can make any situation perfect for the bride and groom. A wedding at a Central Coast Beach by Olive Tree Officiant Ric Latendresse. An elopement ceremony created specifically for each couple and tailored to their values and beliefs. Contact: ...

Wedding officiants aren’t easy to find. Ric Latendresse has made it his life’s work to ensure that couples can find the officiant they want for their wedding, elopement or vow renewal, at the price they can afford. History: I have spent most of my life along the coast of California and over the last twenty years in San Luis Obispo, California. The beauty and energy of the Central Coast inspire my artistic expression which is the force behind my creative work with Olive Tree Officiating. Each ceremony is customized to suit the individualized needs, wishes, and desires for the perfect wedding ceremony. Work: For over thirty years I worked in Christian Music Publishing. My experience covered the interpersonal relationships of both the church and the secular assemblage. Why do I enjoy my work as a Wedding Officiant? Because, “Officiating is a joy that brings me into constant contact with exciting people at an exciting time of their lives.” Family: It’s all about family. Marriage is about creating a new family. It starts with two and then grows into more. Wedding Officiating matters for society because couples who commit to one another bring stability and the power of change to our communities. In short: two are better than one, and I have been married to my beautiful bride for 46 years. Contact Ric! Due to my extensive background there isn’t a ceremony I can’t perform. My passion is to create ceremonies that incorporate the couple’s values and beliefs. Each ceremony is customized to suit the individualized needs, wishes, and desires for the perfect wedding...

The wedding ceremony backstory is the ideal way to communicate the specifics about your love for your future spouse. The benefit of taking the time to write the wedding backstory includes but is not limited to, introducing your future spouse to the other side of the family, telling your closest family and friends why you’re in love, and just because it’s fun to talk about your future spouse and all the things you love about them. A quality backstory gets his and her opinions. It can’t be a complete backstory if it’s one sided. The Backstory should enlighten both “sides of the aisle.” All of your ceremony guests should feel like they know the bride and groom more deeply after hearing the backstory. For example. “Beaux and Soriah met like so many modern couples meet: online. After a causal online chat or two they decided to meet up. In fact, she approached him first. After they met, Beaux said his first impression of Soriah was, and I quote, “Beautiful inside and out.” They quickly learned that they had much in common including kids, family, and soccer. And of course, they shared a love for the local burger grill where they enjoyed their first lunch date. In Beaux’s words, “the conversation was smooth and easy, and I couldn’t wait for number two.” When writing the backstory don’t look for uniformity. Your ceremony planning specialist will help iron out the kinks in language so that your Officiant is able to clearly and accurately communicate the specifics of your history together. It’s ok for this type of writing to include two separate voices: the groom’s and the bride’s. It’s ok to use a template. After all: this particularly feet of writing has been done before. Let a professional officiant guide you through the process those that there are as few bumps in the road as possible. If you ask Beaux what he admires about Soriah he’ll say, “her guts, and her willingness to fight through the tough years.” Beaux loves the way Soriah treats others, but most of all, he loves how she treats his children. She loves them, “with no strings attached.” The right backstory includes what you love about your future spouse and nothing else. Tell people what you’ve learned not what they expect to hear, or what you think they want to hear. Be specific whenever possible. “The list of the things Soriah loves about Beaux is not short. It’s pretty much everything. But the list definitely includes his smile, his faith and how she loves him, sharing fires outside, their travels, dinners, a similar sense of humor…and her foot rubs are the best!Beaux can’t wait to see her every day, hold her, talk with her....

“…Nor Wind, nor Rain, nor Raising Sea Tide, shall keep me from my appointed wedding rounds.” It’s sometimes hard to imagine the impact outside forces have on wedding ceremonies. Too often couples have had to make numerous adjustments, reschedule, and/or cancel, to accommodate various issues. Thankfully on this day, Michael, his bride to be Nancy, and the wedding guests decided that rain and a rising sea tide would not hinder what would be a wonderful memory on the shoreline of Avila Beach. The rain only made for what was a very unique day of memories and fun. We all had a great time and will never forget the exceptional day it turned out to be. At Olive Tree Officiating we are flexible and will work with all accommodations to satisfy our clients. Contact: ...

Writing a great backstory doesn’t have to be a terrible, confusing or dismaying experience. Take a minute to get some perspective on this amazingly important ceremony elaboration. The power of the backstory should not be underestimated. Though many of your wedding guests may know you, they do not know your significant other. Even those friends and family members whom you’ve invited probably know you as who you were. They may not know who you’ve become since you were a child. Consider that your significant other has had a dramatic influence on you. Their influence is probably greater than any other person on the planet, even those family and friends you grew up with.  It’s safe to say: no one really knows you on your wedding day! There are several purposes of the backstory. Each purpose may resonate with your more or less as you begin to put your thoughts on paper. The first major purpose of The backstory is to bring your audience up to speed. Even those with whom you’ve kept in touch will benefit from hearing what the past few years has brought. The backstory presents the recent events of your life, to your audience, in your words. Second, the backstory introduces the “stranger” in your family’s life. Your spouse is probably unknown to most of the assembly. This is his/her “big reveal” so-to-speak. Who better to introduce them to your family and friends than you? Finally, The backstory enlightens, inspires and excites your friends and family to embrace your new married life. This might be the most important part of The backstory. Those present at your wedding probably constitute some of the most significant people in your life. They will remain significant to you and your spouse for decades to come. The backstory has the power to call your guests to action! This is your opportunity to help your family and friends fall in love with the best qualities of your spouse; the qualities that you find most attractive and meaningful. The backstory helps your family and friends “commit” to their part in supporting the couple and the marriage. In one sense, it’s not just you whose “taking the plunge” on your wedding day. Your family and friends are also going to be faced with a daily decision to honor, love and support their new friend and family member, your spouse. The backstory helps to present your spouse as the wonderful and loving person you’ve come to know over the last few months. Help your family and friends love your spouse with the same depth that you have come to love them. After all, marriage is about bringing the past and present of two would-be-strangers together in a meaningful way, in...

The wedding backstory should be easy to write. Here’s a simple guide to making the process of writing your wedding backstory a bit less difficult. Don’t Include Everything It should include a few of the main events that led you to decide to get married. These events may be different or the same for the bride and the groom. It’s important to share both the bride and groom’s perspective of these events so that the backstory includes the perspectives of both. Include historical images and some information that is helpful towards describing your present life. Be sure to exclude embarrassing, historical facts and experiences. These don’t typically make for an enjoyable reading experience for your audience. Bad Example: Bob grew up in rural Indiana, the son of a farmer and a hippie. He spent his days running through corn fields, hoping for the day he might leave his obscure beginnings and ascend the ladder of Corporate America as a hedge fund manager. Bob really likes money and thinks people who don’t like money are stupid. Steve was raised by a blacksmith in downtown Detroit, always wondering where his next meal would come from. Good Example: Steve and Jane came from very different upbringings. For this reason, it was fortuitous that they met in the Cayman Islands. Jane was studying the reproductive habits of plankton. Steve was getting sunburned on the beach. Think Short Term Historical information may be relevant, funny and/or enlightening, and it should only be used if it helps your audience get to know you in the present. Likewise, backstories can get very long and may become tedious for the audience to listen to. Think short term for the sake of keeping the entire ceremony within 20 minutes. The typical backstory will take about 2-3 minutes to read. This equates to about 1 page, double spaced. Good Example: Matt and Sophie met like every other couple: skydiving in the Alps! That’s right, whereas most couples “fall for each other” after eating pasta together, these two just skipped that part and fell from a perfectly good airplane together. Answer a Few Significant Questions In general, the backstory should answer three key questions for your audience: Question #1: What were the circumstances that led to the couple’s coming together? Bad Example: Shawna and Mike never really wanted to get married. Shawna thought she’d die alone with her birds. Mike thought love was for weak people with no real aspirations for life. The sentiments might be true but they are not helpful for communicating a story that ultimately will conclude with (we all hope), “And they all lived happily ever after.” Too much cynicism tends to kill the mood of the backstory and...