We were lucky to catch up with Cherise Klosner recently and have shared our conversation below.
Cherise , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
I (Cherise Klosner) am a travelling wedding officiant based in Tacoma, WA and I officiate weddings all over the PNW. Over the course of the past 6 years I have married over 600 couples in some of the most beautiful and elaborate places but what many folks don’t know is that I also get inquires from couples who are just looking for something simple. No large venue, no guest list, no tiered cake and for those couples I was meeting them just about anywhere. A public park, a coffee shop, or even their home. Whether they were hosting a large party or an intimate gathering one thing remained true, they were celebrating something special and with that came this idea of Sign and Celebrate. At first it was just the name of my offering, a play on words, we’ll sign your marriage license and then you can celebrate, but soon came the next phase of the idea and that was to have a place for these signings. I wanted a cute little office space where I could consistently invite couples to come sign their marriage license instead of having to decide whether or not the PNW rain would hold off long enough for us to go to a park or find a quiet corner inside of a cafe. I talked about this idea often and one day my dear friend and now business partner, Sam De La Cruz, asked what was holding me back. The answer was easy…money. She stepped in and began brainstorming ideas and looking into funding opportunities and before I knew it we had a plan. Sam was truly the catalyst to finding a way and Sign and Celebrate LLC was born.
Cherise , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Back in 2014 when my husband and I (Cherise) were planning our own wedding we had no idea who would marry us. We weren’t members of a church and were also planning our wedding in 3 weeks…that’s a story for another time…so we just needed someone to “make it official”. My best friend came to the rescue and said “I know a guy”, we said “great” and didn’t give it much thought. Our officiant did a phenomenal job with our ceremony and what struck us the most was how personal he made it. We didn’t even know that was an option and in the end the ceremony was our favorite part of the whole day. Fast forward to 2017 when I was asked by some dear friends to officiate their wedding and I knew immediately that I wanted to give them the same wonderful experience we had with a personalized ceremony. After the first time I was hooked. I fell in love with the whole process of creating and performing the ceremony. The moment stuck with me and when the Covid 19 pandemic happened and I was laid off from my dental assisting job I started my Instagram page @Another_One_Ties_The_Knot to market my services. It took off and I never looked back. I have worked so hard to make a name for myself and stand out in an industry where what typically matters most is how things look. For those couples who either couldn’t afford the 80k wedding or just didn’t want it, I wanted to have a place for them to come to and celebrate this next beautiful chapter in their lives together. Enter Sam with her beautiful spirit and drive. She is the kind of person who makes things happen. She was at a place in her life and career where she too was ready to make some changes and pivot towards becoming her own boss. We are both women of color, mothers, and wives ourselves who grew up looking for more. More access, more freedoms, more connection. Sign and Celebrate became our ticket to create those possibilities not only for ourselves but for our community as well. Our focus was to create a place where love is celebrated and can be done so on a smaller budget. With the help of friends and family we opened on January 1, 2025 and what a year it’s been. We have had the honor to marry over 25 couples, host several events, and bring our community together. Our packages start as low as $275 and cap off at just under $3300. We are just getting started and always striving to learn and enhance our offerings so that we can continue to be a safe space for all to celebrate.
How’d you meet your business partner?
This is actually such a fun and organic story. Cherise had a booth at a local wedding show when Sam and her family were walking through and checking things out. They sort of saw each other from across the room and gave that “hey girl” look that happens when black women see each other in places where there aren’t many folks who look like us. They struck up a conversation and later Sam reached out to Cherise to meetup. What’s funny is that Cherise thought Sam was wanting to set up a consultation and it turns out it was more of a “first friends date”. Instantly they connected over their childhoods and as they say, the rest is history.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
Sam was truly the catalyst to getting this business off the ground. She had always known she was destined to do something impactful and when the opportunity came she was the initial financial investor to get things going. From there she began researching ways to access grants that would further help us not only financially but also educationally. We have been lucky enough to be the recipient of three different grants, the Tacoma Black Fund, the Pierce County Business Accelerator, and Tacoma Spaceworks. These programs taught us how to manage our business and connected us to other local businesses which has been a huge blessing. You realize very quickly how small your community is but how big of an impact it can have and how that affects everything around you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.signandcelebrate.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/signandcelebratestudios/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SignandCelebrate/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/sign-and-celebrate-studios-tacoma?osq=sign+and+celebrate&override_cta=Request+quote+%26+availability
Image Credits
Merissa Humes Photo
Samahan Studio
Melanie Co Photo & Video
Julia Long Photography
Photography by Khira