We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rebecca Wiglama a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rebecca, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I started officiating weddings after one of my best childhood friends asked me to officiate hers and I fell in love with the job. But I think that Oak City Ceremonies, the officiating company I now run, was born in the year that followed. It was 2020 so the wedding industry was one of many that was hit hard by the pandemic. By the end of the year many couples were starting to realize that things weren’t going to change drastically anytime soon and making alternate plans. I performed a lot of small marriages for couples for whom the courthouse was inaccessible or who just weren’t interested in getting married at the detention center, which is where my county was doing them during Covid. And the variety and stories I experienced really shaped my idea of what I wanted my business to be: I wanted to focus on service, both for the big, gorgeous events that I knew would return after Covid, and for the quiet, deeply personal events that I knew there would always be demand for, even after people weren’t worried about the pandemic anymore.

I’ve married military couples with difficult schedules, couples who don’t have the support of local friends and family and need someone who can provide witnesses for them, people who are home-bound due to physical disabilities, and many, many other situations that have touched my heart. I’ve spent a lot of time helping couples with whom one of them is in prison figure out how to jump through the hoops of getting married while one member is incarcerated, and many have told me that no one else was willing to help. I try to serve those couples with just as much love as I give to my higher-end couples. A couple of months ago I held a sweet little baby so that his parents could rummage through the trunk of their car, which was full of clothes and baby stuff, to find their marriage license. I found out that they’d just lost their housing and that’s why all of their belongings were in the car. Things like this are just a strong reminder to me that big, fancy weddings are truly a privilege, and I think it’s important to keep that in perspective in this industry. As a result of these experiences I have chosen to keep the cost of my courthouse alternative/small ceremonies very low even now that we are booking much more expensive weddings and offering a very premium service for our more high-end couples.

And we also try to bring that mission of service to those high-end couples, writing awesome, personal ceremonies for them and creating something really special for them. I love being able to tell couples that I’m not going to put things in their ceremony that they don’t want, that whatever dreams they have are totally do-able, and then exceeding their expectations. Every love story I write makes me so happy and I love the privilege of celebrating all my amazing couples and writing them a ceremony that brings them and their guests joy. I feel so honored when they entrust their personal stories and moments to me.
I recently had a couple call me up a few months before their ceremony and I ended up being the first person to know that they were unexpectedly expecting a baby. We talked about whether they had family support, what their feelings and concerns were, and how the news might change their plans for their wedding. Later I was one of the first to know that the baby had miscarried and to mourn with them. At the wedding I somehow ended up being the one on the phone with the florist when the bridal bouquet wasn’t delivered correctly– the couple just thought of me before anyone else. If I had all the time in the world I would do this for free, I just can’t express how blessed I feel to be able to share such special moments with and to earn the trust of my couples. That feeling has really shaped our mission of service.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a wife, mother of four adorable (and often sassy) kiddos, and a creative to the bone. Prior to finding my calling as a wedding officiant I spent ten years as a stay-at-home jack of all trades: I love to paint, draw, construct creative Halloween costumes, bake fancy cakes and artisan sourdough pizzas, build furniture, and plenty of other random hobbies. Writing has also always been a love of mine, and I appreciate the opportunity to use that skill in my business.

My company is Oak City Ceremonies, and we serve the Triangle Area of North Carolina (primarily Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill) in creating and performing custom, personal wedding ceremonies. A few months into officiating weddings professionally I invited one of my close friends, Emily, to join me in this adventure– I had been thinking how much having two officiants would benefit a business like mine in case of illness or accident, and I had always known that if anyone I knew could be an amazing officiant it was Emily. She gave me an enthusiastic “Yes!” and our brand, Oak City Ceremonies, was born! Emily also speaks fluent Spanish, so her joining me allowed us to offer bilingual weddings which has been a lot of fun.

Because I am a creative and a writer, our ceremonies are very much individually crafted. While Emily and I both officiate weddings, I run the entire business arm and write all the ceremonies. We love to get the audience laughing, crying, and feeling like a part of this amazing thing that’s happening rather than just polite viewers. The other day a photographer told me that she’d never seen a ceremony like what we did, she loved how relaxed everyone was and that we were having fun. I always ask our couples what kind of tone they want to set for their ceremony, and 99% of them tell me that they want something lighthearted– today’s couples largely aren’t looking for the solemn affair that is what most of us imagine a traditional wedding ceremony to be, and that’s where we shine! We still have those really special moments that are full of meaning and all the feels, but we also want you to enjoy your ceremony and look back on it with joy.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

When my best friend asked me to officiate her wedding I thought it would be a meaningful opportunity and obviously I was delighted to be a part of her wedding, but I never dreamed that it would turn into what it has. I worked hard to understand what made a great officiant and write her an awesome ceremony, and had a blast doing it. Enough people were surprised that it was my first time officiating that I thought, “I’d love to do it again–why not throw together a quick website and see if anyone’s interested?” This was in the fall of 2020 so the wedding industry was very slow, and I started out doing small elopements here and there, then small backyard weddings, and building up some reviews and experience. At that point it was still very much a side-hustle. By fall of 2021 Emily had joined me and we were starting to do more weddings at venues and getting noticed by local wedding vendors, and that’s where things started to get real. In the last year it’s felt like more of a full-time thing and I am truly amazed at the growth we’ve experienced! If you’d told me a year ago that I’d have to say “no” to fifteen couples for a single date because both Emily and I were already booked that day I would have imagined that happening much farther in the future, but somehow we’re already there!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

We try to give our very best to every one of our couples, no matter what price-point they’re booking us at, and that shows up in our reviews and other people in the industry notice it, too. And we create awesome ceremonies– I’ve had a ton of other wedding vendors tell me things like, “That was the best wedding ceremony I’ve ever seen!” I’ve really appreciated that we haven’t had to rely as much on payed advertising recently thanks to recommendations from people who have seen us do our work!

Contact Info:

• Website: OakCityCeremonies.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oakcityceremonies/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RebeccaWiglamaWeddingOfficiant

Image Credits
Veritas Photography Laura Memory Photography Radian Photography Him & Her Photo Long Yau Photography Sarah Sekaly Photography