Life Cycle Celebrant Kathi Roy: Customized Ceremonies For Weddings + Other Significant Events
Devoted and Wild Photography
Except for the song of birds flying overhead, all was still as morning dawned at a Dead Horse Point State Park canyon overlook outside of Moab. Then, officiant Kathi Roy rang the chime three times: twice for the two individuals getting married and once to honor their union during this September wedding ceremony.
As a Life Cycle Celebrant, Roy has married people on top of mountain passes, in meadows, in a town park, in Colorado National Monument and on the banks of the Colorado River. She has officiated ceremonies in backyards, at the famous Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs and on the rooftop of the historic Avalon Theatre in downtown Grand Junction.
Every wedding Roy officiates is different — each one tailored to create a sacred occasion reflecting the personalities, values and experiences of the couple getting married.
“I provide a personal, customized ceremony,” says Roy. “I tell their love story.”
In 2020, Roy hiked to the top of Storm King Mountain outside of Glenwood Springs to marry a couple at their favorite hiking area. Last year she also performed ceremonies at Alta Lakes outside of Telluride, on top of Engineer Pass between Lake City and Ouray and for a small gathering at an indoor venue in Buena Vista.
A resident of Palisade, in the heart of Colorado’s wine country, Roy travels throughout Colorado’s Western Slope, as well as southeast Utah, to create meaningful rituals and ceremonies for clients. She calls her business Wine Country Ceremonies.
Roy, 57, has performed rituals throughout her life with her own family. Six years ago, she sought formal training with the Celebrant Institute and Foundation, a New Jersey-based educational nonprofit that certifies people from around the world to perform and co-create customized ceremonies for weddings, funerals and other major life transitions, including milestone birthdays, graduations, pet loss rituals and baby welcoming ceremonies.
Roy has helped commemorate a wide variety of important life events.
For Child and Migrant Services, a nonprofit in Palisade that provides services for farmworkers and their families, Roy created a special Mother’s Day ritual for migrant and immigrant women whose mothers reside far away.
In the town’s Riverbend Park, Roy created a pet-loss ceremony to help a family say good-bye to their beloved dog who had passed.
A woman going through a divorce hired Roy to create a ceremony that empowered the client to take back her name and energy.
Despite a global pandemic, which led to many wedding postponements, Roy married 24 couples in 2020. (In a typical year she officiates between 22 to 32 weddings). For some couples eager to tie the knot, “love doesn’t wait,” explains Roy.
Creating a custom wedding ceremony begins with a personal interview with the couple followed by a questionnaire asking each of them questions to get them thinking about their stories, like “why they fell in love” or “what makes them laugh” and “how they first met.” Roy uses these personal anecdotes when composing a ceremony’s script.
“I find out what they love to do together, their aspirations for their marriage,” Roy says. “Sometimes we include passages from favorite songs.”
A friend or family member will sometimes offer a prayer or read a meaningful passage from a particular book. Couples who are blending families will sometimes say vows to the children, as well. Ceremonies can be lighthearted, religious or secular. She’s officiated many weddings where dogs were welcome.
“I don’t do cookie-cutter or fill-in-the-blank ceremonies. Every ceremony is different,” she adds.
Roy also officiates vow renewals, including one last year in Buena Vista where, after one couple’s wedding, the groom’s parents renewed their own vows.
The couple from Memphis, whose wedding took place at Dead Horse Point State Park, discovered Wine Country Ceremonies online. They knew they wanted to be married out West, and Roy helped them narrow down the location for their wedding.
“We interviewed on the phone,” says Irene (who preferred to use her first name only). “Kathi asked a lot of questions. She was extremely kind. She had great suggestions; she knew the area. She was everything we wanted.”
As of New Year’s Eve 2020, 10 weddings had already been booked for 2021.
For more information visit winecountryceremonies.net.
Originally published in the Spring 2021 issue