Youngstown entrepreneur specializes in customized weddings

Jeremy Sayers, wedding officiant and founder of Always Yours Weddings, said he began officiating weddings as a fluke in 2017 when a friend asked him to marry her and her fiancé. He specializes in ceremony scripts that are specific to each couple. 

[EDITOR’S NOTE — Each week, this feature section, “Movers and Makers,” will feature the stories of the movers, launchers, entrepreneurs and makers who contribute to the vitality of the Mahoning Valley. This section is supported by our first community partner, Farmers National Bank.]

Always Yours Weddings provides customized wedding officiant services to ceremonies “of all sizes for all walks of life” in the Mahoning Valley. 

Jeremy Sayers, wedding officiant and founder of Always Yours Weddings, said he began officiating weddings as a fluke in 2017 when a friend asked him to marry her and her fiancé. 

“It was actually a Pokemon-themed wedding. They were some huge Pokemon fans. So I tried to incorporate that as much as I could into [the ceremony],” Sayers said. 

That first, nontraditional ceremony set into motion what Sayer specializes as a wedding officiant — ceremony scripts that are specific to each couple. 

Sayers told Mahoning Matters that every couple that books a ceremony through Always Yours Weddings will get a “wedding workshop” four-to-six weeks before the wedding. 

“One thing I like to pride myself on is I’m not a standard wedding officiant where I just show up the day of the wedding and read a traditional script. I like to get to know the couple I’m going to marry,” he said. 

“I like to have a wedding workshop with a couple, get to know them, ask them a list of questions and kind of get a feel for personality. After we finish that workshop, I write a custom wedding script to their liking and that fits them by putting in little jokes that they have between one another or maybe quotes from movies, books, TV … anything that just really makes them a couple,” he added. 

Sayers also provides a version of the script to the couple via Google Docs to view before the wedding, and prints out a version for the wedding planner, photographer and DJ the day of the wedding. 

“[I print a script] so whoever is involved kinda has a cue,” he said. “I actually had the videographer at my last wedding say she’s been doing this for years, and nobody has ever done that for her.” 

Although Sayers found a passion for officiating weddings in 2017, he didn’t launch Always Yours Weddings until 2019, a year after being diagnosed with heart failure.

“I thought I had a respiratory issue and after listening to my wife telling me ‘You need to go to the doctor,’ I finally listened. And it turns out, I was in heart failure,” Sayers said of the August 2018 diagnosis. 

After an extended stay at Trumbull Regional Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic, Sayer’s said the heart condition is at the point now where it’s “manageable,” but he was unable to pursue other career aspirations as a result. 

That’s when the door opened for a full-time wedding officiant gig and Always Yours Weddings was born. The company is named in honor of Sayer’s wife, Maggie, who’s a huge Harry Potter fan and encouraged him to officiate that first wedding. 

Always Yours Weddings offers three wedding packages. 

The Elopement Package, ranging from$50-$150, is for a couple getting married in a short time frame and/or with a guest list of up to 10 people. 

“It’s also used for, ‘Hey, I’m looking for a wedding officiant. I’m getting married the day after tomorrow.’ I would like to be able to provide them my full service, but unfortunately, two days just isn’t enough time. So I kind of try and do something a little personal, but it’s not the whole blown out, full ceremony that they would usually get,” Sayers said. 

The Small and Intimate Package, ranging from $150-$225, is for couples with a guest list up to 25 people. 

“We do the wedding workshop … before the wedding. I offer them some limited script revisions so they can look at what’s going to be said and change anything that they want. They get a copy of their wedding script the day of and I typically show up at least half an hour early.” 

The Full Wedding Package, ranging from $225-$300, is offered to ceremonies with unlimited guests. 

In addition to the “wedding workshop” couples will receive a fully customized ceremony, access to the script ahead of time and early arrival to the ceremony. The package also offers 24/7 contact with Sayers. 

All wedding packages provide free pre-booking consultation as well as a free wedding rehearsal.

“Some [officients] charge extra [for rehearsals], I include it with my package. If you don’t have a wedding planner, I’ll step in and kind of run the rehearsal. Like I said, no extra charge and we’ll get things as perfect as we can for the ceremony,” he said. 

Always Yours Weddings is offering a free wedding ceremony at Full Spectrum Outreach’s Pride In The Valley Festival on July 31 to any couple who wants to get married at the festival with a valid Ohio marriage license. 

Sayers said he wanted to get involved with Full Spectrum Outreach after attending the first Pride In the Valley festival in 2019. The wedding ceremony was initially planned for the 2020 festival, but was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The ceremony will be at the gazebo in Warren’s Courthouse Square, and free photography services will be provided by Rachel Myers Photography. Couples will go up to the gazebo one at a time and have a personalized script, courtesy of Myers. 

Couples who pre-register at alwaysyoursweddings.com will receive a ‘wedding workshop’ in advance. However, the ceremony will still be open to any couple the day of the festival, regardless if they pre-registered. 

Couples who do not pre-register will not have a personalized ceremony, instead, they will get to choose between four pre-written scripts. 

“Hopefully, we can do something that everyone will enjoy. It’s going to be a little different environment because it’s not totally the wedding vibe as you would normally have it. But at least something where we can have guests [and] maybe some music,” he said. 

“For me, it’s just spreading the message of love. I mean, with everything that’s going on in the world today, you don’t see a whole lot of love. And I kind of want to reestablish that faith in humanity again and support people. No matter what color or sexual orientation you might be, everyone’s entitled to love,” he said. “Marriage, to me, is the biggest commitment you can show to love. So why shouldn’t everyone get married?”