Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Mills.
Hi Emily, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My name is Emily Mills and I’ve been lucky enough to work as a licensed wedding officiant since 2017. I have performed over 300 weddings, each uniquely beautiful and so worthy of celebration! I began small with performing weddings for dear friends, but soon found that my love of love needed more stories. I began performing weddings across the state of Michigan and have found that every year that I am still surprised by the depth, beauty, and tremendous possibility of the people who choose to commit to their person in this way. It’s a beautiful reminder that love can happen at any point in your life- some of my favorite couples were in their 70s!
Throughout my life, I have worked as a writer and public speaker. From slam poetry performances, to capstone addresses, to comedy shows, to teaching these skills to high school students and immigrant communities for 9 years, I have spent my life figuring out how to put things into words. Writing and performing ceremonies combined these skills, and also allowed me to support my LGBTQ+ community by making sure folks have access to getting married how, when, and to whom they want with joy every step of the way.
When I’m not happily typing away, you can find me backpacking, reading copious amounts of sci-fi, attempting to perfect a pasta puttanesca recipe, and hanging out with my cat Howie (full name, Howie Doin’).
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has definitely had its ups and downs! Starting this business, I had planned on it being a supplemental source of income and joy- I never expected it to be any bigger than a few weddings each year, and did this work alongside my other jobs! I was working as a full time public school English teacher, an ESL teacher in the evenings, and also a wedding officiant on the weekends. As that became less tenable, especially with the pandemic, it coincided with an increase in wedding requests allowing me to adjust my work load to focus more on this small business. There have been ups and downs with the business (everything from a website update that exploded the whole thing, to the difficulties of running a logistics, planning, outreach, and work of business by myself), but I feel so lucky to do this work. I hope to be able to continue this labor of love for as long as I can!
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I specialize in connection and the written word! I write custom wedding ceremonies that speak true to the couple I write them for- the most common feedback I get is that it felt like a dear friend wrote it. Which! By the time we’ve finished working together, having gone through interviews and edits and laughter along the way, that’s usually true! I think I’m most proud of how much working with people has changed my perspective on what love is. When I first started, I relied on what I thought I knew about love– love being a unifier, a universal truth– but it took working with people who bravely shared their experiences and realities for me to realize that love has never been one thing. I worked with one couple who, after being together for 10 years, having traveled the world together on the back of a motorcycle, found themselves in dealing with terminal illness and the loss of insurance coverage. As we talked, there was the current beneath everything they said. Under every sentence the woman was saying, “I’m sorry that this is what happened to us, my love” and her partner responded every time with “there is no where else I would rather be than here.” After that moment, I realized that love is so much deeper than the storybook lines. From that point on, I started listening for what was said under every sentence, what each person’s was actually saying. I still think about this couple- how beautiful their connection was, even in the face of grief, and how powerful it was to look in the face of that and celebrate their love still, despite, because.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I am an avid traveler and backpacker! I’ve backpacked through Iceland, Nepal, and the Alps, and have surprisingly few blisters to show for it (though so many scrapes as I never look where I’m walking).
Pricing:
- 100- Simple Signing
- 400- Simple and Sweet Package
- 600- Fully Custom Package
Contact Info:
