Justice of the Peace - Mike Backer

Mike Backer did an amazing job officiating our wedding! He was a good blend of funny and sentimental. Our guests loved him!

Mike was recommended to us by our venue and we have no regrets. He did a great job! This was our second marriage and we wanted it to be light and informal. He listened to our request and tailored the ceremony for us. He made the day very special and enjoyable. Our guests even commented about how great he was. We strongly recommend him!

Mike was wonderful to deal with from the first phone call til after the ceremony. We were welcomed into his home and had a great feeling on our very special day. I especially liked the written ceremony and vows of our wedding that Mike gave us at the end as a keepsake. Mike made the ceremony very special and personal and we thank him for that. Our Best, Judy and John DeGiacomo

When you pick out an Officiant, you have to realize that that person is going to be part of your wedding. Think about that for a sec. Actually, they're not even just part of the wedding--they're part of the ceremony! You know, the really, really important part of the wedding. But that's exactly why Mike Backer was awesome for our wedding. Let me take you through it: (Note: this review is slightly long. You can let the 5 star rating speak for itself, but seeing as your wedding is sort of an important thing, I encourage you to read through.) My wife and I didn't really know what we were doing when we were going to be married; we just knew the law made us have an officiant. We were doing a more non-traditional, small wedding so we wanted somebody with a personality. After browsing a couple of JPs, we went off a recommendation and checked out Mike's site. It's fantastic, check it out (http://www.mikebacker.com/). So we decided to talk to him, and sure enough he was a very nice, down-to-earth fun guy. Very professional too. The most critical thing he helped us with early on was walking us through the whole marriage process. Just like anything concerning the government, there is a lot of official procedure involved in becoming married. Mike let us know step-by-step what we needed to do, and what he'd do for us. Mike was also very available and responsive. Whenever we had questions we could email him and soon get a reply, and we skyped with him as well (because he was a few towns over; though he offered to meet in person as well). Once we knew the basics of how to get married, we worked on our ceremony with Mike. He gave us a draft of how the ceremony would proceed well ahead of time, and was very open to any changes or edits. We added in two of our own sections, and also opted for a nice idea Mike had where we would offer flowers to our mothers-in-law as an elegant sort of welcome-to-the-new-(combined)-family gesture. On the wedding day, Mike really came through and made our ceremony memorable. He brought the ceremony proceedings with him, printed on nice paper and arranged in a folder so that we could keep it afterward. But where he really made a difference was conducting the ceremony itself. He was of course quite calm, nice, and stately as you'd imagine. But what made things amazing were his personality and improvisations. His interactions with us and our guests were what made everything so nice. He's easygoing and ready with a joke, and ran a very smooth ceremony--one that we had never practiced beforehand! But most importantly, every part was sincere. From the sentiments on love and marriage to inserting a quick reprieve to let me kiss the bride one last time as a single lady, everything was candid and natural. During our reception I had tons of our wedding guests specifically compliment Mike and the way he led the ceremony. It was composed, but not rigid. Lovely and official, but very natural. Beautiful, but fun! And, he made sure we knew what the proper next steps were for filing our license, obtaining official copies, etc. So from top to bottom, Mike had our best interests in mind, and delivered every step of the way. I give him 5 out of 5 all around, and truthfully. I'll definitely use him for my next wedding. (Just kidding, just kidding!) Check him out, and if you think he'd be a good fit for you, talk to him!

My husband and I were very pleased with the ceramony performed and the personality and professionalism of our officiant Mike Backer. He comes highly recommended.

Mike is very easy-going and flexible when it comes to designing your own wedding ceremony and what you will say and do. He is extremely understanding, comforting, and easy to work with. He gives thoughtful ideas and time into making your day everything you hope for. We highly recommend him!!!!!

Wonderful, professional service in such short notice. Very reasonably priced, and accommodating. We loved the wording of the script - very deep and meaningful words - it brought me to tears. Thanks so much Mike!

I cannot say enough wonderful things about Mr. Backer. He wrote the most beautiful ceremony for my husband and I. Our situation was a little different. This was our second marriage and we wanted to have a small fairly non-traditional wedding. We had 30 guests and had an evening wedding. Cocktails for an hour, ceremony, followed by dinner and dancing. I also have 2 sons aged 10 and 12. Mr. Backer designed a ceremony that included my sons and made it about us as a family and not just my husband and I. About half way through the ceremony Mr. Backer asked my children to join us and form a circle. A symbol of our family coming together and creating an everlasting circle of love and family unity. It was beautiful. I would absolutely 100% recommend Michael Backer to anyone getting married. He was thoughful, kind, funny and the way he delivered the ceremony was perfect. Thanks

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Mike was great at our wedding couldnt have asked for any better

Thank you Mike for being a officiant at our wedding. He was so flexible and was always willing to give us suggestions to make our wedding a wonderful occassion. There were lot of useful suggestions he would give us. I would recommend him to be a officiant for weddings without any hesitation. He is very honest and friendly person and am lucky to have had him at our wedding.

Mike Backer was professional, helpful, and most importantly FUN to work with from beginning to end. He helped make our ceremony personal and unique to us, and brought a great sense of humor (which was most important to us). Mike was very accommodating, and went above and beyond what we had expected from a wedding officiant. We would highly recommend him to anyone that is considering him for their big day!

For the ceremony, Mike provided us with a binder that provided various options for each part of the ceremony. This binder made planning the ceremony a breeze! We ended up making very few alterations after picking the various pieces we wanted to include, but it was nice to know that Mike was willing to make any alterations we wanted. After the wedding we received many compliments on both the ceremony and Mike. At our initial meeting, Mike walked us through the marriage license process and showed us the paperwork that we would need to complete when we went to the town clerk. This information made the application process so easy. Mike also mailed in the paperwork right after the wedding so that we were able to pick up our official marriage license as soon as we returned from our honeymoon. We've already had the pleasure of recommending Mike to friends, who were recently married by him, and we strongly recommend him to you!

Mike was a wonderful Justice of the Peace. We wanted a simple ceremony with just the two of us outside. Mike wrote a beautiful ceremony and gave us a great suggestion on a perfect location. I highly recommend him to perform anyone wedding, we had our first meeting at hims home and we has so welcoming and open to all of our ideas. We could not thank him enough for making our special day amazing!!

His book of ideas for the ceremony was a great jumping point for piecing together our own personal ceremony. He always answered e-mails promptly, and was very professional. He was great at making the ceremony fun and really helped us make our day perfect.

I was worried about the right JP for my wedding and kept putting it off. So many weddings i have been to were very sappy or half the time i felt like i was at church. I knew i was going to be nervous on my wedding day and i didn't want to cry. After reading Mike's reviews on wedding wire and going to his website, i knew he would be perfect for us. He added humor to our ceremony and had me relaxed and laughing at times. He was easy to talk to and listened to our wishes. Our ceremony was wonderful. My husband and I are smiling or laughing in every pic. (we also had a 2 year old runnig around adding to the fun) I highly recommed his services.

Mike was truly a pleasure to work with. Professional, courteous, knowledgeable...everything you want in a vendor. He arrived on time for all events, responded to emails promptly, was flexible in meeting with us, and provided us a wealth of information for creating the perfect ceremony. On top of that, he performed a really wonderful ceremony. We received many compliments from friends and family, commenting what a heartfelt and fun ceremony we had. Mike knew when to insert humor and when to keep things serious. He really helped to make our day extra special. Highly recommended.

Mike was terrific! He was very prompt with getting back to me and helping me plan my ceremony and his services were very reasonably priced. He was extremely professional, yet still appropriately light-hearted, during our ceremony and my husband and I were extremely happy. I'd recommend him to everyone looking for a JP who will help make your day memorable.

I could not have asked for more from Mike, he was accomodating, understanding, and the ceremony was just perfect. Due to some employment changes, my wedding had to be reschedule with only 2 weeks notice, not only did Mike agree to perform our ceremony, but he was willing to work with our "unique" wedding venue. Our guests are still commenting on how sincere and special our ceremony was despite being in the middle of a Jimmy Buffett concert! I cannot say enough great things about Mike!

Mike Backer was an excellent JP! He worked with us in coming up with a new, unique way to symbolize our marriage and even customized our ceremony. He was well spoken and had a sense of humor, which was important to us when choosing our JP. His binder of ceremony options gave us a lot to pick and choose from, and even change according to what we wanted. He was the first, and only, JP we met with. We didn't need to meet with any one else!