Lynda Simons (center) weds her daughter, Jocelyn, to her now-son-in-law, Ben Rodriguez.
Photo by Parr Photo Co.

Pandemic Produces
New Wedding Officiants
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
F or those who chose to marry amid the pandemic,
their special days were often an exercise in
miniaturized joy. Miniature parties, miniature
ceremonies and miniature guest lists proliferated as
the prospect of waiting out the pandemic for wedded
bliss proved too much for many.

One upshot of a radically contracted wedding is
that many chose to fill roles that would normally go
to professionals with friends, family and others in
the immediate circle of the betrothed. Consequently,
people like Michelle Kagel, a professional officiant
and coach for officiants, found themselves flooded
with requests for advice during the pandemic. Kagel,
a former Hebrew school principal based in Exton, is
inundated with questions from people pressed into
service as officiants since the pandemic began.

8 MARCH 25, 2021
“[There have been] at least eight times where it’s
been like, ‘Hey, look, we need to have more than a
five-minute conversation,’ and then probably maybe
five or six more where people have like, ‘Hey, I just
have one question,’” Kagel recalled.

Lynda Simons of Manayunk had a lot of questions
when her daughter Jocelyn put off her March 29, 2020
wedding. Would the couple be able to reschedule their
beach wedding in Miami? Were the vendors going to
give them a hard time? Would the rescheduled date
of Feb. 20, 2022 be enough time for the pandemic to
subside? As the pandemic wore on, those questions were
answered: yes, no, looking likely. But Jocelyn Simons
and her fiancee were restless, quarantined in a remote
Massachusetts forest and, eventually, they had a
MAZEL TOV!
question for her mother: Would she officiate a small
wedding composed only of immediate family?
“I was very honored,” she said. “I’m used to some
things. I used to do some acting. Speaking wasn’t
what I was worried about. I was worried about saying
the right thing.”
That’s probably the most commonly reported
fear when it comes to officiating, according to Kagel,
who both marries and counsels couples with the The
Well-Tied Knot and the People’s Therapy Group. For
those who aren’t particularly worried by the act of public
speaking, true pressure comes from the content itself.

“They want their friends to have the very best,”
Kagel said. “They’re so honored that they’ve been
asked to do this really sacred, meaningful thing for
friends who they deeply care about.”
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