Wedding Officiant Rev. Coleman

02/09/2008 Posted by ooutstanding

We were lucky to have found Pastor Tomkin while he was still available. A couple he was working with changed their time, and so he was free, and he helped us from beginning to end. We had no idea how we wanted our ceremony to be set up... all we knew is that we wanted it in the Landmark Center. He had performed many wedding ceremonies there, so walked us through all the different configurations that the atrium could be set up as, and then was able to incorporate both our religious backgrounds in the ceremony. Neither me nor my fiance had a church that we regularly went to, but we have parents and relatives that are quite religious. I'm Lutheran and my fiance (now husband!) is Methodist, and Pastor Tomkin created a wedding ceremony that we were both really happy with. He also helped us find a guitarist, a photographer, and helped us find the readings we wanted. He even helped us with writing our own vows! We were first attracted to him because of his friendly manner on his website, but once we talked with him in person, we knew he was absolutely the officiant for us. My mom LOVED him (he made her feel so special as the Mother of the Bride!) and all our guests raved about his warm, friendly manner. I'd recommend him to anyone who is looking for a friendly, flexible minister who knows a LOT about how to please not only the bride and groom, but everyone in the wedding party, the ushers, the parents, and all the guests!

Pros: Very friendly and flexible, incredibly easy to talk to

Cons: Books up quickly

03/02/2007 Posted by mjsawyer

We were actually just looking for a Minneapolis wedding reception location when we found Rev. Coleman's website, which had tons of recommendations for sites, with prices, maps, and reviews. Nowhere else had we seen actual reviews of wedding locations - other places just had ads. Rev Coleman's reviews were so helpful that we wound up booking the St Paul College Club for our wedding reception, and then when my uncle got sick, we called Rev. Coleman to see if he was available to officiate. Tomkin was so sweet and so knowledgeable! He took the time to really get to know us and to find out the kind of wedding ceremony that suited us best and wrote us a complete scripting in less than a week! We wound up having lots of changes to the wedding ceremony, which was just fine with Tomkin, and he kept sending us the revised versions whenever we had changes. He was wonderful! He conducted the entire wedding rehearsal and then after the wedding, everyone kept raving about what a wonderful wedding ceremony it was! He had found a way to make the wedding ceremony spiritual without being overly religious (something that was very important to us). Reverend Coleman was absolutely wonderful to work with and we'd recommend him to anyone looking for a Minnesota wedding planner or officiant!

Pros: Very flexible, fun to work with - just tops!

01/24/2007 Posted by torino2004

It seemed we talked to EVERYBODY in the Twin Cities area trying to find vendors. Most of our friends could recommend the people they used, but they didn't talk to that many people when they made their decisions. So we really did our research. Rev. Tomkin Coleman was by far the most helpful part of our process. He was able to personally recommend people he had worked with (and it seemed like he knew everyone in the area). When we talked to other vendors, we mentioned Reverend Coleman, and over half the people we talked to (not just the ones he recommended) knew of him and RAVED about his services! We called him up and arranged a time to meet and as soon as I talked to him on the phone I knew we had to use his services. His warm, friendly manner was so calming that I wanted to hire him immediately! We met at this charming little coffee shop in St Paul and he had all these great ideas for our wedding. Plus, he really listened to us (wow, is that rare!) June is going to be AWESOME!

Pros: Really friendly and knowledgeable

01/23/2007 Posted by angie8113

Having a wedding is stressful enough without having to worry about all the little things! Reverend Coleman helped us with the whole planning process and everything went perfectly. We were just in our own little world with each other, then were constantly distracted by all of our friends and relatives that were coming in from out of town. Reverend Coleman took care of all the little problems rather than our having to fix them on our wedding day. Once we started working with Rev Coleman, the process became easy. Our site manager at the James J Hill Library knew him already, and she actually said, “Great! I love working with Reverend Coleman because he is so good at taking care of everything!” We were amazed at how well he got our rowdy friends to work together, he got us a photographer when ours got sick at the last minute, and worked closely with the string quartet we hired (at his recommendation) so that everything went smoothly!

Pros: Thumbs WAY up!!!

01/22/2007 Posted by jmortenson

We are so grateful we found Reverend Coleman. I'm Jewish and my husband (then my fiance!) is Lutheran, and we searched all over but could not find a Rabbi who was willing to do an interfaith wedding ceremony. Plus, we were so confused about how to put it all together - who sits on which side (it's different for Christian and Jewish), who would do what part of the ceremony, who would walk who down the aisle (all of this is different for the different religions). Also, we had no idea who to use for musicians, where to to go find a site, how to select a wedding party, where to find a church...Rev. Coleman walked us through all the steps and was so incredibly helpful! He met us at this cute little coffeeshop in Saint Paul, and was so easy-going and a great listener. He really understood what we were going through, and took all our needs into account. He seems to know everyone who works with weddings in the entire Twin Cities area, and when we talked to musicians and photographers (some of whom he recommended, some of whom we found on our own), they all knew him and LOVED working with him! That said a lot! When we talked to Judy, the site manager at Summit Manor, she highly recommended Reverend Coleman, too, although by that time we had already hired his services! We would recommend Tomkin extremely highly to anyone who wants a wedding to go off without a hitch. He was so helpful on the wedding day, working with our parents and the musicians and the ushers and the wedding party (who loved him) and kept the whole ball rolling. He delivered a wonderful sermon (which we had approved beforehand) and all our guests LOVED him! Definitely give him a call - he's a treasure!

Pros: SO warm and friendly!

01/16/2007 Posted by cbaum

Rev Coleman was a treasure to find. We had looked all over to find someone to marry us that wouldn't require counseling, and so many people recommended him. We consider ourselves spiritual, but not religous, and didn't want to join a chuch just in order to get married. Plus, we received our complete scripting of our wedding ceremony three days after we met with him - Tomkin is so great to work with!

Pros: We both loved Rev Coleman and definitely recommend his services

01/15/2007 Posted by whandall

Tomkin Coleman is a minister who understands that your wedding is about your needs, not his. When I met with him, it was with a certain amount of anxiety. My religious affiliation can best be described as "lapsed Lutheran". I wanted a religous ceremony, but I wanted the focus to be around my community of friends witnessing my ceremony before God, not the church's, or some minister's view of how it should be done. Tomkin understood where I was coming from immediately, and went to great lengths to respect my decisions, and to build from scratch a ceremony that reflected my personality and that of my wifes. Tomkin is also a seasoned pro in the wedding business. Our photographer fell through. Tomkin had working relationships with two photographers, and one was free that weekend, and a cheaper price than our original choice. We had trouble picking a venue, and Tomkin helped there as well, giving us a list of places, with photographs and prices, that he had had good experiences with. He was so helpful, and so knowledgable, that I was about ready to hand him a stack of invitations so that he could lick envelopes. Tomkin Coleman was a key element in making my wedding a special, blessed event. I cannot stress how much his dignified, gentle bearing and skilled handling of the "backstage" portions of the wedding make everything go smoothly.

Pros: Worked to build a ceremony that met our needs, well connected to other wedding services

Cons: None I am aware of

01/15/2007 Posted by cdailey1975

Tomking did a fabulous job with walking us through the process when many concerns were pulling us in so many directions. He also did a fabulous job of getting to know and getting along with our respective families (and let me tell you, that ain't easy with my family. I wish I would have known how many connections he had in the wedding business because we would have saved a lot of money. A five star class act. *****

Pros: Outstanding communication and public relations

Cons: I didn't know that he could save me money on other wedding services.

01/12/2007 Posted by rmykaith1

Reverend Coleman was absolutely the best! We don't go to church regularly, but wanted a wedding ceremony that was spiritual, but not too religious. Reverend Coleman completely respected our wishes and wrote us a completely personalized wedding ceremony. Our wedding was at the Harrington Mansion (at the Zurah Shrine Center just south of downtown Minneapolis) and Rev Coleman was thoroughly familiar with the site because he had performed many wedding ceremonies there. In fact, we found the Harrington Mansion because of the review of it on his website! Our guests just loved him (especially my mom) and many people told us that Reverend Coleman was the best minister they had ever seen perform a wedding ceremony. He became a good friend in our wedding planning process, and we highly recommend him! Give him a call!

Pros: Thumbs way up! Reverend Coleman knows the ins and outs of weddings like no one else!

Cons: We only wish we had found him sooner in our planning process!

12/21/2006 Posted by danceallnight19

Hi! My fiance and myself are new to Minnesota and we didn't want to join a church just in order to get married. We were really lucky to find Tomkin - he helped us find a site (the St Paul College Club, which is AWESOME!) and really took the time to find out exactly what we needed. I am a really picky person and wanted my wedding to be exactly right. Tomkin planned out everything in detail with us, including every word of the wedding ceremony into our scripting. John and I come from different backgrounds (I'm from a Lutheran family, but John isn't very religious) and he Tomkin really made us both feel comfortable with the wedding ceremony. He took care of every little detail, making sure everyone at the rehearsal knew exactly what to do, but he made the whole thing, fun, too! The wedding was perfect - Tomkin was wonderful! He made sure the the Ushers knew what they were doing, and had the string quartet working together at the right time, and our parents knew what to do, and our wedding party, and he talked to the site manager and the photographer and everybody! Our pictures were amazing and our photographer later told us that the ceremony pictures were so nice because Rev. Coleman specifically told him that it was okay to use flash photography during the ceremony - and he said that in the thirty years he's been shooting weddings, no one had ever told him that! All our guests loved the sermon and the wedding ceremony and everything went so smoothly. Definitely call Tomkin (if he's not booked already!)

Pros: SO easy to work with! Very friendly and flexible - recommend completely!

Cons: Zip