Wedding Officiant Naomi Ehrich Blends the Sacred & Accessible
- Jessica Levey
- May 4
- 10 min read
Updated: May 5
From ASL Interpreter to Crafting Custom Weddings: The Serendipitous Path of the 'Santa Cruz Officiant'
When two Deaf couples contacted Officiant Naomi Ehrich to perform their custom weddings on short notice a few years ago, neither one knew she’d once been an ASL interpreter. Within weeks of each other, the couples' original officiants had backed out, and they were both scrambling to find someone new. You could chalk the lucky match up to cosmic coincidence, but there’s a synchronicity at play, too – one that suggests the ‘Santa Cruz Officiant’ is exactly where she’s meant to be.
Naomi is hearing and learned ASL for a job in New York City nearly 25 years ago – or as she puts it, “half a lifetime ago.” She’d just finished an English Lit degree and was working an uninspiring office gig, when she reached out to the New York Society for the Deaf about an available position. A few prerequisite sign language classes later, and she was offered a job at an affiliate agency as the new front desk receptionist. It was the start of a brand new path.
Deaf clients from all around the world walked through the front door, using distinct sign languages and accents. Naomi’s ASL was clumsy at first, she says. Very clumsy.
“I was really thrown into the fire. It was back in 2000, 2001, I was answering TTY phones, swiping Medicaid cards, and like, broken signing with people who had very little patience for my lack of capacity…
And within six months, I was incredibly fluent. I had a gift for languages, but also I was just thrown into it and I had no choice [but to learn quickly]. Constant, rapid exposure, with a lot of diversity in terms of signing and having to make sense of a vast array of sign languages.
And I just found it to be so rich. I was deeply, deeply passionate. And I spent all my free time hanging out with Deaf friends, reading about Deaf history, Deaf culture.”
She attended sign language events ranging from Shakespeare in the Park to lectures at sex shops, continuing education courses at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to community courses on how to sign psalms – anything and everything she could get her hands on to improve her skills.
In time, her proficiency led to a role as an ASL interpreter. She’d found work she really loved – working with Deaf clients as an interpreter offered the perfect mix of stability and variety, she says.
But as fate would have it, a wrist injury sidelined Naomi’s ASL interpreter career only a couple of years later. She often wonders where she’d be now if things had gone differently. “I don't know how long I would have spent in that world, had I not had wrist injury that derailed my plans…” she says.
That twist of fate led to what Naomi describes as “a life changing quest”:
“I spent four-plus years backpacking alone through Latin America and Asia searching in earnest. I spent time in Jewish synagogues, Buddhist monasteries, Hindu temples, jungle malkoas, tipis and sweat lodges.
Wherever I traveled I saw the importance and necessity of rites of passage, of creating continuity between the generations, of marking big life milestones with intention and care, and of being witnessed, supported and celebrated by community. I learned that ceremony was an enduring, universal human impulse.” (this excerpt is from Naomi’s website; we touched on it during our interview, but she says it best here!)
The universal impulse to cultivate ceremony took Naomi to the Center for Sacred Studies next, a nonprofit spiritual community that offers training, retreats, and enrichment of all kinds for people seeking an earth-based spiritual practice. There, Naomi deepened and developed her personal understanding of ritual and ceremony. She studied with the Center for two years, before her next big shift, this time to Santa Cruz.
This last move would bring each of her different adventures together, into a new career as a wedding officiant. A career that would use all of the skills from her previous roles – though she didn’t know that at the time:
“I moved to Santa Cruz around the same time I was coming to the end of my Center for Sacred Studies Ministerial Training program. And I didn't move here intentionally to work in the wedding industry, but it just happened to be an international, global destination wedding area – and so it kind of took off."
"There was something about graduating after two years of that [training] that made me feel empowered to put up a shingle and start doing this thing.”
“I really have a passion for ceremony and ritual,” she says, and weddings “are a great place to ‘sneak’ in the sacred.”
The calls came in slowly at first, but soon, she was booking more and more weddings.
Naomi’s intentional approach to personalized ritual is a perfect match for the California coastline, a place she says calls to “people who are wanting something – a rite of passage.”
It’s a natural environment that seems almost inseparable from the sacred – surrounded by trees, sand, stone, and ocean, hugged year-round by soft coastal air. It’s the kind of place couples travel for thousands of miles to get married in, sometimes saving up for months to make the magic come true.
“Some people have the means to not have to make the choice [between an expensive venue or a custom ceremony] and other people have to really like, go and stretch and cut other things in order to work with me, and I really honor the couples who choose that.”
“I don't even say my work is spiritual. I just called it ;sacred but not religious’, or ‘secular but sacred,” she says, later adding that “I don't know that if I was in any other area, that I would have been able to [do what I do.]”
Now that her wedding business, aptly called 'Santa Cruz Officiant', is thriving, Naomi spends an hour with each couple before they’ve even agreed to hire her, making sure that they’ve got the perfect fit to bring their vision to life:
“I take the time to get to know couples, hear their story, ask a lot of questions. I find out what they're looking for, what their orientation and beliefs are, and then I share about the process of the package that I offer.
I go through curating an original ceremony for them, and I show them through the process, and then, really just assess and fit…
[These meetings] are very intimate, and very sweet.”
She’s not sure what her success rate is for booking clients after that first meeting, and she’s not too worried about keeping track, she says. But after spending an hour on the phone with her myself, I can say that she brings total passion right from the start, whether it’s learning a new language, exploring a new culture, or now, crafting a new ceremony.
Which is why when two Deaf couples reached out to her within a matter of weeks in 2022, there was a satisfying serendipity to it.
These days, Naomi’s ASL is a little clumsy again – and she’s quick to admit it – but she’s still thrilled when she gets a chance to sign.
“I always get excited when I see Deaf people, and I always want to be available to communicate and be friendly and support, if I can… You know, greeting a couple's parents in sign language, and having a basic conversation feels really easy for me.”
Although the couple had no idea about her previous experience working with the Deaf community, it was the perfect fit.
“The two deaf couples that hired me in a matter of weeks…both had officiants drop out at the last minute…so they just needed me to say yes, and one of them, I just had less than a week to decide, maybe four days. And so they had no idea that I knew sign language, it wasn't part of their consideration. They already had a team of interpreters.
But one of the couples wrote to me to ask if I was available, and only after I said it was available did they disclose if they were Deaf. And I found it very interesting. It felt very much, like – I think…also that maybe the officiant that they had hired realized they were Deaf and maybe didn't feel comfortable… I really noticed that they didn't disclose that in their first email, and you know, a lot of couples do disclose – ‘hey, we're a queer couple, or we’re Irish Catholic, Jewish, Ukrainian Orthodox, and Buddhist,' and like – they kind of want to know, they want to suss out right away if I'm going to be welcoming, inclusive, to whatever mix of backgrounds, cultures, abilities that they are.
I really noticed that they left that information out, which seemed pretty key.”
But for Naomi, it was just another special opportunity to create ceremonies that would feel alive and magical for the two couples getting married, and she was happy to accommodate them in any way they needed. So that’s what she did.
“Like, my approach is, if you say you're accessible-friendly, then do that, and be respectful and ask a lot of questions, and think of creative ways to be as gracious and inclusive, and seamless as possible.”
“I don't show couples the ceremony [script] in advance. Part of the magic that I'm trying to create – is to give them an experience that isn't on a piece of paper, that's alive, that's happening in the moment in the Mystery.
[But] I will share the script with the interpreter in advance…I'm just going to accommodate the flow, you know?... I also find that seasoned interpreters are just really good at like – they're just good at what they do, and they have a lot of experience pivoting and being in a lot of different situations and knowing what they need in order to be efficient at their job.
So I think as an officiant, I'm willing to defer [to them], and not be egotistical about it. And say, ‘great, I'm here to collaborate with you and like, what's needed'?
One of the weddings I did, with the Deaf couple, I spent time with the interpreter beforehand, and I also was like, ‘this is how I talk. I have a certain pacing, and there's a cadence to my voice, and I do it intentionally, and so I'm not gonna speak too fast, and I'm aware that you're there, and I might even slow down my pacing more,' so that the poetry and the cadence can be communicated through sign language, versus racing through it and then losing some of that artistry in the process.”
Many of Naomi’s weddings are planned over the course of a year or more. These types of weddings are high-end and truly one-of-a-kind; they require what Naomi describes as a “tremendous amount of engagement and time,” and all of that effort shows in an extraordinary ceremony.
But she also offers smaller, more spontaneous celebrations that are just as special, like she did for these two couples:
“Some people call me less than three months before their wedding, or they want something streamlined, or they’re eloping, or having a micro wedding. [So], I do have smaller offerings, and I do a lot of elopements.”
As our interview came to a close, I asked Naomi what the most important lesson has been for her over these years, and through all her different roles and adventures.
“My life practice is just to be deeply authentic in everything I do. And there's not a lot of separation – I spend a lot of my own life in ceremony with indigenous elders, and so I don't really have that sense of personal versus professional…
I'm not everybody's officiant, and that's okay – I'm not going to be a fit for everybody, and you can't please everyone. And I think learning what I'm good at…it's okay to be specialized…and I really value ceremony.”
To me, this is what makes Naomi such a good example of an accessible wedding officiant. Someone who slows down, listens, and makes space for everyone. Doing what she’s good at, finding the sacred in the secular, with care and intention.
When you’re in the right place, doing the work you love, the right people will find you!
Read a blog post written by Naomi Ehrich about her work with Deaf weddings:
This is the blog post that introduced me to Naomi a few months ago. I knew right away after reading it that I wanted to talk to her! Take a look for yourself:
ABOUT NAOMI: More About the 'Santa Cruz Officiant', in her own words
"I’m a competent, caring, creative and charismatic wedding officiant who helps couples have a wedding ceremony that is authentically them.
I take couples under my wing, guide them, and love on them on one of the most important days of their lives. I help couples stay grounded, present and connected when they get lost in the planning, and it all becomes a bit too much. I create magical ceremonies that set the tone for the rest of their wedding, and more importantly, for the rest of their marriage!
I believe the officiant-couple connection is of utmost importance, and I prioritize working with couples where there is real resonance between us. Wedding guests always assume that I am a friend of the family who has known the couple since forever - which is a wonderful affirmation since my intention is to feel like that friend or family member, but who also has the wisdom, leadership and mastery of a professional presider." - Naomi
Naomi also offers prewritten wedding scripts for couples through Owl & Rose Ceremonies.
What Makes The Santa Cruz Officiant Disability-Friendly & Inclusive?
"Diversity and inclusivity is at the heart of my business. My ceremonies are designed to honor and embrace people of all abilities, ensuring that everyone feels seen, respected, and fully included.
My first career as an ASL interpreter gave me deep insight into the importance of accessibility—not as an afterthought, but as a matter of course. I approach accommodations with sensitivity, never diminishing or infantilizing anyone, but rather honoring their full sovereignty and self-agency.
I truly believe diversity is not just something to be accommodated - it is something to be celebrated. My role as an officiant is to create a space where everyone present can participate with dignity, ease, and joy." - Naomi
CONNECT WITH NAOMI!
LOCATION: SANTA CRUZ, CA
ALSO SERVING: BIG SUR, CARMEL, MONTEREY, LOS GATOS, HALF MOON BAY & BEYOND
WEBSITE: SANTACRUZOFFICIANT.COM
CONNECT ON INSTAGRAM: @SANTACRUZOFFICIANT
OTHER SERVICES:
PREWRITTEN WEDDING CEREMONY SCRIPTS (Purchase on Etsy: Owl & Rose Ceremonies)
WEDDING OFFICIANT COACH / INSTRUCTOR
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