Sara is a true lover of people and their journeys: each unique story; what brings joy and laughter; what keeps us moving forward in difficult times; the little quirks and commonalities that draw us to one another; the rawness of vulnerability; the beauty of connection; and, of course, the strand of love that runs through it all and links us together. As such, the work of joining and celebrating with couples as they commit to each other in marriage comes naturally to her and makes complete sense.
Born in New Jersey, raised in the suburbs of Chicago, and the daughter of two New Yorkers, Sara is an odd cultural mix of East coast and Midwestern vibes. She likes to think that she has homes all around the country and world – in the numerous places she has lived (from Bolivia to Kansas City) and with the many people she loves.
Sara is a skilled listener who connects and relates to people everywhere she goes. Friends – old and new – often comment on her warm and gentle demeanor and describe feeling held and accepted in her presence.
Sara is community-minded and thinks a lot about social equity. She graduated from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and received her Masters in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania. Sara spent a most formative time living in intentional community with Jerusalem Farm in Kansas City, MO and has alternated between Social Work and Farming throughout her adult life. While she is now working as a psychotherapist with a local nonprofit, she hopes to someday combine her passions for healing work, social justice, and sustainable agriculture… but for now those seeds are germinating.
Sara grew up Catholic but has practiced spirituality in many different forms throughout her adult life. She appreciates and celebrates the beauty in traditions passed down through family systems, communities, religions, and cultures. Sara holds deep gratitude for the opportunity to enter into couple’s lives as their officiant and considers it an enormous privilege to hear their stories and co-create a ceremony that reflects their love for one another.
In the day-to-day, Sara soaks up the joys of vegetarian cooking and eating, belly laughing (thanks partially to her partner’s affinity for puns), walking with friends around her West Philly neighborhood, running at the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge, caring for all kinds of plants – both indoors and out, playing mediocre guitar and trying her hand at songwriting.
Journeys of the Heart, and specifically Sara, made our wedding fantastic. Sara was extremely easy to talk with, and her calm energy really helped us plan our ceremony, which turned out to be more spectacular that we could have imagined. Even before the ceremony, Sara brought her kind and caring energy to the day, and really connected with our attendees.
Your ceremony and the way you delivered it were exactly what we were looking for. I also really appreciated how you were able to navigate things before the ceremony — connecting with us and Ashley and making sure we were all on the same page. Like Y said, it was a pleasure meeting and working with you. – M
Smooth process from beginning to end!
Sara Francesconi officiated our wedding and we had a seamless process with her from the very beginning! Upon meeting Sara, it was evident that she is a warm and caring person and an avid listener. She was very responsive to our requests of a non-religious ceremony and use of gender-inclusive language. Her first draft of the ceremony was nearly perfect and she was so open to any and all revisions. The love story portion of the ceremony captured us perfectly. Sara would also periodically check-in with us about how the ceremony was sitting with us and it was so, so appreciated. On the wedding day, she spoke with such eloquence that people kept coming up to say what a beautiful ceremony it was – someone even said she was almost angelic!
If you’re looking for an officiant – go with Sara!
We had an incredible experience from start to finish working with Sara!
From the initial Zoom call, we knew she was the perfect fit. My husband and I are an interfaith couple, although neither of us are particularly religious, we wanted to honor some of the traditions from our backgrounds. She made us feel comfortable and was flexible when we asked her to co-officiate with a rabbi. She spent so much time and care crafting a beautiful, personalized ceremony for us that brought to life our love story.
Sara was flexible throughout the whole process and was always very responsive in our communications. She allowed us to make last-minute adjustments to the ceremony and was very accommodating when I asked if she could incorporate details about my grandmother who had passed away a week before our wedding date. She helped us through every step from outlining the ceremony to our marriage license, making the day of seamless. All of our guests complimented how meaningful and amazing the ceremony was.
We can’t say enough about Sara and our experience – she was kind, genuine, attentive and filled with so much love and hope for our future. Thank you for making our day even more special than it already was!
We wanted to make sure to thank you for officiating our wedding in such a beautiful way! We loved working with you in the months leading up to the wedding and were so grateful for your guidance and collaboration every step of the way.
Thank you, Thank you
Sara was the absolute best!
She was so amazing to work with. We were very nervous about how our ceremony would turn out and she made the entire process stress free and helped us to share our love story by writing a beautiful ceremony to share with our loved ones. We had multiple people share with us how wonderful our ceremony and officiant was. She made the entire process relaxed and exciting. Sara truly listened to us and created the most perfect ceremony.
We would definitely recommend Sara to be your officiant from Journeys of the Heart!
Perfectly Tailored Ceremony
Sara spoke with us before booking to make sure she was a good fit and was able to answer all the questions we had about the wedding ceremony. From very early on in speaking with her, we knew her kind and welcoming spirit was something we wanted to be a part of our special day. She had a way of putting us both at ease and allowing things to feel easy and effortless at what can be a very stressful time. Once we made the decision that she would be our officiant, not only did she respond quickly to any questions/ concerns we had during the planning process, but also offered suggestions and was incredibly helpful in figuring out the licensing and paperwork piece.
In addition, she made herself available to customize our ceremony to fit our style and vision to make it as personal and special as our big day was to us. The day of the ceremony she came early, handled the license tasks, and honestly felt more like a part of the family than our officiant! At our reception, we received so many compliments about how Sara was able to capture our love story with her words so perfectly. Sara made this part of our wedding planning seamless! We can’t recommend her enough!
Sara Francesconi was such a pleasure to work with; from the very start we had such a nice experience and she helped make the overall process so easy for us! We got numerous compliments from family and friends about how beautiful the ceremony was and what a wonderful job our officiant did; it truly all came together and big thank you to Sara in her role helping make our day special. We wanted a personal ceremony that truly represented us as a couple and Sara helped us to accomplish that. She truly listened to us and wrote a beautiful ceremony; she has a calming presence that shines through, helping us feel super relaxed during our ceremony. I would highly recommend Sara and Journeys of the heart!
We can’t say enough wonderful things about our officiant Sara from Journeys of the Heart. From the initial consultation, we knew Sara would be an integral part of our wedding day. She is kind, communicative and always made us feel comfortable and at ease. Sara was quick to return emails and make any changes to the multiple drafts she provided of our ceremony—she made sure each small detail was perfect before the big day. We were lucky to have her attend our rehearsal where she made the whole bridal party and our families feel confident in their roles for the ceremony. We are still receiving compliments about how warm and personal our ceremony was—and we couldn’t agree more!
We highly recommend Sara!
We can’t say enough wonderful things about Sara!
Sara is genuine, warm, present and an incredible writer and speaker. We worked with Sara to plan a ceremony and vows unique to us. She asked us meaningful questions and listened thoughtfully to what we were looking for, then provided resources and examples to guide our selections. We wanted a non-denominational ceremony that was not overly religious, but would nod to our Catholic and Lutheran upbringings. She suggested the perfect readings. Our ceremony was personal and moving thanks to her guidance and words. It meant so much to us that I find myself referencing our ceremony regularly and our wedding was over a year ago. We had guests in person and on Zoom and heard from many people how special our ceremony was. It was truly our favorite part of our wedding day. We can’t recommend working with her enough!
For as long as I’ve known Sara, she just radiates all the good stuff – love, warmth, joy, beauty, authenticity…
So when it was time for me to get married in 2018, it was a no brainer for me to ask Sara to be my officiant. Even my mother who doesn’t speak any English and met Sara for the first time at the rehearsal said to me, “Sara has ‘I’m a really nice person’ written all over her face.”
Before the wedding, Sara was prompt and helpful to get all the ducks in a row. She shared a questionnaire for me and my husband to answer, and followed up with a zoom call (we were in different states) to learn our story to craft a thoughtful, personalized wedding ceremony script. She also suggested some options for fine details we didn’t think of, and helped us to choose what felt right for us in a way that didn’t feel overwhelming.
On the wedding day, Sara did a beautiful job. It was authentic, sweet, and funny at times. After the ceremony, many of our guests complimented Sara and how beautiful the ceremony was. We were so lucky to have her as our officiant, and we absolutely recommend Sara to anyone!
