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Our Mission

jim and jessica shadow wedding photoWe are on a mission to transform the way people get married.

This is our way of contributing to the healing of our culture, one couple at a time. We accomplish this in two ways:

1) Through our unique form of premarital counseling, we help couples navigate the wild world of engagement — with all its turbulence, pressures, dreams, and excitement; and

2) We officiate Shadow Wedding rituals as a way of helping committed couples know and accept each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

As a stand for healthy, conscious relationships, we believe that by speaking the unspeakable, accepting the unacceptable, and loving the unlovable, couples can create a stable base for their life together.

The healthier the couple, the healthier the family.

The healthier the family, the healthier the community.

The healthier the community, the healthier our culture and our world.

We are committed to helping couples grow as strong and vibrant as possible, believing that this strength can both feed our communities and benefit this planet's future generations.

Read about the creators of the Shadow Wedding experience, Jim Benson and Jessica Wolk Benson.

 

 

andrew and joui photo"The preparation for our Shadow Wedding and the ritual itself fundamentally changed the way we view challenges and conflict in our lives. We now have a context to deal with difficulties that we simply didn't have before. Our families and those close to us are all benefitting from this paradigm change."
Andrew Hinman and Joui Turandot
Read their interview here.

 

"Jessica and Jim are fearless navigators in the tough and tender territories of relationship. Any marriage that begins with their loving guidance will be launched in a strong and more lasting bond of truth. We have seen them in action, and have utter confidence in their ability to deliver the magic of this process."

Kathy Altman and Lori Saltzman, founders of Open Floor International