Blake Baggott - Wedding Officiant, Chattanooga, TN (2026)

12/12/2025

💫 2025 Weddings Wrapped 💫

Because why not?

This year was full of long drives, packed weekends, and so many moments where two people stood in front of their community and chose each other. I found myself in barns, backyards, chapels, mountain overlooks, courthouses, and tucked-away corners of Tennessee and Georgia that I might never have discovered otherwise. Somehow the busiest months felt like the most meaningful ones, and even the whirlwind days had their own kind of calm once the vows began.

What I valued most of all was the trust people offered me. Couple after couple let me step into one of the most intimate moments of their lives, and I tried to meet that with as much care and presence as I could. The kindness people showed me in return still sits with me.

I’m heading into next year grateful, grounded, and excited for whatever new stories are waiting. Love keeps finding its way into the world in fresh and surprising forms, and I’m lucky to witness it.

Happy holidays, y’all 💕

12/06/2025

SECULAR SACRED • non-religious wedding readings for couples of all beliefs

“DUST” • from “Unashamed” by Harry Baker

Follow for more wedding ceremony readings for the spiritual, the secular, and everyone in between

12/04/2025

Crafting bilingual ceremonies is one of my favorite parts of this work. I fell in love with Spanish back in high school, kept learning through friends and loved ones, and now speak it regularly with my partner and her family, along with the students I teach. It’s become a natural part of my life, and I love bringing that same warmth and connection into a couple’s ceremony.

If you’re dreaming of a ceremony that flows beautifully in English and Spanish, I’d be honored to help you bring it to life.

11/29/2025

SECULAR SACRED • non-religious wedding readings for couples of all beliefs

“AN IRISH NUPTIAL BLESSING” (secular version)

Follow for more wedding ceremony readings for the spiritual, the secular, and everyone in between

11/28/2025

Some couples don’t need a big production to feel the meaning of the moment.

This ceremony was planned last minute, just the two of them by the river with a photographer and me. They wanted something simple, low-stress, and real. It was cold, so the only thing that asked me to do was dress warm.

I made the drive, handled the details, answered every question, and gave them the support they needed so they could focus on each other. And it was beautiful.

If you’re looking for someone who can bring that same calm, clarity, and care to your wedding or elopement, I’d love to be part of your day. Message me for more info!

11/24/2025

Hiring a stranger from the internet to guide you through something as intimate as your wedding ceremony can feel a little surreal. I know that.

I’ve felt that hesitation from couples and families before, which is why I treat every inquiry as more than a transaction. It’s the beginning of trust-building.

This family reached out in a moment of pure chaos: their original officiant bailed at 3AM, a week before the wedding. By sunrise, I was already in conversation with the mother of the groom. I walked her son through sample outlines, called him on my lunch break to ease his nerves, and made sure he felt seen, heard, and in control of his own ceremony. That’s not extra for me; that’s the job.

You deserve someone who shows up for you, calms the panic, and gives you one less thing to worry about on your wedding day. If you’re planning from afar or facing the unexpected, I’m here to make the experience feel personal, grounded, and seamless.

Your story matters, and it deserves to begin with calm instead of chaos.

11/22/2025

SECULAR SACRED • Non-religious wedding readings for couples of all beliefs

“UNION” • Robert Fulgham

Follow for more wedding ceremony readings for the spiritual, the secular, and everyone in between

📸:

11/21/2025

Coordinating a wedding from far away takes a rare kind of trust.

When you can’t just pop over to meet your vendors, you need someone who will show up exactly as promised and hold the details steady so you can breathe.

That makes me thankful for reviews like this. This couple traveled 450 miles to get married in Chattanooga, and I’m grateful I could be the steady, responsive presence they needed.

If you’re planning a destination wedding here or in the area, I work to make the distance feel smaller and the process feel simple. Proud to keep earning that trust for couples who choose this city as the place where their story turns a corner.

11/18/2025

Canyons invite a different kind of attention.

They’re shaped by time doing what time does best: moving steadily, carving patiently, leaving behind something vast and quiet. When you stand at the edge of one, you feel the scale of it in your chest. This was the feeling I felt when I experienced the Grand Canyon a decade ago.

The walls and shadows, the sweep of sky, the way the land opens into something deeper than you expected. It’s beautiful in a way that doesn’t try to impress you. It simply exists, and you can’t help but respond.

That’s part of why a canyon works so well as a place for vows.

Its beauty is obvious, but its presence offers something more grounded. Canyons are reminders that depth comes from the slow work of being in relationship with the world around you. Nothing about them is rushed or accidental. They’re shaped by what they meet: rain, wind, time, change.

Love, in its real form, grows the same way. Not as a sudden spectacle, but as something deepened by the everyday forces that move through a shared life.

At Cloudland Canyon, right outside of Chattanooga, the overlook opens into that huge, breathing space where light shifts across the cliffs and the valley moves through its own rhythms. Ceremonies here always feel a little more aware, as if the landscape itself encourages people to speak honestly. The canyon doesn’t overshadow the vows; it gives them room.

If that kind of setting fits the story you’re building, Cloudland Canyon is a place that holds a moment without taking it over. I’d be honored to help you shape your ceremony there.

📸: .woodphoto

11/17/2025

Courthouse weddings sometimes get dismissed as the “easy way out,” but I couldn’t disagree more.

There’s something powerful about choosing simplicity, about standing in an ordinary space and filling it with something extraordinary. It’s proof that love doesn’t need an audience or a grand stage to feel sacred. All it needs is intention, presence, and two people ready to begin.

This was one of my favorite couples to work with. They reached out less than a week before their elopement, and from the very first message, their energy was full of warmth and trust. We collaborated on their ceremony together, finding words that fit them perfectly, and when the day arrived, everything felt effortless and right.

Their families were present, their smiles were genuine, and when I greeted his family in Spanish, I could feel the joy ripple through the group. It’s the little gestures that make a ceremony personal, the small details that remind us love speaks every language.

It was simple, heartfelt, and full of life; a beautiful reminder that the meaning of a wedding isn’t found in how elaborate it is, but in how deeply it reflects the people at its center.

If you’re planning a courthouse wedding or an intimate elopement and want a ceremony that feels personal, intentional, and true to you, I’d be honored to help craft that moment with you.

11/15/2025

A few weeks ago I officiated a wedding for a couple who wanted to bring bell hooks into their ceremony. Not because they were making a statement about belief or non-belief, but simply because her words have shaped the way they understand love. It felt natural to them, almost inevitable, to let her voice be part of the day.

As we worked through the passages together, I kept thinking about how beautifully her writing holds the weight of love without leaning on religion. The language felt sacred in its own way. Honest. Grounded. Full of the kind of truth that doesn’t need a church or a doctrine behind it to matter.

It reminded me that there are so many couples who sit in that in-between space. Not quite anchored in a faith tradition, not quite wanting religious scripture, but still longing for words that feel deep and ceremonial and worthy of the moment. Words that bless without preaching. Words that honor without excluding.

That wedding nudged me to create a space for those kinds of readings. A place where couples can find language that feels meaningful, tender, and real, even if it comes from poetry or philosophy or the kind of wisdom that grows out of lived experience.

So this is the beginning of a new series: Non-Religious Wedding Readings (for couples of all beliefs). For anyone who wants a ceremony shaped by intention and love, held up by words that feel sacred simply because they speak to the heart.

11/14/2025

My first professional wedding happened in early 2021, at a moment when the world felt like it had been turned inside out.

After a year of lockdown, I was carrying a sense of disorientation. It was the same drifting so many people felt in 2020, the sense that the structures we trusted were far more fragile than we ever let ourselves believe. In that fog, I kept trying to find something steady to hold on to.

I didn’t land on answers, but I did remember one thing with clarity: I love celebrating love. I love standing with people as they say yes to shaping a life together. So I thought: what if officiating was something I could do regularly, not just every couple years when a friend asked?

So I signed up for an online platform that connects officiants with couples. I had no plan. No reviews. Three weddings under my belt, with the most recent three years behind me. And I thought, “Who is going to hire a random guy off the internet with no credibility?” But then again, nothing made sense anymore anyway.

Not long after, a young couple reached out. They were doing a road trip and wanted someone who could meet them at Cade’s Cove for a tiny ceremony. They didn’t want anything fancy. They didn’t even want me in a suit. They didn’t have a specific spot picked out. They just wanted to show up and gauge the vibes.

We met up at the park, wandered around, and picked a field. It was a little awkward, but charmingly so. Before we started, the bride waved down a car passing by and asked the strangers inside if they could take pictures. They said yes without hesitation.

So there we stood. Me in a denim shirt and khakis. The groom stumbling through his vows. Her in a thrifted dress she’d found along the road. A couple of strangers taking iPhone pictures. A field in the mountains. A ceremony as simple as breath.

And in that simplicity, something clicked. That strange year had stripped so much away, leaving room to notice what actually mattered. Standing there with them made me grateful for a world where nothing made sense anymore, because it pushed me back toward the things that do.

And that’s why I do this. Because in an uncertain world, I know I can always count on love.

Blake Baggott - Wedding Officiant

12/12/2025

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