From micro-wedding to big bash, Tacoma business will right-size your costs
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- Sign and Celebrate offers officiant services for weddings and versatile paid event space.
- Business launched New Year’s Day 2025; prices start at $375.
- They won a $10,000 local pitch investment award to help fund space updates and outreach.
Cherise Klosner of Lakewood worked in dentistry for 16 years.
As an ordained minister through the nonprofit American Marriage Ministries of Seattle, she also officiated weddings for friends.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“I was home with my kids, I just started my Instagram page, offering officiant services, not realizing how many people were looking for someone maybe outside of their church ... and it just sort of exploded,” she recalled.
“There were so many couples that obviously couldn’t have the larger wedding, so they were choosing to elope instead, and they needed someone to marry them, and they found me,” she said.
“I just kind of kept it going,” she added.
“By the time the (dentist) office opened back up, I had a very full schedule of weddings and was able to take this and run with it.”
A New Year’s Day launch of business
Klosner, along with her business partner Sam De La Cruz of Ruston, started Sign and Celebrate — Officiant and Wedding Services, in a Pacific Avenue business suite in downtown Tacoma.
Klosner is founder/CEO. De La Cruz is co-founder and chief operating officer.
The business launched on New Year’s Day 2025 with its first wedding.
“It felt so good because it was the exact reason we set up the space,” Klosner said. “It was a couple with just a couple of guests. They came in, we had a very small ceremony, took just a few minutes.”
You could call it a micro-wedding.
“It was that elevated courthouse style, and it just set the tone for the business itself, because that was the whole reason we put this together,” she added.
In addition to weddings, the space can accommodate other celebrations (birthdays, anniversaries) as well as serving as an offsite meeting space for companies.
“Our (main) customers, ideally only come one time — when they get married,” De La Cruz said. “So what we’ve also created in this space is versatility for it to host (other) events. So every stage in your life, whether you’re having a baby shower, you’re having a bridal shower, you’re having a birthday party, the space is for you to celebrate all kinds of things within your life.”
While weddings remain the primary business, “we are always very happy to invite the community to come in and celebrate other things,” De La Cruz said. “That has been the most exciting part about the space is just the flexibility that it brings so that our income is not solely based on weddings.”
“We want to really be in that in-between market,” said Klosner. “This is supposed to be quick. It’s supposed to be worry free. You come in and everything is just set up for you, cake, flowers, champagne, at a very accessible price.”
Prices start at $375 for a quick 15-minute license-signing session. For those looking for a little more, the site offers a “big bash,” starting at $2,800. That will get you four hours in the space to celebrate with friends and family, and includes a photographer, cake, flower, charcuterie board and champagne.
Winners in local competition
Sign and Celebrate recently received a $10,000 investment check presented by local business events and networking group Tacoma Rising after competing in and winning best business pitch in a local entrepreneur competition.
The competition was organized by Tacoma Rising. Ten local businesses were in the running.
“Once we got there and saw everybody sitting down and focused and going through their pitch and their slides, it was like, OK, this is a real competition,” Klosner said.
“Their vision, clarity, and execution stood out,” Tacoma Rising said in a promotional recap of the inaugural event, where each business had 5 minutes to present and 2 minutes to answer questions from a panel of local leaders in business and education.
“I can’t believe that this was their first time doing it,” said De La Cruz. “It was very organized. They did a great job.”
Klosner and De La Cruz are ready to put that check to use.
“We have some updates for the space that we’d like to do,” said Klosner. “And we want to be able to use this platform to continue to connect with other small businesses in Tacoma, so that we don’t just elevate ourselves, but elevate everybody.
“The wedding industry is big, but it’s also so small,” Klosner added. “Once you get inside, you realize that you have so many connections with people ... . To be able to boost everyone while boosting ourselves, through word of mouth, has been huge.”
For more details on Sign and Celebrate
- Address: 1001 Pacific Ave., Suite 220, Tacoma
- Website: signandcelebrate.com
Story has been updated to clarify that the check from The Pitch competition was from Tacoma Rising, which raised the funding.
This story was originally published March 1, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
