Today we’d like to introduce you to Rev. Dawn Smith-Camacho.
From an early age, Dawn felt committed to social justice issues. She left university for two years to dedicate herself to the service-learning and leadership programs City Year and Public Allies. After several years of community outreach and organizing around youth, media, the arts, and politics, Dawn, with the assistance of her board, developed and launched Justice by Uniting in Creative Energy (J.U.i.C.E.), a hip hop focused community center, inspired specifically by her work with incarcerated youth. Since 2001, J.U.i.C.E. has offered breakdancing, deejaying, emceeing, mural and graffiti art and music production instruction, mentoring, and practice sessions to about 100 young people per weekly session. The center’s only ground rule was and continues to be “respect.” J.U.i.C.E. is still in operation and expanding today, with a second site launched last year, and three more openings, and has served thousands of youth.
But around 9/11, Dawn realized she was getting burnt out, and while feeling the work was meaningful, she realized she had never quite found her place of belonging. She began exploring different spiritual and healing modalities, and when her first son was born, decided to enter an interfaith seminary. In 2009, Dawn was ordained by The New Seminary and began officiating weddings and other ceremonies specializing in rituals from various ethnic and faith traditions to create truly exceptional and memorable occasions. She has officiated well over 500 ceremonies, specializing in multicultural and bilingual (French/Spanish) custom ceremonies.
She also offers certified personalized premarital counseling– proven to dramatically reduce the chance of divorce– and truly believes in its value to ensuring a strong foundation for a marriage. Dawn’s business has expanded to include coaching in major life transitions and is a sought- after speaker on managing chaos and effective decision-making with clients including the National Association of Catering Executives (NACE), WeddingWire World, the Wedding International Professionals Association (WIPA), ORACLE, VISTAGE, and UNICEF.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Honestly, this road has been the smoothest of any career undertakings. Finding the place where I truly felt like the best version of me, cliché to say, but, yes, my “calling”, has made it almost easy. Of course, learning how to charge for such a service-oriented business was a challenge, and learning where best to market myself was tricky. My biggest advice would be to honor your worth- when you provide a service that truly benefits, you are providing value, that then allows you to give back more.
Please tell us about what you do.
I specialize in custom ceremonies incorporating a couples’ unique backgrounds, heritage, spirituality, and love story. We are unique in offering ceremonies that make it easy for couples to develop something truly unique and meaningful, as well as offering personalized premarital sessions– and, in addition, offering services in both French and Spanish.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts or other resources that you’ve benefited from using?
Books: World Religions, by Huston Smith, every book of Rumi’s work and by Thich Nhat Hanh, several books by Martha Beck, including The Joy Diet and Finding Your Own North Star
Podcasts: TED Radio Hour, Snap Judgment, This American Life
Pricing:
- Ceremonies: 595
- Premarital Sessions: 160 in person, 145 virtual
- Speaking engagements: 750+
Contact Info:
- Website: www.RevDawn.com
- Phone: 6266442786
- Email: dawn@revdawn.com
- Instagram: @revdawn
- Facebook: /revdawn
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wholelifedawn/
Image Credit:
Milanes Photography, Holly Jones Photo, Photojenik Photography, All Bliss Photography, Scott Asano Photo
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
