About
“Bethel Nathan, the brilliant woman behind Elevate by Bethel, has been an invaluable guide on my professional wedding officiant journey.
Not only is she a business coach and mentor, but she has seamlessly become a friend who genuinely cares about my growth and the growth of my business.”
- Sabra
I Love Weddings and the Business of Weddings
Having lived around the world while working for two large investment banks, my previous “life” was pretty good. Yet, getting to marry over 1300 awesome couples while building and running a successful wedding business is truly my passion!
With Elevate by Bethel, I get to share my hard-earned knowledge and experience with the goal of helping you to achieve the success you seek while doing what you love!
- Bethel
Fun Bethel Facts:
- Walked with elephants in Africa and Komodo dragons in Indonesia. And scuba-dived with sharks in the Galapagos and manta rays in the Socorros.
- Avid global traveler who loves nature and the outdoors balanced with much-appreciated quiet time at home enjoying a great book.
- Previous chapter in life spent living in Tokyo, New York City, and London.
- Loves baseball, even when her Padres aren’t always easy to love.
- Speaks Japanese and gets more than a bit of joy surprising people who don’t expect to hear it coming from her.
Bethel & The Elevate by Bethel Story - By Jason, Husband & Supporter
A driven and smart young lady, Bethel earned an undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and an MBA in International Business from Thunderbird. After getting her MBA, Bethel headed back to Japan - speaking the language after having lived there both during and after college - to start her nine years of working for two global investment banks. Her roles included sales-trading derivatives and then developing and running worldwide training programs for entire divisions.
Although the pay was good (very good, cough cough) and the job definitely had its benefits, including lots of international travel, she realized that she wanted something different. So back to San Diego she came to find her passion. Since passion isn’t always staring us in the face, she started working for her family’s business as the COO, helping to implement better financial and business processes, and to manage big projects. Then her passion found her… Bethel’s brother was engaged and they asked her to officiate their wedding. Experienced in and loving public speaking, plus wanting to help them truly celebrate their love, Bethel said yes and her passion journey began. After officiating her brother’s wedding, and two more weddings for friends soon after, Bethel was hooked. Feeling that this was definitely what she wanted to do, she had to ask, “Is this really a ‘thing’? Can it be a ‘thing’? Can I build a business that makes me enough money while I enjoy doing what I love?” (Bethel’s definition of success).
This is where her entrepreneurship background and business skills were put to the test. And when the answer came back as “Yes, I really think so!”, Ceremonies by Bethel was born. Combining her business background working for both large and small companies with her passion and skillset for crafting and delivering wonderful ceremonies - plus strong support for marriage equality - Bethel found the right way to build a business that fit her. She focused on not only being great at what she did for her couples, but also knowing her ideal couple, developing relationships locally to support her and her business, and finding the right marketing tools and methods to attract her ideal couples. Over the years, Bethel has become an industry thought leader, including originally as a WeddingWire education expert, then a Knot Pro Educator, and now as a WeddingPro Educator. She has presented on many business topics at industry conferences around the country, including Wedding MBA, WeddingPro and WeddingWire, The Special Event, Love Mexico, ABC National, and NACE, as well as for local groups, too. And she is now known for delivering sessions packed full of applicable and actionable content.
Now she loves sharing that hard-earned knowledge and wisdom one-on-one with other wedding pros through Elevate by Bethel and with officiants at all levels of their business via her Business of Officiating online course. Schedule a chat and find out how she can help… I know you will be amazed and grateful that you did!