Garry was born in England but has lived most of his life in Ontario. He is a good listener and he enjoys meeting new people and hearing their story. While most people fear public speaking more than anything else, this is something Garry greatly enjoys. He loves to speak or sing with a passion that moves the heart.

Garry is in a business where he can help people in the community. He is passionate about his own family and passionate about helping other marriages and families. Garry’s understanding
of -and compassion for- people comes from 25 years as a pastor and 5 years leading a dynamic
Marriage Weekend that helped many couples put new life in their relationship.

Garry has been married to Anne for over 30 years. Together they have two grown children and two foster children. As a team they work as wedding officiants and are excited to to meet and work with many great couples just beginning their journey together.

In his free time Garry enjoys bike-riding, swimming, playing board/card/computer games with family, barbequing, singing & playing guitar, traveling, exploring new places, being out in nature, visiting Lee Valley Tools, reading (fiction & non-). He enjoys restaurants with interesting atmosphere and good tea!

Garry loves to read. Favorite non-fiction books include Wild At Heart (John Eldridge)- Sacred Romance (Brent Curtis/John Eldridge)- The Power of a Positive No (William Ury)- You, Inc (Harry Beckwith/Christine Beckwith), and First Things First (Stephen Covey/Roger Merrill/Rebecca Merrill). Favorite fiction: books by Dean Koontz, Jeffrey Deaver, Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child. Recently he enjoyed in audio form The Host (Stephenie Meyer), The Bodies Left Behind (Deaver), and has just started Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett).

His special skill is having compassion- this is at the heart of how he approaches life and what motivates him to help people. His calm, nurturing manner puts people at ease and creates an atmosphere of trust. Garry is a natural teacher, instinctively breaking things down when explaining to others. He is a good listener- something he values as a means to helping people. He seeks to be open-minded and to connect deeply with people.

Garry is proud that he helped start the Marriage Encounter program in Burlington. Through this he connected more deeply with himself, with Anne, and with people across Canada. The program helped couples turn bad marriages around, saved others from divorce, and strengthened even good relationships.

A perfect day for Garry contains a balance of people-time and alone-time. A perfect day off would be a day in the summer that starts with a family bike ride and a swim, and ends with a bbq on the beach with all the wonderful aromas and great taste of food outdoors. A great day working includes building a relationship with a fellow wedding vendor and sitting with a couple to hear their story, telling them how their company can accommodate what they are looking for in a wedding ceremony.

There are three experiences in life that Garry has found to be profoundly life-changing: Caring for his brother-in-law when he was dying with AIDS, establishing and leading Marriage Encounter, and changing careers after age 50.