My Tybee Jack Wedding

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ISLAND HOPPING: Getting hitched with the help of Tybee Jack

rich wittish | Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 12:30 am

Jack Boylston conducts wedding on beach at Tybee.

Jack Boylston, also known as Tybee Jack, helps couple get hitched

Over the years, I've known longtime Tybee resident Jack Boylston as an educator and marketing guy, so I was surprised to learn recently he's performing marriage ceremonies on the beach of his beloved island.

After all, 60-year-old Jack emanates the aura of the ultimate laid-back islander - he's one of the originators of Tybee's Beach Bum Parade and has been a co-director of the event for all 23 years of its existence.

But, since spring 2007, he's also been a black-robed, "card carrying" ordained minister who officiates at an average of six to eight seaside weddings a month during March through October, the island's marrying season. This weekend, Jack's scheduled to help five couples tie the knot.

"I love it," he said of his newfound vocation, which enables him to play a significant role in momentous times in peoples' lives.

"I've always enjoyed becoming a part of somebody's life," said Jack, who spent most of his adulthood teaching mathematics and coaching football in high school and in marketing and public relations in the field of sports medicine. "I think that's why this wedding business comes so easy to me."

He says he takes his job seriously, weaving "a message" into his ceremonies - that marriage is a journey of ups and downs and of changes meant to be shared by bride and groom. Much of what Jack says in the discourses accompanying his ceremonies equates married life to the ocean that forms the backdrop for the rituals.

"May your love touch and enrich all those around you, just as our great ocean waters nourish and transform our shores," he intones in one of his talks. "May your love always be as constant as the never-ending waves, flowing endlessly from the depths of the sea."

Says Jack of his messages, which have been delivered to couples from as far away as Wisconsin: "They're something to take home with them - not just the bride and groom, but all those in attendance - and have with them every day."

Savannah and Tybee have hit the jackpot as marriage destinations, and Jack is one of many folks who've gotten involved in staging weddings - including at least three other islanders who officiate at ceremonies on the beach.

While he's not a wedding planner per se, "if somebody needs something," he said, "I will either do it for them or consult with them.

"I will point them to where they can get a beautiful wedding for the least amount of money."

Boylston, who acquired the nickname "Tybee Jack" from students he taught at Windsor Forest High School, found himself looking for sources of income after his job in sports medicine "ran out" at the end of 2005. He's worked parttime as a math teacher since then and was talked into giving the marriage business a whirl by a wedding planner acquaintance.

So Jack got on the Internet and became a member of the Spiritual Humanism clergy via that church's online ordination program. According to its Web site, Spiritual Humanism is "a religion based on the ability of human beings to solve the problems of society using logic and science."

Jack officiated at his first wedding in March 2007 and, he said, "by the end of that summer, I was on a roll."

Most of his ceremonies take place on Tybee's north beach near the lighthouse. The rest are conducted from mid-beach to the south end, the latter of which is a spot much favored for sunset ceremonies.