A lot of trends popped up out of the TV show Friends. Like “the Rachel” haircut. But the one that is probably still the most relevant in our culture and, specifically, in the wedding industry, is the idea of having a lay friend or family member officiate a wedding ceremony. Joey Tribbiani — marriage officiant pioneer!
This is a notion that is near and dear to my own heart because that's how I got started as a professional officiant. My close friend asked me to perform her wedding ceremony, and pretending to be a Rabbi at her big fat Jewish-Lutheran-Pagan ceremony inspired me to become a Life-Cycle Celebrant.
Having a friend-officiant can be a lot of work — in the end, it is a DIY project. But if it is something that you have your heart set on, there are ways to really make it work, and make it work well. So, as a friend-officiant turned professional, I'd like to offer some advice and suggestions for having a friend officiate at your wedding.
Before you as a friend to officiate a wedding: make sure it's legal
First and foremost, make sure it is legal. Call the registrar in the township where you will be getting married to see what needs to be done by your officiant to ensure that they can legally solemnize your marriage. This not only varies by state, but can also vary by municipality within the state. Just because someone did an online ordination does not automatically let them perform marriage ceremonies everywhere — marriage laws are governed at the state level, not the federal level.
If you are doing research online regarding marriage law, only trust sources that are the legitimate website of the government in question — not a blog and not a compilation site. Some states will require your officiant to register or apply for a one-day solemnization. Some states will be fine with a simple internet ordainment. Some states will be different — for example, in New York City, all officiants must register with City Hall. However, New York State has a different marriage certificate and no registration.
If you live in a place where it is difficult for your friend-officiant to make it legal, look into other options. You could get married in city hall a day or two before your legal wedding ceremony, or have a freelance officiant or justice of the peace witness your ceremony and legally marry you just before your friend-officiant's ceremony.
Internet ordained ministers: how to officiate your friend's wedding (LEGALLY!)
Maybe you've heard of places like Universal Life Church, but here's why you should know about American Marriage Ministries, too – they might be just... Read more
When in doubt, veer towards having a professional legally solemnize your marriage. You want to have an awesome ceremony, but you probably also want to be legally married at the end, too.
Officiating a wedding involves paperwork and often the city clerk's office
Additionally, be sure to apply for your marriage license, and be aware of any waiting periods or expiration dates that go along with it. Discuss with your officiant who will file the marriage license, and be sure they get all the time they need to fill it out, fully and correctly.
Can you ask a friend to marry you? YES, but here's how to find the right friend…
When choosing a friend-officiant, consider why they would be a good fit. Have they ever officiated at a wedding before? Are they a good public speaker?
Officiating at a wedding ceremony can seem like a very daunting and nerve-wracking task, and there may be people in your life who love you, but simply may not want to stand up in front of 100 guests and perform your wedding. Don't push anyone into something they don't want — it will not make for a positive experience.
Once you have a friend-officiant on board, decide who will write the ceremony and figure out a timeline.
If you're wondering “How far in advance should I ask a friend to officiate? The answer is as early as you can! Ask your friend-officiant early enough that, if for some reason they turn you down, you have time to make other arrangements and find another option.
And then as soon as possible, decide who will write the ceremony and figure out a timeline. Do this early so you don't get crazy as your wedding approaches and you have no idea what is going to be said!
Who writes the wedding ceremony script?
Many couples with a friend-officiant will write most or all of their wedding ceremony, and then ask their officiant to read it, or even allow them to make small changes and edits to put it into their own voice.
If you'd like your friend-officiant to write the ceremony or a portion of the ceremony (perhaps you will put your vows and rituals together, and invite your officiant to write their own opening and closing remarks), discuss the tone and overall vibe you want for your ceremony. This can be a collaborative process, too — maybe your officiant can send you what she has, and you can add some personal elements and suggestions. By setting the boundaries of what you would like to accomplish with the ceremony, and keeping communication lines clear, you can ensure that the ceremony will come together well.
Remember that Offbeat Bride has a HUGE collection of wedding ceremony scripts to pull inspiration from!
Logistics preparing for the special day
Discuss amplification with your DJ or whomever is supplying music for your ceremony. You have worked so hard on creating such an awesome wedding ceremony — you want everyone to be able to hear it. A mic does not ruin the intimate air of a wedding ceremony — instead, it draws guests in more, as your friend-officiant does not need to project, and can speak in a more conversational tone, making it easier for everyone to enjoy themselves and feel a part of your wedding!
If you're having a rehearsal, sit down with your friend-officiant beforehand, and delegate. Decide who will run the rehearsal, and plan out the processional. The rehearsal is a great time for your friend-officiant to get a feel for what it is going to be like on your wedding day. Choose a friend-officiant you can trust and rely on — I can't stress that enough — it will make everything so much easier for you and so much less crazy!
Figure out what your officiant will read the script from. A very inexpensive and professional looking option is a simple black binder. Most office supply stores have some nicer leatherette options for a little bit extra. Print the script in a large type-face, with good page breaks. Ask them to practice reading from the script in the order it will be in for the ceremony, so they can handle it with ease.
Finally, the nitty gritty day-of details
Print any extra readings or your vows on card stock, and have your officiant stash them in their book, to easily pass to you or your readers during the ceremony. One less thing to worry about!
On the day of, ask your friend-officiant to arrive early. Let them know exactly where you will be, so they can go over any last minute details. Tell your wedding professionals that you are having a friend or family member officiate — they will do their best to accommodate and assist them as needed, too.
Make sure you remember to bring your marriage license, and that it gets signed and filled out by the correct people.
And then, when it is time to get married, look forward to seeing your friend-officiant smiling as they marries you. Let them know that they can have fun with it! Emotions may be riding high, so ask them to keep some tissues or a handkerchief in their pocket, just in case anyone needs it. (Even as a professional wedding officiant, I often get a little choked up when I marry my friends or family members!) Your officiant should take their time, and tune into you and your partner a little bit. This is your wedding, and if you need a moment to collect yourself, a moment to laugh, or anything like that, it is totally fine.
As a couple who are having a friend officiate, be prepared for more work than if you were having a professional officiant, and consider carefully why you want to have a friend officiate, too. As a former friend-officiant, I can tell you that it is a lot of work, but having the honor to solemnize the marriages of people that you love is pretty awesome.
Who knows — maybe your friend-officiant will become a professional officiant one day, too.
If you liked this, be sure to read Jesse's awesome post, Wedding Ceremony 101: Crafting your own wedding ceremonies from scratch
Just wanted to add that it doesn’t matter to everyone if it’s legal. Some people can’t get married legally anyway (or don’t want to), but would still want a wedding performed, so not everyone needs to make sure it’s legal. And also, marriage is determined at the state level (boo Prop 8), but also at the federal (boo DOMA).
This is a great point and I wish I had mentioned it in the post! Thanks for the comment.
Oh, but I just wanted to clarify that though legal marriages are recognized at the federal level, that marriage laws are a state by state situtation, as I mentioned in the post. So, for example, I live in NJ where there is a three day waiting period for a license, but also perform marriage ceremonies in NY where there is a twenty-four waiting period for a license. So I would say marriage is determined at the state level and regulated at the state level, but recognized by both the state and the federal government.
HI Jessie,
I have a question. My friend has legally married people in Colorado and Pennsylvania. How do we find out if she can legally solemnize the ceremony in NJ?
NJ has a very thorough website that has all of the info about the marriage license process as well as who can perform marriages.
http://www.state.nj.us/health/vital/marriage_apply.shtml
Do you know if your friend was internet ordained (Universal Life Church to be specific)? I’m asking because we are getting married in PA (Philadelphia County) and I’m under the impression that only one county in the state recognizes marriages performed by these ministers: Bucks County. We live in the area and would be able to go to Bucks County to do this but since we do not reside in Bucks County (we live in Delaware County), I’m not sure if it would work. I suppose if worse came to worse, we could do a courthouse marriage beforehand but I want my wedding to be when we actually get married. I’d appreciate any insight you may have on this. 🙂
If you’re in PA, I recommend finding a registrar that offers a self-uniting license. That way, you don’t legally need an officiant at all. Many registrars have them, and you can apply anywhere in the state for your license in PA.
What did your friend do to marry someone in Pennylvania? We are trying to have a close family friend marry us in Pa, but are running into some complicated laws regarding the legality. In some cases, marriages were even later ruled invalid! Thanks!
If you are concerned about legality in PA, get a self-uniting license. That way, you and your partner are the ones who technically solemnize the marriage, and anyone can officiate.
Oops, I just saw the other comments, thanks!
I would also add, as part of the whole “make sure it is legal” section, that some states have requirements for the ceremony itself, too, not just the officiant. Check to see if there’s any official language that HAS to be included in your ceremony (this is particularly important if you’re writing the whole thing yourself). For ours, we were each required to officially state that we took the other person as husband/wife, and our officiant had to do the official “I now pronounce you husband and wife” bit.
We had my Dad officiate our marriage, and I’m SO GLAD we did! Neither of us are religious at all, so there wasn’t necessarily an “obvious” choice as far as an officiant went… and we wanted it to be someone that we knew and with whom we had a connection.
Fortunately, in California, the laws are super simple and straightforward, so we didn’t have much trouble making sure everything was legal. Writing the whole ceremony and having my Dad perform it made the whole event feel especially personal.
Uggg, they really have to do the “I now pronounce you husband and wife” bit in CA? Can you tell me what exactly the wording of the pronouncement had to be when you asked?
Because we believe that the officiant doesn’t have the (spiritual, social) power to marry a couple (the couple themselves marries each other), we were hoping to avoid it, and do an announcement rather than pronouncement.
I guess that’s another argument to separating out the legal and social marriage ceremonies, for us.
Another option is to have a private ceremony immediately after your wedding ceremony that uses the prescribed and official language with your officiant, performed as you sign the marriage license and make it legal, so your ceremony can use whatever wording you want!
We had always been considering doing a short legal ceremony (with all 55-ish guests) in the living room with my step-dad officiating, and then having guests move out to seats on the patio and processing in and doing a religious/social ceremony with a rabbi there. I’m just really uncomfortable with the whole pronouncement language. To the point that a small part of my brain is now thinking we should consider getting married in CO (his home state) where you can get a self-uniting marriage. Which is silly, our wedding here will be lovely, but the idea of being “pronounced” married really makes me uncomfortable right now.
We also live in CA and did a destination wedding in mexico. We had an online ordained friend fill out the paperwork for CA stuff with us here in LA before we left for the mexico trip (so we were legally married here before the trip since mexico regulations are difficult and expensive) and she didn’t say any of that stuff. I didn’t see that requirement on the CA marriage website, on officiant requirements, or on the marriage license paperwork… not sure when Cali was married, but we did this in August and have had no paperwork related problems. We, like you, believe the couple marries themselves and the officiant is just to help other people participate!
If you go through California’s official Deputy for a Day program, the officiant is legally required to say “By the power vested in me by the state of California as a deputy commissioner of civil marriages…” However, there’s no requirement about what they say after that! (So we had our officiant say “…I witness the commitment you have made to one another as husband and wife.”)
Hmmm, that’s helpful. I have no problem with the begining of it “By the power vested in my by the state of California as a deputy commissioner of civil marriages…” It’s literally just the word “pronounce” that makes me sick. (Literally a little queasy.) I love “…I witness the commitment you have made to one another as husband and wife.” I’ve also dreamed about using something like “I am thrilled to be the first to announce you husband and wife.”
In California you must in order for it to be legal is;
1. Have the declaration of consent of the couple, witnessed by an authorized bishop, priest, officiant, celebrant, clergy. This is the “Do you, I Do, Do you I Do part.
2. They must pronounce you with the authority vested them, and by the State as husband and wife. This is what is being witnessed by the two witnesses that must be over the age of 18 that sign the marriage license.
I’ve officiated many weddings in CA, and never had a legal requirement for specific words for the ceremony. Of course, as an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), the State cannot make specific laws regulating the practice of religion.
Do you have any suggestions for what to do when a mic is not an option? Local ordinances forbid any sort of outdoor amplification at our venue.
Why yes. Choose an officiant with a lovely loud voice. Maybe a singer or friend who has done theater. Maybe just someone used to speaking to a group. Not the mousy mumbler. We didn’t use a mic, but our officiant has a voice that carries well and we didn’t have any problems.
Also think about the venue’s acoustics and where you’ll put the guests. A big group in a large open windy space is harder. But small greek amphitheater for the win!
Also, consider not having a terribly long ceremony if you know that not too many people are going to hear it. Have everyone gather more closely, maybe do a ceremony in the round? And, of course, choosing an officiant who is able to project and speak loudly and well is a very smart thing to do, too.
Yes, have fewer rows, wrapped close around you, for sure.
Our ceremony was relatively short, so we decided to print the whole thing on the programs so people could follow along if they wanted.
We are also shooting an offbeat wedding coming up where the guests will be arranged *around* the couple so it is more participatory and not like an audience. Maybe consider this instead of rows.
Alternatively, if you are super techie, consider having a mic that goes to eveerone with headphones or something? Maybe some of the hearing impaired technology could be useful for this?
Or even have your ceremony wording projected so that even if people can’t hear they can read along. Just brainstorming….
Woooow this could NOT have come at a better time! My fiancee and I want our good friend to officiate (As “Master Chief of Ceremony”). Great information! Thank you!
We had a close friend do our ceremony and I’M SO FREAKING GLAD! We picked him because he fits nicely into the “how we met” story. It helps that he’s also charismatic and a good speaker. Our ceremony just wouldn’t have been the same with some stranger we found online that had zero connection to us. I highly recommend using someone meaningful to you!
Luckily, in Colorado, all you really have to do is declare yourselves married and sign on the dotted line with the city clerk. Done! So, for us in that aspect, the ceremony was just for funzies.
Great piece! I have one addition on the topic of the marriage license. In my area (Los Angeles), a hired officiant takes it with them after the ceremony and is responsible for getting it mailed off for you to officially record your marriage with the state. If you’re choosing to go with a friend, I recommend you speak with them (or some other close friend/family member you designate) about being the party who makes sure that – immediately after the ceremony – the marriage license is tucked away safe and gets home to you at the end of the night (so you can mail it off yourself). The last thing you want the day after your wedding is a mad scramble to figure out who has your marriage license!
We’re having a friend of our officiate our handfasting. He is legally ordained and has done several handfastings. He is also the lead singer in our wedding band who we just happened to get engaged on stage with. We’ve been good friends with the band especially him and his fiance (who are getting married a month before us) for quite a while now. He is rediculously honored and there are so many things he can’t wait to incorporate into the ceremony. This is a great reminder for everyone!
I want to say if you live in PENNSYLVANIA it is considered a quaker state. When you go to apply for your marriage license tell them you are doing a self uniting marriage.Then you can have the option to marry yourselves or have that friend marry you.
yes! this is what we did, very simple and it allowed us to literally write a ceremony from scratch and have my sister-in-law marry us 🙂
I absolutely loved having my best friend perform our wedding for us. It was totally out of her comfort zone, and she could have said no if she wanted to, but she rocked it so completely that I’m glad she didn’t. The three of us worked on the wording together (which was hard cause none of us are religious and we had no idea wtf to put in a ceremony), my husband and I did our own vows, and she added in a great personal bit of her own that we didn’t know about until the actual ceremony. It was absolutely perfect.
We had planned with one of our mutual friends to officiate (including reciting part of the FRIENDS ceremony in there because I’m that big of a nerd about it) and it wouldn’t have been official here in NC. At least not in my county. The wording is very, very hazy about it but from previous experiences (not mine) the law tends to lean towards nope. We were going to do the courthouse the Monday before for the legal part and do the ceremony/reception the following Sunday. Another option came through so we are not doing that now but at least I know where NC stands.
I also have to credit OBB for giving me a rundown of how a ceremony goes because I used that as the model for crafting my own ceremony.
I’m so glad that my wedding ceremony 101 post was so helpful in creating your own ceremony!!
I didn’t know that was you! Thank you so much for that! I studied it quite often to figure out exactly how to write what I wanted.
thanks for the info. i was reading through here, and thinking “i’ll go check out the requirements in NC (wake co.) and post on here”
I appreciate the heads up, and I was thinking going and doing a courthouse ceremony to make it official, then having my brother do the ceremony on our day.
Thanks for sharing!
I wish we could’ve had a friend officiate our wedding. But alas, in the Netherlands, you need a government official to make it legal. Before the ceremony I thought it would be fine – after all, these are professionals, surely they have a knack to get to know you in a really short time? But come the wedding day, our officiant got some facts wrong and also made a remark about my work that I thought was inappropriate. Nearly everyone I know who is married had the same experience. 🙁
Nothing is stopping you from having a small, short and private ceremony with the government officiant and then having another ceremony later. It’s what religious people do after all with the government wedding first and then the church ceremony after.
Having a government official handle the legal aspects is a very good thing. Things would be a lot better in the US if it were the same there.
I really enjoyed this post and we followed most of Ms. Blum’s ideas to good results at our wedding, but I wanted to mention that I don’t think it’s possible to be legally married by an internet ordained person in CANADA. I tried really hard, but there was just not a way here in Ontario that I could figure out–they don’t recognize the internet ordinations, so you’d have to be either an actual religious official or at least have a divinity degree. Maybe a judge would’ve been ok too, I was never clear on that, but it didn’t matter because we don’t know any religious officials OR judges.
Here is what we did, in case anyone’s in the same boat–it was expensive and a touch annoying, but it gave us the wedding we wanted. We asked a friend, who is also a poet and a high-school teacher (good with words, good with public speaking) to write and perform our wedding ceremony. We also hired a legal wedding officiant from the internet, after telling him up front that we wanted him to ONLY say the legal bits and sign the paper, and leave the majority of the ceremony to our friend. He was a sweet guy, and very respectful of what we wanted, but expensive–it was $360 for a wedding ceremony, and not any cheaper if he’s just standing in the back not saying anything for most of the time.
Our two officiants introduced themselves at the beginning of the ceremony so the guests knew what was up, and the ceremony went beautifully. Then the legal officiant got the papers signed and mailed them off, and we were legally wed.
Like I said, a little tricky, but might be a solution for some?
Rebecca, I have “signed the paperwork” before or immediately after a family or friend performs the wedding ceremony for a couple, too. It’s not an ideal solution, but is absolutely a solution that can work in many areas, if you find the right person to solemnize your marriage – I mention this in this blog post, too.
I also charge a lot less if I am just signing the paperwork and witnessing a ceremony than if I am writing a whole ceremony, too, but that’s just me.
I can’t say for the ROC (rest of Canada), but in the province of Quebec you can have a friend become officiant for a day so he can legally marry you. Worth looking up if other provinces do that to.
The whole licensing of officiants thing is so ridiculous and unnecessary. It’s just a holdover from past religious privileges. This is precisely why people should be able to get married at city hall. Preferably by just signing some papers. Alternatively by a government officiant like in much of Europe. Whatever ceremony comes after that should be optional and not legally binding. This would also have the neat effect of getting churches out of the legal and civil aspects of marriage.
I very much agree with you, and many marriage laws are changing in many places for the better. I am all for ceremonies to mark important rites of passage in life (like a wedding!), but it irks me that I have to become an ordained minister to be able to offer this service to my clients, because I have to also work with them to make their marriage a legal entity, too. If this is something you feel strongly about, I highly recommend reaching out to your local government officials and telling them that you want this to change. Because marriage laws here in the US are regulated on the state level, this is something that will change with each State Senate.
This post was really relevant to us! …Until the two people we asked to be our officiants turned us down. I wanted to bring up an unexpected hurdle to share with others thinking about asking friends: some people (religious or not, which surprised us), don’t feel comfortable being ordained and claiming ‘religious authority’ to marry someone. This is obviously location specific–while you can be ‘deputized for a day’ in California, in Washington State “The officiant can be any justice or judge of Washington State supreme court, court of appeals, courts of limited jurisdiction, or superior court commissioners, or any regularly licensed or ordained minister or priest of any church or religious denomination.”
My best friend is a stage manager, so she is helping us organise the entire wedding.. and she will be officiating our wedding too. It won’t be legal, we’re doing the courthouse thing beforehand, but it was important to me to have a friend fill that role, and now I feel a lot more comfortable with the idea of a ceremony.
It is a very casual wedding, so she’s thinking of wearing a poufy white wedding dress (I’m not, you see), or dressing in an Elvis jumpsuit to do the ceremony. I am a-ok with both of these ideas, and I honestly can’t wait to see her dressed up!
My hubby and I had our wedding officiated by my brother. Since he was in Mississippi for military training and couldn’t leave the state, and I was in living in Texas at the time, a week before our wedding, we were married by a judge in Texas via proxy. Our wedding ceremony was lead by my brother, who isn’t a legal officiant or pastor, but it made our wedding really special having someone so close to us give us his blessing to marry in such a big way. It also gave us and him a little bit more freedom to talk about what marriage meant to us and our personal beliefs. A few of his friends who were also engaged and in the military really liked our idea of getting married by a judge first then having a ceremony later and did similar things.
All good tips, but one little thing was left out — discuss with the officiant what s/he should wear! Because this person is a friend, not a paid professional, it’s more like s/he is part of the wedding party. And s/he won’t necessarily have a standard outfit for the event, not having done it before. Heh, look at the “Friends” example — Joey came from a movie gig wearing a totally inappropriate WWI uniform 🙂
For our wedding, we asked our friend-officiant rent a tux that was a little different than the groomsmen. And at the wedding where my husband officiated for friends, he wore a long frockcoat that fit in with the vintage style of their wedding.
So we decided to ask a family friend to officiate. He’s an ordained interfaith minister and very experienced. He is the partner of my parents’ best friend who has known me my whole life. We just had a very nice conversation about my plans and vision for the ceremony. Af the end he told me his fee is $500 and he was wondering if we’d be paying his travel expenses. (he lives in NY and we live in SF) I was imagining we would pay him, but hadn’t thought about travel expenses because I thought he’d certainly be coming to our wedding anyways. Altogether this almost doubles our ceremony costs. What do you think?
That can be a tricky situation. If I was in this situation (as the officiant), I would probably feel comfortable asking for my fee, but wouldn’t charge for travel because I would be attending the wedding regardless of whether I was officiating or not. I would suggest sending a nicely worded email or sitting down to a phone call and tell him how much it would mean to you both to have him officiate, but you really only have the budget for the fee, not the travel expenses. By being upfront with both the emotional part as well as the budgetary constrictions, it will hopefully balance everything out so he will understand that it’s not a personal thing. If he’s not comfortable with that, tell him that he is welcome as a guest at the wedding, and be prepared to look for an officiant elsewhere. I’m sorry that he has put you into a kind of difficult situation.
I feel like travel costs are fair, if you are asking him to travel. Remember, if he were a regular guest, he could decline. A good friend of ours is a photographer, and she’s on the guest list, but if we opt to have her be the official photographer, we will pay her travel expenses (she’s in the UK, i’m in the US). However, if we pay her to travel, that will be her payment for the photos. Does that make sense? That is what we assumed was fair.
My daughter is being married in an informal outdoor ceremony and has asked me to officiate. She is being married in Vermont where you can be licensed to perform one specific ceremony by simply submitting a fee and application to the Attorney General’s office – very civilized, IMHO.
My question is about my other position – that of Mother of the Bride – and what the logistics of said position might be. Would it be acceptable for someone – my spouse, my son, etc. – to escort me in at the time when the mother usually comes in, then at the start of the procession I could simply come to the front? Thanks!
What an honor! It must be so meaningful to be able to officiate at your daughter’s wedding. I would suggest having someone escort you in (your spouse, son, etc) as the first person in the processional, and then take your place at the front. That way you get your Mother of the Bride moment, but logistically it’s not too complicated.
Great article!
We are photographers in California and see many of the logistical issues that arise when friends officiate. When working with a professional officiant is not an option or the couple’s choice, we always recommend our favorite local officiant’s workbook to help the friends given this great responsibility. It’s a great resource! http://www.askedtoofficiate.com
I’m having a REALLY hard time figuring out how to make sure our marriage is legal! We will be getting married in Kent Count, Michigan. I have residency in Barry County. My understanding is that we get the license in the county that we have residency, but what about the marriage certificate? Where do we turn in the paperwork, who turns in the paperwork? What paperwork needs to be turned in?
I have looked everywhere for this information, and I cannot find it. I can find information of holding period, and expiration period of the license, but that is it. Please help.
You need to call the registrar / town hall / department of vital statistics in the town where you are getting married and ask these questions. I am in NJ, and am not familiar with the marriage laws in MI, so if you want to make sure your marriage is legal, you need to call them and ask these questions.
The marriage license IS the same thing as the marriage certificate, but I don’t know where you will return it, what needs to be returned, or who returns it.
I can’t speak for that specific county (what bit of michigan? i’m outside of detroit) – i’m a resident of Macomb, and in doing research it turns out i deal with their clerk for the certificate, but can get married anywhere in the state. I’d assume it’s mostly the same from county to county
I am confused, my question is that my husband and I eloped and we are having the big wedding ceremony in September and what my question is can anyone be my officiant or must they be ordained? Thank you.
Hi Pam, if you do not need your ceremony to be legal, your officiant could be anyone – they don’t need to be ordained or legal to perform marriages, as you are already married.
Okay thank you, this helps me out 🙂
i am coming to you all from the state of washington. with my first marriage, my husband did not want the bit ‘by the state of washington’ added to our vows. we were lucky to not have that. i am now planning my second wedding. and have been thinking about doing a handfasting ceremony. my fiance and i are both pagan. our ceremony will be on his private property.
It’s luckily very easy in Maryland — all the state requires is that your officiant be someone recognised as having the authority to perform the wedding. There’s no paperwork to fill out in most of the state (not sure about Baltimore City proper), and so long as you, the couple, believe your officiant has the power to marry you, then you’re all set. I’ve been an officiant for friends, friends-of-friends, and random folks who had an officiant dodge out at the last minute and I was already working as their florist. My new brother-in-law performed our wedding earlier this month. It’s really easy, and it works great. There’s not even witnesses required on the MD license. Just make sure you leave the 48 hour waiting period, and your officiant mails everything back to the county, and you’re golden.
I just became a Humanist Celebrant and I wondered what was up with registering or not. I saw that NYC requires it to be eligible to officially solemnize, but seemed like for central NY area, nothing more is needed. Your article pretty much confirmed my thoughts. Thanks!
Wow, this makes it sound like an exhausting difficult venture but my husband’s mom was our officiant a couple weeks ago and it was super easy to put together. We wrote the ceremony ourselves with inspiration from open threads on vows, had her ordained online, then got the license and got hitched!
I had my brother marry me and my husband. He did a great job! Both my husband and I are big movie buffs, so he included as many movie quotes as possible. He used an Iron Man comic as a binder to hold his papers (my bouquet was also made of comics). It was perfect because it kept me from crying. The best part was that as my new husband and I went to walk down the aisle, he called after us “And May the Force be with you!” since Star Wars has always been my brother and mine’s special movies.
I have been asked to officiate my BIL wedding in July, 2018 and they want me to do it as Deadpool. I looked up their county laws in Wisconsin and you can not just join Universal Life Church and do it there. You have to be vouched for by a local clergyman. OR they can tell the county they are “part of a religion that allows them to marry themselves.” But they may not be recognized federally and they have to sign a paper that says they do not care. I do not know what to do here. Any help???
Military couple who are legally married and are planning a full blown wedding in the USA from overseas. The questions is…since legally married…can a friend officiate without literally officiating (because the legal part of it is all done)?
The better question is, why would you want that? If you are going through the effort to have a full scale symbolic ceremony so that you can celebrate with your friends and family, shouldn’t you want it to be a quality experience? If you just go through the motions by having any old person regurgitate something copy-pasted off the internet, then you it kinda defeats the purpose, yes? If you are thinking it’s a way to make it a more personal experience, how will a vanilla template be more or less personal based on who regurgitates it? Hire a pro who knows what they are doing. You’ll have a much better, more personal experience!
Hi I was needing advise on soleminizing a marriage
If you don’t want a family or friends how do you find a soleminizer.
Hi !
Can my brother officiate my wedding in California if he gets ordained through American Marriage Ministries, but lives in Texas?
Thank you