Tips from Northeast Nuptials and TheMarryingpriest.com on finding the right wedding officiant.
Your ceremony and wedding officiant are at the heart of your wedding. Among all the services you need for a complete wedding, selecting a professional wedding officiant is essential because the ceremony is what your day is centered around and they will help set the tone for your entire wedding celebration.
Have you been trying to figure out the how’s and why’s, maybe even the when’s of picking the person who will be performing your wedding ceremony?
Here are a few tips from NortheastNuptials.com and TheMarryingPriest.com on what to look for when wedding officiant shopping.
Finding the right wedding officiant to marry you is an important decision. You'll want to make sure that you find someone who is willing to perform the kind of ceremony you are envisioning, or who has a style and belief system similar to your own.
Decide whether you want a religious or secular wedding. In religious weddings, you may be looking for a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi or interfaith minister. Secular weddings you may be looking for a Justice of the Peace or a Wedding Celebrant.
Make sure your wedding officiant will be able to travel to your wedding ceremony location. Is it included in their fee or an added on expense?
When speaking with a wedding officiant, consider how customized you want the ceremony to be and how flexible they will be in fulfilling your needs. Will they let you write your own vows? Will they use ideas or wording that are not traditional or in their repertoire?
What qualifies them to perform weddings? Are they a Wedding Minister, a Wedding Priest, a Wedding Officiant, a Wedding Justice of the Peace, a Wedding Celebrant? Or are they a minister, a priest or justice of the peace that also do weddings? Do they have formal training or did they buy a “kit” online and want to make a quick buck?
Do they care about you as a couple and how important your ceremony is, to you?
How many couples has the officiant worked with? What is their experience?
Do they have “back up” plan if they can’t make it on your day because of an unexpected emergency?
What’s included with their fee? Are they going to be at your rehearsal or is that an added fee? Are they going to help you write the ceremony or write it for you?
And of course, if you want to make it legal, you'll need to make sure that they are legally able to marry you in your state.
There are just a few of the things for you to think about when looking for your wedding celebrant. You should also begin this process early on in your wedding planning scheme, as there are often many choices to be made just about the ceremony words themselves.
So find the wedding minister that feels like the best fit, and find them early.
NortheastNuptials.com and TheMarryingPriest.com take great pride in our wealth of experience and education, and have been joyfully helping couple celebrate their love in every form, for over a decade. Northeast Nuptials really is your choice for a warm, caring, relevant and contemporary wedding ceremony that will fit your style and budget.