Unfortunately we did not have a very good experience with this officiant.

Hiring him was easy, over phone/text. His rates were very low and we quickly covered the 50% deposit. Then time passed and we didn't hear from him (life gets busy, of course, same on our end) until the RSVP date had passed and we hadn't gotten his RSVP yet. We assumed he would be coming, so we weren't worried- just needed to know if he was bringing a plus one and what meal choices would be.

We couldn't get ahold of him for a few days, so we checked his page on Wedding Wire. Almost all of his info had been stripped from the account, and the phone number had changed (strange). So we called the new number and left a message.

Still no word- it's only 2 weeks out from the wedding at this point and we are starting to worry. We hadn't gone over any ceremony details, and we couldn't get ahold of him. I finally texted him saying we needed to know if he would be able to officiate or else we'd have to hire someone else and get our deposit back. Then we heard back within minutes- he said he had lost his phone and had been trying to get ahold of us. I said we understood, sorry about his phone. Then he said "lost is a euphemism." Whatever he meant by that I'm not sure.

Anyway, had a zoom call where we discovered he was having health issues and that he had canceled all other weddings except ours. Totally understood, asked what we could do to help. He asked for small accommodations and of course we agreed. Then he texted later that day hinting at needing a hotel stay. We were covering his fees on our own and unfortunately couldn't afford to cover a hotel. We felt awful, knowing he was having health issues, but with all the other wedding fees we just couldn't afford to put him up.

Jump to the day before the wedding - that morning I confirmed by text that he knew the time and location of the rehearsal. He didn't exactly confirm that he would be there, but gave a reassuring message that I assumed was a "yes." Then 10 minutes into our rehearsal he hadn't arrived yet. I called to make sure he wasn't lost, etc. and he answered saying that his text to me "hadn't gone through" and that he would not be attending the rehearsal due to health issues.

We scrambled to lead the rehearsal ourselves, trying to calm our family's confusion and uncertainty while ignoring our own panic and the dread that this guy wouldn't end up showing to the ceremony itself and we wouldn't be able to get married. It was the last thing we wanted *the day* before our wedding. He promised that he would still officiate (and he did) but we called in 2 family friends as backups just in case.

Then 45 min before the ceremony while we were taking photos he arrived and called me over to finalize the ceremony details. I had to quickly fill him in on everything we went over at the rehearsal (which we did ourselves- we had no guidance, no order of events from him or anything even though he assured us that he would be covering those details).

All in all, we understood that he was having issues, but if you cancel on all events except one - why not just cancel on us too? It would have saved us all the headache. We will always look back fondly on our wedding day, but I wouldn't wish this experience on anyone. Not worth the stress.