how to become a legal wedding officiant in philadelphia?

I can't help but if you change your avatar it will help you get more responses! The rings are associated with spam/trolls.

Self-uniting marriage is a thing you can do in some PA counties. I believe it's a special license.

As far as having him recognized as an officiant, call the city or county and ask.

You can actually simply complete a course online I am pretty sure so just find a place that recognizes it! Or sign the licenses in the courthouse then have the ceremony and have him still do it as a more meaningful type thing then official ETA: For details

From what I found online I'm thinking he can get ordained online through the American Marriage Ministries website. But I will call the city tmrw to make sure. I'm just afraid that they will tell me "yes, that's fine" and then when we go to get our marriage license or got to file the license they will be like "This isn't legal, we can't accept it"......

If you call tomorrow, get the name of whoever you speak to. You could also ask to speak to the person in charge. That way if you have an issue later, you know who you talked to.

Coco, you have no idea what you're talking about, so please don't give advice on legal matters. Ministers don't complete courses on line to be legal anywhere. Geez....

Call the clerk in Philadelphia. Self uniting is not as simple as you think and the license costs more. And I can tell you that it is very hard to get a straight answer from anyone that will hold up later on.

Do not take legal advice from strangers on line. Even I can't give definitive answers on every clerk in NJ or NY, because they are all a bit different.

head desk. No, wine, then head desk.

@celia my brother got ordained for us online... his card says he's an "ordained minister" it really is a thing....and as long as it's legal in your area, it works. They don't take classes, you literally pay a fee, answer some questions and you're ordained. I have had friends who have used the same website so that they could have a family member marry them and are in legal marriages. I don't think Corine actually thought it makes you a regular minister lol

You could probably get your dog 'ordained' online. The only requirement is a credit card number. There are no classes. That's why couples come on here asking for ceremony wording so their favorite person can 'officiate' their wedding!

Why not hire a pro who will make sure everything is legal and will still provide a personalized ceremony?

I promise we made sure everything is legal, or we wouldn't have done it. Why hire a pro when they don't know us? Why take the time to explain everything to a stranger when someone already knows? The ceremony will be personalized because my brother has watched us grow as a couple over the past 8 years. He's seen the highs, the lows, and the in between. What could possibly be more personal/customized than having someone actually close to both of you perform your marriage?

How much time did your brother have to spend learning how to put together a ceremony and deal with the license?

One of my couples asked if her aunt could speak during the ceremony (since she wasn't authorized to officiate weddings here). Aunt proceeded to talk about the time the couple broke up. Not something I would have included in my personalized ceremony.

Well we've never broke up so..... we've been engaged for over a year, he has had plenty of time, and still has time to formulate a proper ceremony. We plan on working together to hash out the final details. It's not like we're just gonna be like "you do you Ben, say whatever comes to you!" Lol I promise, if we hadn't have thought everything through, we wouldn't be doing it.

I'm in Philly too. From my research most if not all counties in PA will not accept online ordained minsters. Some will let you get a self uniting license and some will not. Our plan is to get a self uniting license and have my brother preform the ceremony. I think Philadelphia County is pretty lax, and I think it was Staci? who said she got hers in MontCo no problem, but Bucks County wouldn't do it. We're still pretty far away from our wedding so I haven't made any calls about it yet, but I will and I suggest you do too. Please do not listen to the brides not from PA telling you they can get ordained online no problem, Pennsylvania is weird. Call someone at city hall and find out for sure.

"why hire a pro when they don't know us" I second the head desk. Why hire a pro caterer when your mom knows how to cook? Just because someone knows you doesn't mean they are good at speaking in front of large groups people, I have sat through awkward ceremonies performed by family members. Hire an experienced professional, they will take the time to get to know you and make your ceremony personal. Also, your comments are insulting to the professionals on this site.

I am certainly not trying to offend professionals. It is my personal opinion that we will appreciate my brother more than a pro. It is our wedding, so that's what we are doing. My brother is a salesman and shmoozes others for a living. Like I said, if we weren't confident in our choice, we wouldn't be doing it. We feel hiring a professional for our intimate ceremony is unnecessary. I'm not saying a pro isn't a good choice for others, just not for us. Edited for spelling. P.s. to me professional food is waaaaay different than an officiant. I'm not trying to have personal/sentimental food.

Why hire a dentist when your cousin has seen your teeth so many times? Just because someone knows you doesn't mean your ceremony will be any better, any more personal (and sometimes, it can be TOO personal when written by a person who knows everything about you....) or that it will be delivered well. Or written well.

You hire a pro so your ceremony goes well, so it's not cut and pasted from the internet, and if there are any legal problems after the fact (and trust me, we've seen many) they can fix them. PA is a commonwealth, which means that every county is a bit different.

@rosemary yes, that is exactly what we did as well as ask a lawyer. We ended up going into the office and showing them his certification. They told us that as long as he doesn't move from the state, it will be valid providing we fill out the other necessary paperwork, which obviously we plan on doing. I just want to clarify that in my original post I said to make sure it was legal in your area. I'm certainly not condoning anyone to go into it blindly without doing their research, as it will depend on your county, state, etc. Edited stupid auto correct

Our JP has done ceremonies that he simply presided over without actually performing if the couple wanted someone closer to them to actually perform the service. Then he just takes them aside and does a quick "do you, do you? sign here" thing to make it legal. Maybe you could do something similar?

I would suggest proceeding with a lot of caution when using a website to get "ordained". Some states, explicitly ban them, while others are a lot less clear. There have been cases where a couple in married by someone ordained online, that later when the couple divorced the marriage was challenged and thrown out. Obviously none of us go into a marriage thinking it will end in divorce but just something to think about. If the law doesn't explicitly allow for someone ordained online, your marriage could be ruled invalid in the case of divorce, inheritance, etc.

I hate the NJ forms, honestly, but the couple brings them to us, we fill them out, make sure the witnesses have signed them, and file them. If there are any errors, we're responsible for working with the clerk to correct them.

It sounds like all fun and games, but we are agents of the courts, and it's a bit more serious than it's sometimes portrayed. In some states, there are specific things that need to be said during the ceremony; in others, not.

The worst crime, imho?

Boredom, inappropriate language, terrible presentation, poor judgement, and a less than stellar process creating the thing to begin with.

Why hire someone when they don't know you?

Because my friends don't know how to marry people. My friends are my friends- they know when I puked in the toilet from to much vodka- my friends know about those nights I stayed up pining over men I didn't care about.

My officiant knows how to make a ceremony meaningful to US- for US- and it's special. My officiant knows how to write a ceremony that feels special- and a covenant and feel spiritual without feeling religious. And above all she knows how to get the fucking paper work done.

She also knows where all the best restaurants are.

Seriously- just hire a professional- they know how to do this- it's why they are called a professional.