Officiant Help Needed!

Hired a rando, worked out well! She sent us examples of the normal script/flow with examples of readings we could include. She had lots of great reviews and after a call with her, she understood what we wanted. What we wanted was something very brief btw - this would be harder for a more lengthy or personally structured ceremony.

My husband's uncle got ordained online for free, and it worked out great.

I would hire a “rando” professional. They are skilled at officiating and speaking in front of crowds, and can help with the flow of the wedding. I’ve been to two weddings that had family members get ordained online to officiate and neither were nearly as good as the other weddings I’ve been to that had professionals.

Browse Instagram, Yelp and Google in your area for non religious officiants. Many states don’t recognize online ordinations as legal. Check with the marriage license office to see what they allow.

So we ended up deciding having my FHs grandfather officiate our non traditional wedding

We hired a professional that I had met a wedding expo. He was great!! He go to know us and what we wanted/was important to us. Our feeling was a professional knows how the ceremony should flow, is comfortable speaking in front of people and would be able to guide us and answer any questions we had. Everyone said it was very beautiful ceremony and felt very personal. I've been to weddings with an officiant that felt very generic and flat.

I was just in the same boat as you, our officiant backed out and I had to find an officiant with 2 months to go. I posted in a Facebook group and got a bunch of messages, but one "rando" professional stuck out to me. We talked to her and absolutely loved her and while we haven't gotten married yet, I can tell it's probably actually going to be nicer than the first person we had. This woman's profession is officiating weddings, so she's very rehearsed in what she needs to do. I would recommend using a professional because they know what they are doing, they usually have different outlines for you to go through and choose from as well whereas with a family member, you would probably have to figure that out on your own.

I would hire a professional. They have the experience of officiating ceremonies and speaking in front of people, and they'll be able to make your ceremony go smoothly, and they should already have a ceremony script available. If you have a friend or family member get ordained, you'll probably also need to worry about a script and make sure that person is legally allowed to marry in your state (I think states are all different as for who they legally allow to perform a ceremony).

I’m asking my uncle to officiate our wedding! He is already ordained, and it will be very personal!

Having a friend officiate the ceremony.