Present for a friend who is marrying us

Is the Church of the FSM a recognized religion? Are you sure the state will recognize this marriage?

It's much easier to hire a pro who is authorized by your state to solemnize marriages.

I'm in the same boat; my uncle is officiating our wedding and I'm unsure of what to get him. We're thinking of a restaurant gift card so him and his wife can have a nice date night. Also, a bottle of wine, just because it feels right.

You'll get a lot of people who tell you to hire a pro, but for us it was never considered. It was so much more important to us to have somebody we know and love do this with us, even if that meant more work for us, and he was so excited when we asked. Best of luck!

Learn something new everyday..FSM. Interesting.

I had to Google church of FSM... it really is church of the flying spaghetti monster. Is this real?

Even after alllll these PP said it was real, I had to google it myself lmao this is hilarious.

Gifts are always nice though. I do agree a pro would be best unless your friend has previous experience and doesn't mind. Maybe an Italian restaurant gc!?

The church of the flying spaghetti monster is an atheist group, for those who are confused.

Our best friend and FH's Army brother is going to marry us. He actually started to tear up when we asked him. He is a huge Packers fan and we wanted to get him tickets to a game. However, his wife, also one of my BM, is going to be 8 months pregnant at the wedding and will have the baby at the beginning of the football season. We figured they wouldn't want to leave their new born so soon so we dropped that idea. Now we have to figure something else out.

Celia is a professional who has officiated at more weddings than all of the posters on this thread -- combined -- could have possibly attended.

She is in my service area, is highly respected, and she doesn't need to camouflage her advice with pretty words. She's telling the truth -- not because she wants to earn money doing the OP's wedding (I'm assuming she didn't even look at where the OP is having her ceremony). She's doing the OP a kindness. Truth, even if it stings like a hornet, is ultimately a kindness.

People who don't work in the industry have no idea what goes through the head of a vendor when the wedding day arrives. They have no idea of what happened behind the scenes.

OP, have your non-pro officiated ceremony. Hopefully it won't be full of giggles and flubs that your guests will equivocate with phrases like, "Oh, it was so real." I promise you, what you want is tear filled eyes and noticeable heartbeats because the ceremony extended beyond the couple and literally touched the guests.

Wow...I get that those who are providing services generally do so at a level above what the average friend could do, but I definitely wouldn't hire Celia. Service industries are all about customer service, and Celia shows that clearly isn't her natural forte.

I've been asked to be the officiant for friends on multiple occasions, and I have asked a friend to be my own. These weren't $50k weddings with wedding parties of 20 people - someone who's done things professionally would likely be the best one to ask for that type of thing. But more likely for those who have friends doing things, they are smaller affairs and focused on the couple instead of the pageantry. I know that's still important to some, but less likely to be so for someone who asks a friend to be the officiant.