Wedding Officiant

I’d suggest Universal Life Church online. They get you ordained, they have ceremony script generators where you can select individual things you want or don’t want in the ceremony. For example like if you want to do a hand fasting instead of a ring exchange type of thing, they have it all. If you want to do more religious, versus non-religious they have that too. Once you make your selections they generate an entire script out for you in the proper order. They even have minister outfits/attire. They also explain the whole process and can advise on any state specifics.

I second DJ Tanner. My husband's uncle got ordained through them and performed our ceremony. It was free, and he said the process was very easy. However, not every state recognizes this type of officiant as valid (and some states, like Pennsylvania belive, have rules that are county specific). Make sure that this is legally allowed in the county are marrying, or your marriage may not be recognized by the state.

For my first wedding we used universal life church

Find out what is legal for your state, which means calling the marriage license office. While the Universal Life Church and other organizations offer ordination services, not all states recognize it as legal. Some states require a specific registered clergy and others will let you pick someone to fill out paperwork to be ordained for a specific date.

Check with your state - in Virginia, and online ordination isn’t a qualification, but you can get a special license for one day.

I should mention that we live in Illinois and there are no issues with legalities.

View Quoted Comment I was about to give the same advice when I saw you say you are in Illinois and have already made sure that it checks out legally.



I'm getting married in Virginia, like Samantha. My FH's best friend is getting approved by the judge to officiate and we are having a non-religious ceremony so I don't have any suggestions on getting religiously ordained.
Here is an article from The Knot that might be helpful in narrowing down your choices: https://www.theknot.com/content/friend-officiate-ceremony-how-to

View Quoted Comment We’re not looking to have a religious ceremony either. That’s why I was kinda iffy about a lot of the online sites I’m finding that are religion affiliated.