Why are officiants so expensive? (virginia wedding)

View Quoted Comment BLESS DARCY. I wish you the best this weekend! and do let me know how she is - but no rush

View Quoted Comment Same with ours, but it worked because our parents came to the courthouse with us to witness our “legal” marriage

Having a judge officiate ours and it is free. Though, we will be inviting her and a guest to stay and party...so not quite free.

They can't except payment, though. She happens to be a friend of a family member and so we are happy to repay her by including her in the festivities.

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SERIOUSLY. I get they have a business to run and all the legal barriers BUT STILL.

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Oh, that's smart! We could do that, too. I feel like sometimes these things are simple answers that you just overlook because there's so much going on.

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Awww, that's so nice! If I was in that situation, I don't think it would be an issue for us to invite them to the party.

I am in the Stafford area in VA and ran into so many expensive officiants. I ended up finding someone from thumbtack for $350. FH and I spoke with him and we like him. Here is his information if your'e interested.

https://www.indescribableweddings.com/

View Quoted Comment Kentucky license is $40 even that he really does not want to charge us since him and my fiancé have been friends since elementary school.

I seriously feel like everything is more expensive in VA!! We quite literally chose to have our wedding in NC after looking at the pricing for a wedding in NOVA. I'm not sure how much officiants are in other states as a close friend of our's is going to be marrying us. What are y'all going to end up doing??

We are getting married in NY. I saw officiant pricing from 100-800 bucks!! We found ours for 250. Includes 2 meetings before the wedding, unlimited email contact, and she is creating our ceremony based on what we want, including a handfasting ceremony. Also includes the rehearsal the day before. There is a little more planning involved with a ceremony than most people think, even for just a 15 or 20 minute one. I definitely think I'm the ones that are 500 and above are a little crazy though!! Unless they are the day of coordinator too!!

We just hired an officiant in MA and were also stunned. The state puts a limit on the amount of money a justice of the peace can charge and it's either $100 or $150, but all of them charge $400+! We were wondering how people can get away with charging more than the STATE MANDATED CHARGE, but I think we've learned that they are upcharging for "a custom ceremony". We only found one JOP who was charging the state allowed amount, but ended up picking an officiant who was $500 since we really got along with him, liked his style and he customizes the ceremony 100% (none of that "we give you three options and you pick the parts of the ceremony you like from these options" stuff that we were offered from multiple JOPs as a "custom ceremony"). (and we did "interview" officiants ranging from 300-800 so the range is definitely vast).

We did consider a one day designation since they offer them here too but I have heard bad stories of people having family/friends officiate and they butcher it...we decided to spend the money and know that the person we hired is giving us what we're envisioning.

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Thanks so much, Tonia!

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We were looking to get married in our home state of NJ because it would have been cheaper, but I really didn't want to plan across state lines. Another bride suggested an officiant she found here on WW, and she's only $50. We're chatting with her currently

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$250 is very reasonable for all that you're getting! All of these people that we've looked into aren't DOC. Our venue includes a DOC in the price, which is very nice

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So I've learned the Virginia also has a state mandated charge of $50. Another bride pointed her out to me, and we're currently talking to her. the upcharges are probably from the various meetings with you, rehearsals, etc.

I also agree on the horror stories from one-day officiants. It's not something we want to chance, even though the person we had in mind is even more organized than me.

Why not contact them, and negotiate. You can always say that you had a cheaper price, or say that your budget is XXX and can they do it for that. All prices are negotiable, you’ve just got to be ballsy enough to ask. You can even say you got a quote for X amount and would they match that so you could go with them. I do agree with the person who mentioned it is a business, it is a legal responsibility, and you want to have something catered to you as opposed to having the bog standard script. You could also do a summary of what you’d like to have spoken about, and get things off of the Internet to help have to gather a draft that you’d like. All the best with it, Weddings are rather expensive, and generally, what your budget often is half the price of what you will pay.!

I'm in Virginia and I am paying $300 for an officiant, so it's definitely possible to find someone. I found mine on the Vendor section of wedding wore.

View Quoted Comment Hi, I live in the NOVA area and getting married at the end of the year. I’m wondering if you can pass your officiant’s information please. I’d really appreciate it, thank you.

View Quoted Comment Her name is Wendy Jones and she’s here on WW. She performed our ceremony yesterday and did a fabulous job!

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Wendy did a fabulous job! She was prompt and SO down to earth. She was so easy to deal with throughout as well. About a month before the wedding I asked her to send over some scripts and she sent over about 5. We chose one and that was that. So simple! I highly recommend her.