how did you find your officiant?

kmedeiros89

I'm getting married next June so I think I should definitely start looking into hiring our officiant. I just have no idea how to find one. How did you find your officiant and were you able to "interview" them so to say?

JennyColada

We found ours as a referral through our wedding coordinator.

We did meet with her before official-izing anything, but we kind of knew going into it that we'd probably stick with her as we aren't very picky. I find her a bit...hyperbolic and overly sappy, but I guess that's ok for a wedding. But it kind of makes me feel weird to have a near stranger try to talk about how in love we are and how our love positively affects the earth.

falsara

My aunt's friend from work happens to be an ordained minister,it works for us. We've met her once already, just because we're planning from out of town so a lot of things take longer. She's down to earth and she's basically just going to read the script we give her.

ETA spelling

artbyallie

This depends largely on what sort of ceremony you are having, though I will guess it's a secular one since you don't specify priest/rabbi/pastor/whatever. We used the pastor at my church, since that's where we got married. The clerk of court for the county you're getting married in should be able to give you a list of qualified officiants.

beethery

I emailed a few in my area, and only one got back to me. So that was nice. Then she fell off the planet. I was ready to start over, when I interviewed the DJ and found out that he's also a licensed officiant for my state.

We were already going to book him for the DJ, but he'd also be a great officiant, so it killed two birds with one stone.

sarawifenow

We found our officiant through our venue. A lot of times venues have vendors that they work with frequently and that they recommend. We love our officiant! It may be something to look into.

smalfrie19

My aunt is marrying us. It initially started out as a joke, but the more I thought about it, the more I loved it. I did all the research, offered to cover any costs of getting ordained (thankfully for our state there are none), and begged and pleaded.. She finally agreed after I showed her how easy it is. We are really excited. 

holyguacamole79

My brother found his officiant through their venue. My officiant choice was easy - we have a family friend who is a priest. He has known me since I was 2 years old. Slam dunk!

penguin44

We asked our friend. After looking at a lot of options we didn't like. We paid for him to get ordained and bought him a new suit.

NYCMercedes

Our pastor.

lovesclimbing

He was our pastor at the time.

cupcait927

We're using a local town justice who also officiated my best friend's wedding a few years ago. We're not religious at ALL so no pastor/priest/etc. She's a little flowery and long-winded, but she puts a lot of effort into her ceremonies, which isn't necessarily typical of a government official.

flyingfoxes

I found ours through WeddingWire.com.  We met up with him one evening, and his wife serves as sort of a coordinator to help keep us on track during the ceremony - we liked them both, so we booked them.  $300, easy as pie.  Their kids are also ordained, so they have a guaranteed backup if one of them falls ill. 

ElcaB

We both wanted someone we know & are comfortable with, so we decided to ask our close friend to get ordained. 

MrsMelodyShah

We also found our officiant through Wedding Wire. He has a 5 star average, 119 independent, glowing reviews and he writes personalized ceremonies for all of the couples he marries. We met up with him earlier this evening and he was wonderful. Very kind, funny and helpful. I haven't found any other vendors through Wedding Wire yet (our newly booked officiant will email us recommendations for caterers and we already have a photographer in mind) but I do plan to use it if I get stuck on where to look for anything else. I ended up on WW because I had no idea how to even begin looking for an officiant. I may use it for finding a florist, if I don't get any good recommendations from friends.

luckyus10

Where I live it's legal to be ordained online, so we asked my best friend of 25 years if he would officiate and he was honored, so it worked out really well and we feel it adds a very personal touch to it.

jenna8984

We figured why have it be a random stranger who doesn't know us? And we're not religious so we don't have a pastor. So we asked our old roommate. It was just a $25 fee to get her ordained (just for the one day in my state). I put together the script from bits and pieces from the internet, she did fantastic, and we gave her a gift card as a thank you. 

AddieCake

We initially Googled for ours and found one we liked, but then we decided to go with the husband of one of my colleagues/friends. 

aquietseason

We're currently in the process now -- we were raised in two different religions (Catholic/Muslim) but are both on the agnostic-atheist spectrum so any religious option was out. We considered a friend or family member officiating, but decided against it.

So we basically just googled "wedding officiant nyc" and contacted the top rated 5 we found. We did a mix of phone, Skype, and in person interviews. Frankly I found they all pretty much offered the same spiel/services/price, but it was very important for us to "click" with the officiant and know that she (happened to all be women) understood us and our needs.

I didn't really go into it with a set of questions I wanted answered (other than logistical things like when they would be showing up to the venue, how do they coordinate with DJ/etc). We really just told each officiant a quick summary of our relationship, what our vision is, what we're looking for. They told us about their experience, view points, etc. - each "consultation" was 15-20 minutes (in persons being a bit longer than phone/Skype).

Now we're just trying to decide between our top two, which we'll hopefully be doing in the next week or so Hope that helps!

BlueBirdMB

We had very specific needs- I am Jewish and my husband is Hindu. We didn't want a religious ceremony per say, but we wanted a ceremony that would include traditions from both religions that were important to us in a cohesive manner. We looked up celebrants in our area- I believe through google searches. Then we interviewed celebrants until we found one we liked.

Alikat9614

We originally were going to use the pastor at DH's church. He left rather suddenly after Christmas, so we were in need of an officiant. Our very dear friend happens to be a JOP, so we asked him and he performed an absolutely beautiful ceremony. Luckily, DH's church still let us marry there, even though we didn't have a 'religious person' marry us.

lyssalouandrew

First of all, Beethery, I LOVE YOUR SIGNATURE. LOL

Secondly, I am struggling with this because we are secular and don't go to church, nor were we raised religiously or anything of the like. We are going to do secular vows and we are having trouble finding someone ordained to marry us.

My fiance thinks that his friend is ordained...but we haven't asked yet and he doesn't seem to have any real experience doing it since he is in real estate.

I am still on the hunt - none of the ones on theknot in our area, really seem to fit "us", so we are trying to table this decision for now...

marie2785

Our city court gives out a list of civil officiants who are registered with them. 

We're doing the ceremony in church out of state so we have the priest lined up there. We plan to do the legal side in our home state though, so we'll call one of the people on the court's list. 

caitlinmca

Our officiant married FI's sister and her husband and so FI and I got engaged and were starting planning they mentioned us to the officiant and we met up.

artbyallie

@lyssalouandrew, you might also try your local board for recommendations.

theartistformerlyknownas

We found ours through Google/TK reviews. We wanted a professional/clergy member, but also someone who would let us have a BIT of control. Wound up with an associate pastor at a local church who has a wedding-specific gig on the side. Had an initial meeting with him and loved him. He sent us a list of sample scripts and let us edit it down to exactly what we wanted. We were really happy with the result.

jynxiie

I simply searched Officiate in Toronto.

Then I looked up those Officiates I spoke too on Wedding Wire, checked out all the reviews.

So one of the guys I was speaking too was also rated number 2.

He also looked kinda like Billy Joel, who we love.

annakay511

I am doing the same thing right now! We are getting married in July. I have been looking at weddingwire.com to find people who are local to my area. You should also ask your venue if they have a preferred vendors list and they may have officiants on there. I also met an officiant at a local bridal show. I have at least 2 right now that I want to meet with - once you've checked them out online, contact them and set up a time for you and your fiancé to meet them. If we don't "click" with one of those officiants, I will go back to the drawing board and check out some more on line. Good luck!

britneydel

We were a bit stumped on where to find an officiant as well..

We knew we just wanted a JP, but felt weird just looking in a phone book and calling up random ones.

So we talked to family that we knew had been married by a JP and got a reference through them.

The one we will most likely be using married my FI's cousins a few years ago.

Alikat9614

Also, just call up the county clerk's office (at least that's who you'd call in Virginia) and ask for any JOP's. As I was getting our certified copy today, I overheard a lady give our officiant's name out to a couple different people. :-)

joysaw00

Keep in mind, there are "ministry" trained people who are secular (secular humanist) and hence not necessarily a JOP, but they can offer a nonreligious ceremony, and they are often much more heart felt and personal than JOPs are. That's been my experience anyway. I know of some advertised in the obvious places like weddingwire.