How in the world do you find an officiant??! Please help!!

lynetteb79

So, I've read these boards and all the great ideas for civil union weddings, nondenominational officiants, but I have no clue how to go about finding one. Google search turns up nothing except several from Nashville, Tn and some of the bigger cities...some of them will not travel to the smaller town I'm in. Others will but want to charge you an outrageous fee!!  I just never knew it would be so hard to find someone. We don't go to church, are different faiths, are both divorced,  so finding a pastor of a church is pretty much out. I would love to have a friend be "ordained" to marry us, but all the research I've done indicates this is not a legal option for Tennessee. <insert sad face here!!>. Does anyone have any ideas on where to look/how to go about finding someone? I do thank you sincerely in advance!!

jlpjnelson

 we dont go to chhurch either but we found one that will marry us on the farm and he is charging us 200.00 canadian dollars . try phoning around and see what they say . our wedding is in july .

zitiqueen

Does your town have a chamber of commerce you could call? They might be able to help.

jemmini6

You can try weddingwire.com, they have a pretty comprehensive list of vendors as well as reviews.  If you still can't find anyone in your town, try to find a local JoP that will perform marriages on location (outside the courthouse).

TiffannieF

Craigslist, weddingministers.com, you can also ask some of your vendors (my photog and florist both referred me to people).  Or if you have people who go to church people you can ask.

lynetteb79

Thank you all for your help!! I do appreciate it greatly!!

RaptorSLH

I second looking for a local Unitarian Universalist.  Neither FI nor I are members, but our local UU minister agreed to marry us on location for $200 less than the online mercenary minsters.  Their philosophy is all about finding your own spiritual path, so being of different faiths is no problem at all.

GreenEire

Does your venue have a list of officiants they've worked with?  That's how we found ours.  The venue's website had a whole list of officiants and we researched them until we found one that would do a secular wedding and had fabulous reviews all over the net.

avigailandcharlie

One tip for once you find someone since you likely will not have a prior relationship with them, you may want to make sure they go over what they will say at the ceremony. I was at a wedding one summer where the B and G picked a nondenomenational spiritual type officiant, and she basically told their life story in every detail to the point where even the parents were sighing in their seats! Make sure you ask enough questions to that doesn't happen to you!