Friends as officiants

Ajoyd

In the ceremonies post below a few people mentioned they were using friends to officiate their weddings. I am considering this as well, my only reservation is that I don't want my friend to feel overwhelmed by the planning process.

How are you handling it, i.e. who will write the ceremony, plan the readings, or any other special touches that you are planning to add?

TIA

Neileo27

We are having the Dean of Students from our alma mater officiate our ceremony.  It is non-religious and we want to keep it short but meaningful so we are not having any readings.

He is very comfortable with public speaking, since it is part of his job so that makes the comfort factor a little easier.  We were all at a hockey game earlier this year and he was jumping up and down with excitement over the wedding.

rojacobs

We are having my maid-of-honor's husband do it.  I felt the same way when we asked him, that even if he wasn't comfortable he would still say Yes to us (and he did).  I am going to write the ceremony myself (I have done some Google searches "wedding ceremony script" and found a lot of examples) then go over it with him.  We would like something fun, personal, short, and non-religious.  We don't have a day-of coordinator so I'm also trying to figure out the order of things for the ceremony, processional, etc.

dawnp917

1) Check on the laws for the county you are getting married in to make sure whether it is possible.  The laws vary on a county by county basis.

2) Make sure the person you ask is comfortable in a public speaking role.  The firiend officiating for us sings in a public chorus so it wasn't a problem.  

3) In terms of writing the ceremony my FI and I are going to work with her to make sure it is what we want.  Google offers a lot of options also check out the ceremonies board there have been some good examples on there.  

saraschilling88

I wish I had just copied my post from the ceremonies page lol!

My brother is our officiant (he is an ordained minister) and he lives in Utah (we live in MN) so getting together isn't really an option...

My Mom and I researched wedding outlines until we found one that would work in the church (and it's one my FI and I agreed on)..

After talking to my brother about personalization, I added in our readings, songs, vows, and other tidbits I wanted my brother to talk about, and emailed the works to him!  He is going to look it over and contact my FI and I together (and separately) to make sure our ceremony is as personalized as possible.. He wanted us to pick out as much as possible ourselves because then the ceremony was truly ours not one that he planned for us (which we liked that idea).

That being said we are having someone else do our PreMarital Counseling as my brother is out of state, and it would be a LITTLE awkward having him counsel us.. We are having the Pastor from the church we are marrying in do it (My brother knows him and we OK'd everything with both)..

libby2483

My uncle is getting ordained online so he can officiate our wedding.  We are going to plan most of the ceremony together, but my fiance and I will select the readings and songs.  My uncle performs a lot with a choir and speaks in front of groups a lot for work, so I know that he will do a great job!

Ajoyd

Thank you for all of the AWESOME feedback!