Officiant

Jenni.Adams

Hi girls neither FI and I are religious and are having a hard time finding an officiant as we don't have any bishops or anything we want to do it. Who did you guys use and how did you find them? I've looked around for someone other then a judge or justice of the peace and they are all charging 200-400 dollars which is a bit pricy for me. If you had any good experiences with anyone judge or otherwise feedback would be much apprciated, as well as how you got in touch with them. Thank You!

bkbadger

FI and myself are not religious either..so to solve our problem? We are having a good friend marry us. He is free, knows us both very well, and we can really sit down and discuss with him about what is important to us during the ceremony. Having a good friend marry us is perfect for us..and better for our budget as some officiants charge outrageous prices. The only downside to having a friend marry you is that it's not something they do on a normal basis so it may not be as proffessional as what some brides may want. it's perfect for us as we are having a very casual wedding. definitely an option though if you want something non-religious and cheaper...our only cost for him would be a really nice bottle of bourbon as a thank you present

cmulvey

I am having the same problem as well. I dont want a friend or family member to marry us but I am not willing to shell out $500+ to have someone do it. I have heard of people having judges or clerks of the court do their weddings for free or for minimal cost but I have no idea how to get into contact with any of them short of calling them at the courthouse. Does anyone have experience with this?

seek.youwillfind

I am using Anita Gordon and she charges 250.00.  It is definately pricey, but not as bad as $500, You might want to keep her in mind if you can't turn up anyone else.

kicey

I'm having this same issue.  We are on a non-budget, as I like to say.  Money is more than tight.  Our issue is that my fiance IS religious.  He's Catholic, but I've been married before, and so there is a huge, long process to get the marriage blessed by the church.  We've been planning the wedding, but it's looking like the priest won't be able to do it when we have it planned. Unfortunately, June is the only time my family can come from Minnesota, so we're looking at using a different officiant and going from there.

Problem is, we've found ONE officiant so far, and though she seems nice, she's extremely expensive.  I could really use some input as well, if anyone has some to give!

KatyRoseM

I went to RHSM and will be looking for the chaplen who worked there when I was little to do it.  She is extremely open minded and great.  Other than that I have a friend who used to be a judge, and he might be able to do it.  

Jenni.Adams

Our officiant is found! I'm using Rev Connie Anast. She is super nice and works with you to create a personlized ceremony just for you and your FI. She was originally going to charge us 200 dollars but my FI is in the military and she gives a 50 dollar discount. Unfortunately that was still out of our price range a bit so she dropped it to 100 dollars. I highly reccommend her

BLT616

I am using Anita Gordon as well and she is AMAZING! We picked every single part of our ceremony and we have no mention of religion in it at all. She will even take out parts of passages for you if you don't like a certain line or something mentions religion but you still want to use it. She is the best.