Getting ordained online...Howard County

JanoBean75

We're hoping to get a friend to officiate our ceremony. Has anyone done this in Howard County? I can't find any information on whether HoCo allows people who were ordained online to officiate weddings.

tracy_k

That decision is not left up to individual counties, it's a state law. Your friend can get ordained by the Universal Life Church (or the organization of his/her choosing) and will be authorized to perform your marriage ceremony in any county in MD.

We're having a friend do ours as well, I was concerned that it might not be totally legit, so I called and spoke with an assistant attorney general for the state of MD, she assured me it was all perfectly legal.

Hope this helps!

LauraT25

I was under the impression, from the ULC website, that it might depend on county (the site was a bit confusing on the state-to-state regulations) and so I called the county clerk's office for where I'm getting married (Anne Arundel).  They said the same thing that Tracy said, and that there's nothing further my friend needs to do (like get 'registered' with the county or whatever).  I know that's a bit roundabout way of saying, "Just get your friend ordained online by the ULC and you'll be fine", but I hope it assures you that you're ok!

kellwed10

I was at a wedding where the officiant was late - car troubles. The bride was going to wait, but her site coordinator forced her to have the ceremony (a second one was scheduled immediately following hers). The bride was livid, but fortunately, a guest spoke up and said he had been ordained by the Universal Life Church so that he could perform a friend's wedding. He performed the ceremony, and he did a very good job.

Everything about it was perfectly legal for Maryland. He assured the bride and groom that the authority is granted by the state, not localities.

Nevertheless, they did have the original officiant, once he showed up, perform a quick ceremony in the bride's waiting area during the cocktail hour - just in case. Kind of like Pres. Obama's second swearing in.

JanoBean75

Woo! FI and I are nerds...our friend is a ring announcer for two local wrestling feds as well as others up the east coast. He was in The Wrestler (movie). He's just a great guy and we originally joked how awesome it'd be to have him...and he agreed!

Our ceremony location is okay with it too, so I'm stoked!

tracy_k

I know exactly how you feel... plus, I am a bit horrified at how much most of the "official marriage celebrants" charge... I definitely have much better places to spend $3-500!

And if you read the fine print, many of them are also ordained by the Universal Life Church or similar. <eye roll>

We're having my friend's dad do it... he's a Shakespearean actor and a drama teacher, so he can speak beautifully in front of a crowd, and he is just about the sweetest man alive.

I wrote our ceremony, cobbled together from many online sources (including a writing by Robert Fulghum, a poem by Kahlil Gibran, and the Massachusetts court decision legalizing gay marriage), and it is beautiful and personal and perfect for us.

We are giving our officiant a $100 gift card for his troubles on our behalf... but he was very honored to have been asked and we are delighted to have him involved.

LauraT25

I'm with Tracy on this one - we had always thought it would be 'cool' to get married by a friend but figured it wouldn't be worth the drama that would ensue with the more religious relatives.  But when we started looking online for officiants, it seemed ridiculous what some people were charging to say a few words, especially since most of them were ordained by the ULC anyway.  What sealed the deal for us was when the secretary my FI works with told him she 'does weddings' on weekends and 'makes a bundle for doing practically nothing.'

It just made me think that the people I met with might be the same way, just putting on a show for me, whereas it will be meaningful if it's someone we know.  Drama definitely ensued (somehow this means our children are going to hell, according to FMIL) but I still think its the right choice.