The officiant challenge (long)

sammichele

FI and I are having a really hard time with choosing an officiant.  We've met with three so far, and I'd love to hear opinions if you have them on what we should do!

1. Rev. Dr. G. Patrick Thompson, from Erin Presbyterian Church.  He was on the list of preferred vendors at our venue.  I'm fairly certain he's in last place right now.  We didn't click with him very well at the first meeting, but maybe one of you might have a different/better impression of working with him?

2. Rev. Gary D. Friske - found him on The Knot.  Seemed very nice and was willing to knock 100-200 dollars off of his established price to fit our budget, but for some reason I'm just not certain yet about him.

3. Rev. Fred Jolicoeur - also on The Knot and I know some of you ladies used him.  He also seemed very nice but for us his price is still a bit more than we have to pay and when we tried to haggle him a bit he wasn't very willing to lower his price (said he was already giving us the 2010 price if we booked this year, but would maybe knock off $50)

I also have packets from St. Peter Lutheran in Macomb (my childhood church) and Kensington in Troy (where FI and I have been going most often) but haven't submitted anything yet.  Not sure what either price would be since our ceremony is offsite.

So if any of you have any experience with these officiants, or if you think we should just keep looking and utilize the other two options we haven't really gone for yet, or any other advice would be greatly appreciated!  Sorry this is so long but it has become a major source of stress; I didn't think finding an officiant would be so trying!

jodyk23

I used Rev. Fred and he was worth every penny! You have to remember that he is a package deal and everything is included. He was on-time to all our meetings and both of them were over an hour. I think one of them was almost 2 hours! He really got to know us so it would be more personal. He came to the rehearsal and was always very organized and prepared. He was very easy to work with and incorporated all my many changes into our ceremony. He filed our marriage license for us and provided us with 3 copies of our ceremony. For the time and effort he puts into each wedding, you would definately get your money's worth!

corinne2010

I will second Rev. Fred. Although I have yet to actually use him for the ceremony, I have no doubt that he will exceed all expectations. He has been awesome to work with. And I do agree with Jody. He's a package deal. You definitely get your money's worth from him.

sammichele

Thanks guys!  I'll have to revist the budget with FI and talk some more about this.  That helps to have more positive feedback about Rev. Fred to take into account.

jennifer0124

If you didn't really click with any of them I'd say keep looking.  If there was one thing that was really important to me it was having an officiant there that I felt comftorable with and that I would like to think back on him marrying us.

shadow0304

I will jump in and "3rd" Rev. Fred. Ditto to what the other ladies said about him above, we felt really comfortable with him from our first meeting. I really liked his wife too. I'm not sure what your budget is for this, but when I "shopped around", it seemed they were all about in the same $ range - meaning, I didn't find any significant difference enough to make me go with one over another.

Sue-n-Kevin

OK ladies. Since I'm in process of trying to secure more vendors shortly, roughly how much IS an officiant? I have a list from Greenmead of who they have used in the past (not necessarily recommended, but they've performed ceremonies there). I have NO idea of the going rate.

Thanks.

sammichele

What we've found so far is anything between $275 and $500.  And it doesn't hurt to haggle, as we've been trying to do  We are trying to keep this a relatively low expense, but throwing money in there when you are trying to find a personality that suits you as a couple makes things complicated!

Sue-n-Kevin

Thanks for the answer. I had no idea how much to budget for.