Non-religious officiant questions

J&K10910 · October 2009

We're having a non-religious ceremony, and I have no idea when we need to start looking for an officiant. I also have no idea how to find one. Obviously I'll ask my local board but it's pretty slow. I couldn't find much when I googled it either. Any tips?

kate51485 · October 2009

Have you looked on weddingwire.com? That's where I found the person I think I want, and then asked my local board -- turned out several people had used them too.

J&K10910 · October 2009

Yeah, I tried weddingwire.com. Unfortunately the city we're getting married in is a smaller city and there weren't many listings at all for the city, for anything. Thanks though!

betrothed123 · October 2009

In my state every town mayor has the ability to officiate a wedding. I went down to the Town Hall where we were getting married and they explained that to me and from there I just called the Mayor's office and they worked it all out for us. I think we started looking about 2 months out.

aMrsin09 · October 2009

just scroill down the page a bit. http://www.decidio.com/local-businesses/officiants-rochester-minnesota-s52.html

J&K10910 · October 2009

Thanks Betrothed! That sounds like a good place to start.Thanks aMrs, but we're not actually getting married in Rochester. I just tried to use that to search the city we are getting married in and it found nothing. So stupid question, but can we use a MN officiant if we're getting married in a different state?

bombtones · October 2009

I asked my local board, and I also checked out my venues preferred vendor listings.

aMrsin09 · October 2009

all i did was google "non-denoninational officiants in rochester MN", so I guess you could try using the next "biggest town" to where you'll be?at the very bottom of that page, in blue, there was a huge listing of other places that officiants may be listed, maybe that will work for your town too?

J&K10910 · October 2009

Googling "non denomination officiants" worked better than non-religious officiants. I'm finding a couple now, thanks! I guess I'm googling impaired.

betrothed123 · October 2009

If non-denominational doesn't work, try "secular officiants."

J&K10910 · October 2009

That got me a few more, thanks!

brookelynpaisley · October 2009

You'll need to check the laws in your wedding state. In some states, the officiant has to register with the state or county the service takes place in. In contrast, Arizona's laws are pretty vague and "anyone with authority" can perform a marriage ceremony. Just make sure that if you use someone who's not from where you're getting married is legal there.