Officiant with Guest to Reception?

saramarieosu

So our officiant is a total stranger. We won't meet her until the day of the wedding (no rehearsal). I know thats irrelevant. But I have no idea if she is married/dating or not. Are we supposed to give her a guest to the reception? I know its etiquette to invite her to reception, but I still will always find that odd. She won't know a soul there. How is everyone else handling this? Do you feel the same?

aragx6

Our officiant is truly just a vendor and I really don't think there's any reason to feel as though they must be invited like a true guest. Yes, he's marrying me. but I'm paying him $400 to do so. I wouldn't invite my florist for dinner either.

That said, we might end up inviting ours because we will meet him once more before the wedding to go over details etc., but I don't believe it's necessary, or even expected, to do so.

bmoruzzi

We got married by a JOP.  We had a rehersal and I did invite her to the dinner.  I was surprised she came actually and it was kind of awkward.  She didn't talk or anything.  I did not invite her to the wedding reception.  

saramarieosu

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_officiant-guest-reception-1?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:e9f93d54-663b-4166-9065-3db0e82f1ba9Post:974b3194-64e5-4d93-aff4-1bc10865f296">Re: Officiant with Guest to Reception?</a>:
[QUOTE]We got married by a JOP.  We had a rehersal and I did invite her to the dinner.  I was surprised she came actually and it was kind of awkward.  She didn't talk or anything.  I did not invite her to the wedding reception.  
Posted by bmoruzzi@hotmail.com[/QUOTE]

See... I thought this was a MUST. I really would rather not and its reassuring that there are some ladies out there who did not invite the officiant to the reception! Thanks! Makes me feel better.

BrightFirefly

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_officiant-guest-reception-1?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:e9f93d54-663b-4166-9065-3db0e82f1ba9Post:24a5c265-1b21-4dd5-8576-e5de4d33090b">Re: Officiant with Guest to Reception?</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Officiant with Guest to Reception? : See... I thought this was a MUST. I really would rather not and its reassuring that there are some ladies out there who did not invite the officiant to the reception! Thanks! Makes me feel better.
Posted by saramarieosu[/QUOTE]

The idea of inviting them didn't even cross my mind until I read your post.

cu97tiger

I am inviting our officiant to the rehearsal dinner, but not to the reception. I'm glad to hear there are others who also did not extend an invitation to their reception.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

Count me in as someone who didn't invite my officiant to the reception. He was a vendor. He's a JOP, he took our money, he performed the ceremony, end of story.

gailpete

We did not invite DD's officiant (a vendor).  Even if we had, there is no way she could have attended.  She had 4 other weddings and rehearsals after DD's.  I suspect your officiant would be in the same boat.  I wouldn't worry about inviting them.  If your officiant was the pastor of a church you've attended for sometime and you have a relationship with them outside of your wedding, that would be a different situation and would warrant an invitation.

mollyehren

We are inviting the spouse of our officiant. I do however go to the church that our officaint is from and I have met his wife when we went to pre-marital planning at his house.

lauralaur

We invited our officiant with his wife but he declined. He was the pastor of a church and we had several meetings with him and the fee to use the church was cheap so I figured why not.

sweetcanadian1979

We are inviting our officiant but he is the priest of the church, my fiances family has a relationship with him & in their community it is expected. I am fine with that & will seat him with my fiances parents.

If i had a JOP i would NOT invite them to the reception. You are not having a rd so you will be fine, i am not inviting the priest to our rd as it is in a different town  than the wedding so he won't be able to come as he has a church service that night(wedding is in fiances home church 40 mins from where we live).

Starqueg

We're inviting our Rabbi and his wife to our reception, but we've known him for years, had dinner at his house and such.  He's the same person who did my fiance's bar mitzvah 12 years ago and my conversion last week.  If he wasn't someone that we know and see on a regular basis, he wouldn't be invited, but that isn't the case for us.

AlmostMrsStrong

Ours is a family friend (we campaigned to get him elected and my grandma worked for him for years) so he and his wife are getting an invite to the reception.For an officiant you don't know, it's a nice gesture, but I suppose it's not necessary.