Officiant Troubles

blferguson1s

Hey ladies. So I'm having issues in the officiant department. Not that I have problems with one but that I don't have one, and I know that I need to book this pretty soon. I'm getting married at a winery with a new coordinator who is still getting packages together so I doubt she has any recommendations. I'm not particularly religious so I don't have a church, and FI was raised Catholic two hours away. How did you find your officiant? I'm open to the idea of having a friend do it, but I'm not sure who I would choose. Thoughts or suggestions? Thanks!

sparkles776

Did you try asking on your local board? or weddingwire? That is where I would start, I know mine has a ton of recommendations. Also, my FI is a police officer, so we were just going to ask one of his judge friends, but we are looking into a church now.

cnf2013

You can go to City Hall and hire a Justice of the Peace. They are nondemoninational so it doesn't matter where you marry, who you marry and how you marry. Not sure of the pricing for that though. Check your local board for other recommendations.

FI's cousin is going to officiate for us, but he was already ordained prior so it worked out well that way. Granted, he's aware we "plan" to ask and has our date "set aside", but FI still hasn't actually called him and asked. I plan on getting on him about that, haha. 

Edited for awesome after thought... you should look into hiring a sea captain (because there are so many in St. Louis). That would be bitchin. 

jenjennjennifer

We are actually meeting w/a possible officiant on Sunday, and he's a sea captain! He used to be a merchant marine, and he was a first responder in NYC on 9/11 . I filled in a request for info one night on his website and he called the next morning, as if  he knew me forever! Seems like a nice and easy going guy. And since we're having a nautical/beach wedding, I figured that could be nice. I hope we like him in person as much as I did over the phone!

I found him through my venue, so you might want to check out if they recommend anyone. I am actually getting a lot of connections through my venue because I am too lazy to search 8 billion reviews. lol. As you can tell, I do not like planning very much! hehe

Good luck!

anastassiiat

I am in the same boat as you! We tried to contact the officiant that our venue suggested and he never contacted us back, so now I'm doing some research on-line/on my local TK boards and e-mailing for quotes. My FI was raised Catholic, and I am Christian Orthodox but I've never really practiced, so we want to have a simple ceremony with maybe a few Catholic elements. But if we can't find anyone we like we might as well ask someone we know to officiate.