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Officiant invites

tcnobletcnoble member
1000 Comments 500 Love Its First Anniversary First Answer
in Nevada-Las Vegas
We live in Vegas and our wedding is being held here. So I guess slightly "traditional" in the sense we have a big guest list, rented a large venue, whatever. Neither of us belongs to a church, we aren't religious, so we are using a suggested officiant from our venue. Aka someone we don't know. At all. We are totally okay with that, but I know it is common for the officiant to be invited to the rehearsal dinner and wedding reception. Is that still necessary with an officiant we have practically no relationship with???
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Re: Officiant invites

  • dbacksgirldbacksgirl member
    100 Love Its 100 Comments Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    I would say no.  I don't know our officiant other than the times we've talked to her about the wedding.  Found her on these boards and hired her due to high recommendations but I'm not inviting her to the reception.  That is only for our closest family and friends, of which she is neither.  If you don't know them at all, you most likely won't ever see them again so who cares what's "traditional" or not?
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  • aggiespartanaggiespartan member
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    I would assume not, but I have no idea.  We are having one of our good friends get ordained online and marry us.

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  • tcnobletcnoble member
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    @dbacksgirl those were my thoughts too. Thanks for your reply!!
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  • myriah505myriah505 member
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    I would think that you would want your officiant at the rehearsal dinner, I mean, they are the biggest part of the ceremony, they should probably be there to rehearse. The reception? No. I've never heard of inviting the officiant to the reception unless they are a close friend. 
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  • tcnobletcnoble member
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    @myriah505‌ the officiant will of course be at the rehearsal itself, but the rehearsal dinner that follows - I don't think we will invite him to that.
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  • dbacksgirldbacksgirl member
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    My officiant isn't coming to the rehearsal.  She said she will if we really want her to but that she normally doesn't.  At first that sounded weird to me but then as I thought about it more, there's not really much of a reason for her to be there.  The rehearsal is more about who goes where and when.  She's already knows what she's going to say and we just follow her cues.  We have had a couple of Skype sessions with her and she'll meet with both FI and I before the ceremony but it honestly doesn't bother me in the least that she won't be there when the bridal party is doing the run through.
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  • vegasgroomvegasgroom mod
    Moderator Knottie Warrior 5000 Comments 500 Love Its
    edited August 2014
    We invited our officiant to our rehearsal dinner as we wanted some time to actually talk to him and give him an opportunity to get to know us just a little bit better than he'd be able to on hectic wedding day.  It was voluntary but he came and we hit it off great so we're glad we invited him.  We did not invite him to the reception.  I don't think you should worry about it either way; don't feel obligated to invite your officiant.  If you do need a non-religious officiant, we used Rev Roland August from http://themobileminister.com/ He's a really great guy; we just had our third anniv in Vegas and he came out to dinner with us to celebrate.

    Married in Vegas - June 2011


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  • tcnobletcnoble member
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    dbacksgirl said:
    My officiant isn't coming to the rehearsal.  She said she will if we really want her to but that she normally doesn't.  At first that sounded weird to me but then as I thought about it more, there's not really much of a reason for her to be there.  The rehearsal is more about who goes where and when.  She's already knows what she's going to say and we just follow her cues.  We have had a couple of Skype sessions with her and she'll meet with both FI and I before the ceremony but it honestly doesn't bother me in the least that she won't be there when the bridal party is doing the run through.

    That's an excellent point. I hadn't really considered that for our simple ceremony, having the officiant there for the rehearsal isn't really necessary. We have two junior bridesmaids and a ring bearer so we mostly want to run through things for them. Definitely going to run that option by my FI!
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  • dbacksgirldbacksgirl member
    100 Love Its 100 Comments Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited August 2014
    Yep. Exactly. And since we are getting married at a hotel and only have 20 minutes, I want to make sure everyone knows what they they're doing -- especially the little ones. Plus, it will help me get an idea of how long walking in takes, etc. and maybe speed things up the next day if necessary to fit in more of the things that will be important to me in the actual ceremony. For the officiant though, they already are familiar with their task. LOL! Since you're local, you could totally request a meeting ahead of time with the person performing your ceremony just to set your mind at ease if it's a concern. I've had a couple of phone calls and two Skype sessions with ours. That, plus the few minutes we'll have with her just to dot the i's on the Big Day is more than enough to make me feel very confident about her role in the whole thing.
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