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Wedding Vows & Ceremony Discussions
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[Deleted User]
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officiants
MY FH and I decided to opt out of the traditional church wedding, and instead will be hosting our ceremony and reception at one location. We just signed off on the contract. I couldn't be more excited. However, I have some questions regarding officiants.
1) When should we start looking (interviewing?) for officiants? Our wedding is June 2017.
2) This is dumb question, but what's the best way to find an officiant?
3) We would like to include some religious references, so should we be looking for nondenominational officiants? Ministers?
3) How long is a typical non-catholic ceremony? I've only been to one wedding that was outside of the catholic church, and it was performed by a JOP, and lasted about 15 minutes. Our ceremony starts at 5:30, the cocktail hour is from 6:30-7:30 followed by a reception/sit-down dinner.
1) When should we start looking (interviewing?) for officiants? Our wedding is June 2017.
2) This is dumb question, but what's the best way to find an officiant?
3) We would like to include some religious references, so should we be looking for nondenominational officiants? Ministers?
3) How long is a typical non-catholic ceremony? I've only been to one wedding that was outside of the catholic church, and it was performed by a JOP, and lasted about 15 minutes. Our ceremony starts at 5:30, the cocktail hour is from 6:30-7:30 followed by a reception/sit-down dinner.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: officiants
I think if you want to include religion, that will vary from officiant to officiant. We're having a secular humanist officiate our wedding (through the ethical culture society) - you can look to see if there's a local chapter.
Otherwise, many people have friends or family members officiate.
I will tell you that no ceremony lasts an hour, so you need your ceremony to start at 6:00 or your cocktail hour to start at 6:00 - something needs to be moved half an hour.
I was formerly a church organist, and I have seen more than 100 church weddings.
Answers in Bold!
Good luck with your planning and congrats on the engagement!!
Thank you! I also live in PA. Our wedding is about 45 mins from Pittsburgh. Our mock guest list came to exactly 100 people, including plus ones. I haven't thought about a receiving line. I planned on walking around and greeting guests during the reception, but perhaps a receiving line is better. Hmmm. The wedding coordinator said that if the ceremony is short, they'll just start the cocktail hour earlier (reception would still start at 7:30, I think). Is an hour in a half too much gap time? I'm thinking I'll need to get more info from the venue. Maybe change the start time.
FurtureMrsBrooks816 , I think an hour and a half is okay, but some people disagree with that. IMO as long as the cocktail hour (and a half?) is well hosted with food and drinks and a place to sit, I don't really care.
When I got married we didn't bother with a receiving line, I'm not really a fan of them. We opted to just do table visits and spend some more time chatting through people throughout the reception. But to be fair I think our guest count was closer to 70 people.
I would start with your local boards, friends, and google.
We had a non-denominational ceremony, and our officiant was/is a minister (United I believe??). He told us how he usually organizes a ceremony but was very clear that we could take it whatever way we want (religious or not). He was also very open to us picking wording and choosing readings, etc.
Depends on what you want for your ceremony, but anywhere from 10-30 mins. We went a bit longer (toward the 30 mins). Our officiant gave a "motivational moment" (what he called it- some nice thoughts about marriage), and SIL gave a reading.
Either have a receiving line post ceremony to eat some of that time up (100 people still probably won't take more than 15 mins), and/or move up your cocktail time. Or, move your ceremony later.
1.5hours for cocktail "hour" is OK but I would try to shorten it if you can. Particularly at that time of day- it's dinner time! Our cocktail hour was 1.5 hours and I would go back and make it shorter. I could tell guests were ready to eat- people were mingling less, everyone sitting at their assigned tables. I was also pretty hungry too!