Neither Mike or I a very "churchy" people, so we neither have a priest that we know nor really want one. Our wedding will be meaningful and symbolic, but secular.
That leaves a professional wedding officiant or a justice of the peace.
A wedding officiant could be nice because we'd have some time to get to know them ahead of time and because they have had experience with designing meaningful, secular ceremony. Biggest downfall? Its not the cheapest option.
A justice of the peace is a much cheaper option, but that means a much simpler, less flexible ceremony. (I think? I admit, I haven't contacted any of them yet.) But, it still might not be the best option.
The last possibility is to have a friend or family member get an online certificate to be a wedding officiant. After several times reading the law about who is able to officiate, calling local officials and checking my wedding blog resources, its still unclear to me whether or not this is legal. I asked my mom to check around with the friendly neighborhood family lawyers and see what they say. In the mean time, the person who I originally had in mind is unable to do this for us, so its back to the drawing board on this idea too.
So, if anyone has had any experience with J.O.Ps in Livingston County, or is familiar with any of the professionals in the Rochester area, I'd more than welcome some recommendations!
Hello JD! You have a cool blog. Thanks for documenting your wedding experience. In regards to searching for an officiant, I would recommend visiting Martha Stewarts Wedding website. The website is awesome because you can search for vendors in your area, as well as, read a review that a bride might have posted about them. I also wrote something about my wedding research in my blog if you want to go by and pay me a visit: http://openendedblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/lessons-learned-from-detailed-oriented.html
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
We are using our uncle who happens to be a pastor (i'm from a family of ministers) but i have friends who also used a mutual friend to do their wedding and it turned out quite nicely :)
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