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 This information is intended to assist clients in understanding the important role of the wedding officiant (officiator).

 Who are you choosing to perform your wedding ceremony?  Who CAN perform your wedding ceremony?


In somewhat recent years there has been quite of bit of publicity about getting ordained online.  As a bride or groom, you need to understand who can or cannot legally perform your wedding ceremony as well as the pros and cons.  Each state has their own regulations on who can legally solemnize a marriage and this information can usually be found on that State's website with marriage information.

Not all, but many officiants have been ordained 'online'.  Is this legal?  Yes.  However, there is more to being able to legally provide this service than to simply be ordained online.  Our ordinations are through the ULC which has many brick and mortar churches thoughout the United States including Michigan.  Michigan requires that our church has a charter in the state since the Church's headquarters is located elsewhere.  We are non-denominational Christian ministers and believe in freedom of and from religion, that we are all God's children.  We have insured that our ordination paperwork and legal requirements by the States of Michigan and Ohio are proper, rest assurred that we CAN legally solemnize your marriage.  But not everyone out there providing this service takes the time to insure their ordination is legally recognized.

You also need to know that ordination is a lifelong entitlement.  It should never be entered into half heartedly nor for the sole purpose of performing a single wedding ceremony.  A person needs only be ordained once from a single church.  If a minister / officiant has ordination credentials from several different churches it should be questioned as to why...there is no need or reason except possibly the State does not recognize one or more of the ordinations or that the minister / officiant is unsure of the validity of one or more of them.  You wouldn't be a member of several different churches representing several different faiths would you?


Perhaps you've considered having a close friend or family member get 'ordained online' so they can perform the ceremony to make it 'special'.  The pro to this idea is that indeed, it does make it special.  The cons:  1. Ordination is just not that simple and you risk not having a legally solemnized marriage.  2.  Friends and family members are vulnerable to emotions.  This could cause them to make errors during the ceremony.  3. Friends and family members may not have much or any experience at all with public speaking and could very likely experience a case of anxiety or nerves.  Almost every couple we've ever married has gotten a bit weak knee'd and/or teary eyed, don't think a close friend or family member won't experience the same thing once they get to the altar and have to speak.  After all these years, we both still have our own moments of anxiety just before the ceremony...for us it's simply because we want to make sure everything is as perfect as possible as much as you do.


When you choose someone to officiate your wedding, feel free to ask specifically what they have done to insure that they are indeed legally recognized and able to perform the ceremony.  Your officiant should be comfortable speaking in public.  If the price for the service is amazingly low, proceed with caution.  We know everyone is on a budget, but you are paying for a professional service and should expect to get no less.  Unfortunately, we've heard from many couples through the years that went with the most 'budget friendly' officiant and were sadly disappointed with the lack of experience and/or professionalism.  Most of the officiants you find and consider will have very closely matched pricing based on specific packages or services.  We, along with our competitors, try to maintain the current price range for our services. 

 

And what about the price?  Why do officiants charge so much just to perform our 20 minute ceremony?

To answer these questions you should understand the whole process that an officiant must go through as well as the wedding industry itself.

  • Years of experience performing ceremonies and public speaking
  • Purchasing and maintaining professional attire
  • Responding to emails, phone calls, requests for contracts
  • Advertising and marketing to insure we can be easily found by clients
  • Preparing each ceremony and providing it to the client for review
  • Creating an entirely 'creative' custom ceremony upon request
  • Revising ceremonies per client requests
  • Last minute changes to ceremony script and final approval
  • Finalizing ceremony scripts and readings
  • Travel time to and from location of ceremony and rehearsal
  • Fuel and maintainence of vehicle(s) used for transportation to and from location
  • Time spent assisting and/or waiting before the rehearsal and/or ceremony
  • Conducting the rehearsal and ceremony
  • Providing 'emergency supplies' from our SOS wedding box (safety pins, needle, thread, spot remover, etc)
  • Filing of the marriage license and maintaining records of each ceremony
  • Post wedding assistance when needed
  • Lastly, the peak wedding 'season' is primarily from May - August.  There are only 16 Fridays, and 16 Saturdays in that time period where the majority of wedding professionals earn their income.  Their chosen profession within the industry for most are their careers and livelihood.  There's just not that many Saturdays to go around so fees tend to be at a premium while maintaining competitive pricing with other vendors.  Michigan is not a single 'sunshine' season so 85-90% of couples choose to marry from May - August....that's just the way it is in Northern states.