Contrary to what everyone told me*, last week I called one of the register offices in town. I found the number online and called in the morning; a surprisingly nice lady attended and answered all my questions and, to my surprise, passed me on to the judge.
So, I got to chat with the judge a bit. She’s in charge of the first register office in town (meaning it is the most important one), so she’s aware of everything. When I voiced my concerns about getting someone who is just there to do the paperwork, she assured me that although others might do that, she likes to make a nice heartfelt, special ceremony; in her words, “The ones who do that are men. We women like to do something with feelings involved.”
I promptly booked our date, so we can actually say we already have someone to officiate our wedding! And moreover, we have someone who’s going to officiate the kind of ceremony we want!
Part of me feels like writing something for her, and part of me feels like trusting her completely. I still have that to ponder, but right now I’m rejoicing on the bliss of closing that matter. We still need to go there to do the paperwork and pay for it, but we can do that up to two weeks before the big day.
Booking the person who’s going to marry us: Check!
How far in advance did you book your officiant? Did you write your own ceremony?
*Everyone told me the register office wasn’t going to answer my questions by phone. Good thing I’m stubborn.
The wedding gods were smiling upon you! Happy that booking your officiant was not another stressor.
It’s great you were able to find an officiate willing to do the ceremony as you wish so easily! I’m sure that’s a weight off your shoulders!
that sounds so easy! we are working with our officiant to let her know the type of things we like in our ceremony, but I’m trusting her to make it sound good
Thank you for posting! We are also looking for an officiant and I was wondering how to go about contacting a local or state official.
One question (may be dumb): when you say “register office,” what exactly do you mean? I Googled “Pittsburgh Register office” and I got a bunch of links for registrars at colleges ….
@Stace126: Here in Mexico we need to be married by a judge (like a real law person), not even religious ceremonies have legal value, you need a judge to do it. Here every death, birth, marriage and divorce are controled by a civil register office and there’s a judge for every one of them that’s why I call it.
I don’t really know about offices in the states but maybe you can start by calling your city hall. Just calling and asking questions, eventually someone will answer 
@Stace126: In the states, most of the legal stuff for marriage (including licenses & authorizing of civil officiants) is handled through the Circuit Court clerks. The easiest way to find information for your area is to search something like (location) marriage license/laws, and look at the .gov sites that come up.
We wanted specific wedding officiants. So we booked them over a year in advance. They had different templates/examples for ceremonies so that helped us a lot in putting together our own ceremony. Some parts were theirs, some parts were ours.
I just got engaged Saturday and we already have our officiant. 
But it was kind of a given as my fiancee’s uncle is the Pastor of our church and we have such an amazing connection with him.
When I announced our engagement in church last Sunday, I headed to the front and said “Well, its now my turn to pop the question.” and I got down on one knee and said “Pastor B, will you marry us?” It got a few laughs and a he turned bright red lol.
Maybe you could just make a list of things that are important to have in your ceremony and then leave the actual construction of it to her?
Mrs. Toadstool, Obregon, Mexico Age and Occupation: 23, Research Assistant Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Sales Manager Engagement Date: October 1, 2011 Wedding Date: December 2012 Venue: Hacienda los Agaves About Me: I’m a born and bred Mexican girl with a severe coffee addiction, an obsession for books and an aversion for exercise. I like to plan things, so this wedding’s my dream project---I just need to remind myself from time to time that I’m the bride and not just the planner. I recently realized brown’s my favorite color as I was trying to incorporate it in every aspect of our wedding and I'm dreaming of an autumn vibe since we don’t have that around here. I’m marrying my best friend and partner in crime on the day of our nine-year anniversary! He’s an awesome, smart, fun guy who is patient, and crazy enough to spend the rest of his life with me. We’re planning our not-so-dreamy dream wedding in December in a non-traditional way and making it our own.
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