Weddingbee Blog

We seemed to be having the most difficulty picking an officiant for our wedding. We have contacted the most people during this search and I’m starting to feel like Goldilocks when looking officiants.

At the end of this search, we managed to contact nine different people, meet with three of them, and ultimately, I think we’ve found the one that is perfect for us.

Photo by: Paul Von Reiter on Wedding Chicks via Lover.ly

I was amazed, though maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised, at just how many people weren’t available on the date more than seven(!) months out. Unlike in the beginning of our engagement when every vendor was more or less still available, we seem to be at the middle of the pack in terms of finding an officiant. We ultimately contacted people in three groups of three, and out of each group of three, only one was able to meet with us for an initial consultation.

The first officiant we talked to was very laid back. I think he’s someone we could have been good friends with. Officiating weddings is a side job for him that he does for fun. Thus, we liked the fact that he is only willing to do one wedding per month and thus, we wouldn’t be just another couple to him. However, though he’s had the experience before in terms of doing wedding ceremonies, I felt like we were driving the conversation. Not that that is a bad thing, but we really would like to have the experience of someone who had seen what works and what doesn’t.

Photo by: Studio Sixty Photography on Polka Dot Bride via Lover.ly

The second officiant made me feel like I would be a tiny gear of a gigantic wedding machine. She has very clearly done thousands and thousands of weddings to the point where she had a very regimented ceremony that she uses every time. She went through the structure with us and mentioned the different rituals we could include and that was it. She seemed more reluctant to let us use whatever words and rituals we wanted. I’m 90 percent sure she uses the same words every time and it felt very impersonal. She mentioned that she doesn’t like to book weddings within two hours of each other, so that she can space them out. However, to me, that just felt like I could be one of three, four couples that get married on the same day for her. While I’m not expecting us to be best friends, I guess I’m not sure she’d remember who we were or that she knew us at all if she saw us on the street.

The last officiant we met with was Gayle Smalley. She, to me, is very much what we imagined our officiant to be like. I really felt like she got us as a couple and knew what kinds of questions to ask and what would be important to us. When we sat down and actually talked about the type of ceremony we wanted, she encouraged our input while giving suggestions about what usually worked and what didn’t.

Image by Kate McElwee Photography

I really appreciated the thought she had put into the ceremony itself and it was very obvious in her comments. I loved that she viewed the ceremony very much like a performance or a story. You have to bring people into it and set up the show. Then each subsequent part builds up on the next part until you reach the climax of the story. It was very much like a light bulb went off in my head. I hope this draws people into the ceremony and makes them feel like they are a part of something much bigger. It was a novel way of thinking about the ceremony for me and is soon as I heard it, everything seemed to click together and it has really molded how PBear and I have been thinking about our ceremony.

Looking back at some of her old ceremonies, it seems very clear that each ceremony is customized for each couple. I’m actually really excited about how this ceremony will turn out and it’s a relief to have the ceremony in such capable hands. It was really a no brainer to book her.

Did anyone else have a lot of difficulty finding an officiant? Did you try to customize your ceremony or did your officiant do most of it for you? Did you just know when you found the right one?