How to Pick an Officiant | Perfect Wedding

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My name is Barbara Esses and I do events for a living. I'm Ruthie Hecht; I'm an event planner and I work with and for my mother. We're going to teach you the do's and don'ts for the perfect wedding.

When choosing an Officiant for your wedding, you can have a Judge, a Priest, a Rabbi or even one of your friends who applied online. If you find an Officiant that you love, especially if they're a religious official, there might be some concessions but it's definitely worth it. You want somebody who's going to speak at your ceremony and you won't be rolling your eyes. Sometimes if there are two different religions getting married, you have a Rabbi and a Priest; make sure that they get along as well. It's beautiful to incorporate the traditions of both the bride and groom in the ceremony, so definitely do so if you can. Make sure that they're licensed to marry you in your state, otherwise your marriage won't be legal and you have to do this all over again. Also remember that cruise boat Captains are definitely authorized to marry you at sea. It's quite easy for one of your friends to become an Officiant online but just make sure that they're really into it, you don't want one of your friends fumbling through the ceremony.

It's important that whoever is officiating your ceremony, if they're gonna speak, can speak well. Three to five minutes should be enough time for your Priest to talk about you and how wonderful you are as a couple. More than that will just bore your guests and you don't want to be standing there that long anyway. Whoever's presiding over your ceremony should ask for you input, but don't ask them to go over their speech in advance, more than that will just bore your guests and you don't want to be standing there that long anyway. So those are some tips on picking your Officiant.