Officiants

[FutureMrs.Lestician87]

I've been on the internet looking for things for the wedding.Yesterday,I was looking around for possible officiants since FH nor myself are religious and do not want a pastor/minister.I found one possibility and emailed her with some questions and she got back to me by this morning already.I emailed her again and she got back to me within an hour and a half.She seems real efficient which is a HUGE plus in my book.She told me her price and to me,it seems a little high but then again,I don't know how much an average officiant costs.So what I'm wondering is,how much are/did you spend on an officiant?

[splusn]

we are having a close friend do ours (it will be his gift to us) - so it will be $30 to get him ordained. I'm not sure how much it normally costs - probably around $300?

[Ninedays9]

We paid $185 for the ceremony (would've been another $110 to add a rehearsal).

[CaseyK37]

I am in the same boat as you and did research online to find an officiant. I found a few but they seemed to be pretty expensive - $300+. That was more than I wanted to spend so I think that we might just get a Justice of the Peace from the court house. You can hire one for about $100, which is right around what I would expect to pay. How much is the one you are looking at?

[Katie-ryn]

Unless my FIL's can come through and get one of their friends to marry us, it looks like we'll be spending about $300 to hire an officiant. FH and I are both atheists, so we're definitely not getting married by a minister. Even hiring a JOP would be $300, if not more. I'm really hoping the FIL's can get one of their friends (mostly county clerks and the like) to do it for free (or a bottle of wine/case of beer). *fingers crossed*

[FutureMrs.Lestician87]

I am in the same boat as you and did research online to find an officiant. I found a few but they seemed to be pretty expensive - $300+. That was more than I wanted to spend so I think that we might just get a Justice of the Peace from the court house. You can hire one for about $100, which is right around what I would expect to pay. How much is the one you are looking at?

The one that I was speaking to was $600.00 and she seems nice and whatnot but I could be using some of that money to pay for something else.

[Heywie]

We had DH's uncle marry us. He's a physicist and had the closest views to ours that we could find. It was important to us to have someone we knew marry us, and since we aren't active in any churches, a relative was the best thing for us.

DH's uncle was ordained online for free, and is now eligible to do weddings and funerals! If you don't care so much about how "official" your officiant is, this is an awesome way to go!

[VickiLynn84]

for a rehearsal and the wedding both it was $525 dollars. I still think it was too expensive, but he's all paid now.

[FFC]

I went online and ordered an ordination kit for a friend of mine who ended up marrying us - so $40 and that was it. Eventually I'd like to pay him in one way or another though - like an edible arrangement or something like that.

[Docsgirl]

I think we paid $85 for the ceremony. We had a rehearsal too, but since we were already legal married and she didn't have to do any of the legal filing or anything, we got it a lot cheaper. And, we were her first wedding! We went with a company that is made up of non-denominational officiants, and they asked if we'd be okay with her doing the ceremony.

Otherwise, the girl that was originally going to do the ceremony was going to cost $250 plus and extra $60 if we wanted the rehearsal. I think it all really just depends on the area you live in too price wise.

[ChristineLS]

Before we married, I became affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist church (Think... humanists who love everyone). I'm agnostic more or less, Will is an atheist. I called the Unitarian church of my hometown and a *WONDERFUL* retired UU minister was recommended to us. She was as fabulous as the recommendation, I'm so glad she married us!

Originally she said that she charged $300. I hesitated, and told her that I would need to talk to my husband to be because it was a really DIY, inexpensive ($2500) wedding, and that we are graduate students... her response? "Oh! You're graduate students? $200." Which I accepted right there. She was really a wonderful person and it was important to me who married us.

[WBandMe]

Ours was $400 for one pre-wedding meeting, a customized ceremony, rehearsal and wedding. She was one of the lowest prices we could find in the area. Anyone else who was $400 or less would give you a 10 minute, standardized ceremony and that was it.