4 Qualities Your Wedding Officiant Should Have
Wedding Tips
A Lil Intro
Figuring out who the heck to officiate your wedding is one tough job, especially if you haven’t been to many weddings before or have any idea how a ceremony is supposed to work.
Whether you’re asking your friend to officiate your wedding or hiring an officiant, there are few qualities you’ll want to be on the lookout for to ensure you have a tip-top wedding ceremony to kick-off your day! Nothing is more of a buzzkill than a sleeper ceremony or someone who drags the ceremony on and on with embarrassing stories of you both.
Here are a few tips to help you out.
Your wedding officiant should be a writer or at least have experience writing quality content
The hardest part of officiating is writing the ceremony, so be sure that the person you choose has experience writing quality material or establish if you’ll be the ones writing your own ceremony. A really great ceremony can take 10-20 hours to write, not including the time needed to gather information about you two. Even though it may seem like the ceremony isn’t important, it will be very obvious if someone isn’t good with sentence structure or makes awkward grammatical errors. Grammar does matter, folks!
They should have public speaking experience
Public speaking is a common fear for many people, and the person officiating your wedding, no matter how big or small, needs to be comfortable speaking in front of an audience. Someone with public speaking experience will also know how to react in case something unplanned happens without tripping up on their words. Additionally, a great public speaker can engage an audience and have fun with you two all while legalizing your ceremony.
They should have an awesome, yet professional personality
You’re going to tell this person your life story, intimate moments, and probably become good friends with that person if you aren’t already. If you’re hiring someone, you can easily judge their personality and writing style based on their introduction email to you. If you’re working with a loved one, be sure it’s someone you trust with this information and isn’t going to drunkenly officiate your ceremony.
They should be timely
There’s nothing more embarrassing than getting ready to walk down the aisle and your officiant is missing. A professional officiant should respond to emails within 48 business hours and arrive at your ceremony at least 30 minutes beforehand. A friend or family member should be the most punctual person you know that can round up your wedding party should they wander off before ceremony time.
The Bottom Line
Officiant Liz
Liz believes the ceremony is the best part of the wedding day and wanted to change the industry by emphasizing not only the importance of marriage ceremonies but inclusivity as well. When she isn’t writing ceremonies, she’s working on editing her first novel and second fictional novels. She’s been writing her whole life, but gained her storytelling knowledge through Faber Academy’s novel program and UCLA’s TV and Film Writing degree. You can read some of her writing on her website, Liz Rae and more notably, on Thought Catalog. She also writes terrible Instagram poetry at @iamlizrae, but wouldn’t recommend reading it.
Ready to make your moment,
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