Today we’re talking about the 15 most important questions to ask wedding officiants before hiring them for your day. Whether you sign the dotted line with a family friend, a secular celebrant or a marriage commissioner from your church, you’re bound to have some questions for them. And if you don’t, my goodness read this post twice! Booking a wedding officiant is often a task as personal as choosing your bridal party, so a lot of the time, it’s not something your wedding planner does for you (unless that’s your jam of course!) They’re the ones who perform the ceremony and lead you legally into one of the biggest steps of your life. They’re also the ones who will be in many of your ceremony photos and have a pretty significant effect on the overall ceremony flow.

There are many reasons couples go with one officiant over the next, and today we’re here to help clear up the confusion on what’s important to know and what you should be asking every single time. 

Here are the 15 questions we’d recommend asking:

1. Are you available on my wedding date? 
2. Are you able to work at my venue? 
3. Are you licensed to perform a ceremony in the county/city/province that my venue is located? 
4. What will our pre-wedding communication look like? 
5. How long have you been performing ceremonies? 
6. How much of your script is personalized? 
7. How long do the ceremonies you perform typically take? 
8. Can you provide a video sample of a ceremony you’ve performed in the past? 
9. What happens in the case of an emergency? 
10. Will you give a sermon? If it’s a religious officiant, definitely worth asking. 
11. Will you perform an inter-faith ceremony? 
12. What is your fee or required donation? 
13. Will you help us work through our vows? 
14. Will you help us obtain our marriage license? 
15. Do you have extra fees for travel (I.e. lodging, meals?) 

And of course, if you have any additional questions you have in your back pocket, be sure to ask up front! You don’t want to have your wedding ceremony play out a certain way in your mind only to find out once it’s too late that a particular component may not be possible with the wedding officiant you chose to hire.

If you’re currently in the wedding planning zone, read on for tips on where to invest in your wedding here.

‘Til we meet again!

Xx,
Haley

All images by Kylee Yee Photography with planning + design by Willow & Oak Events