Tips on Choosing an Officiant

Our Officiant
We knew we wanted a Justice of the Peace, since we wanted a non-religious ceremony, and we didn't know anyone who could perform the ceremony. We had a list of Justices of the Peace for the town of Warren -- about 10 choices -- and we started from there. The wedding coordinator at the Inn recommended one in particular, but it turned out that she'd be away on our wedding day. So we started down the list. The one who worked out schedule-wise (and who got back to us!) was Barbara Reynolds. I talked with her on the phone for a little while, and she seemed very nice. We agreed to get together two months before the wedding to discuss details.

We met her at the end of March at her house. She gave us some samples of past ceremonies she'd done, and told us we could do whatever we wanted for the ceremony -- she just had to say one line to make it legal ("By the authority vested in me by the state of Connecticut..."). She told us to mail, fax or e-mail her the ceremony (being the stressed out bride that I was, I did all three -- eek!), and that was basically it -- we met her again when we stepped onto the dock to get married.

She did a wonderful job of reading our ceremony, pronounced my last name perfectly, and was generally delightful.

Tips on Choosing an Officiant

• It's important, as with all vendors, for the bride and groom to feel comfortable with their officiant.
• If there's someone special who can perform the ceremony, that seems ideal (Jim and I decided we didn't feel particularly sentimental about who performed it, particularly since we incorporated our families so much).
• What people often don't think about is the sound of their officiant's voice. Really listen to the person's voice when you meet with him or her, and decide whether that's the voice you want to hear performing your wedding ceremony.