Asking a Friend to Officiate?

[crowellaf]

Does anyone have experience with having a friend or family member officiate at a Disney Wedding? My BIL is one of our favorite people and since he's not in either wedding party, we would love for him to marry us. We just don't want to give him a ton of extra work since he's not from Florida (we're local to Orlando.) We would probably help find a ceremony script that we love, but I'd love some advice and whether or not we should just choose one of the officiants that are recommended here.

 

[lexxus379]

We are having my friend officiate ours in about 10 days. She got ordained online in less than a minute. I just googled wedding scripts and found one I really liked and just made some changes more tailored to us. The website she got ordained on has sample scripts too.

 

[lurkyloo]

Yeah, you can have him get an ordination free online via someplace like the Universal Life Church. I do think, however, that it will be fair amount of work for him because he'll also need to learn how to run the whole ceremony. Using a professional officiant ensures that the ceremony runs smoothly and unobtrusively. It would also take that responsibility off your BIL and allow him to enjoy the ceremony as a guest.

 

[RangerPooh]

My uncle was able to get ordained through Universal Life Church and married my husband and I for our DLR wedding in 2003. It was a non issue. My husband and I created the ceremony script and sent it to my uncle in advance. He was totally cool with it. Practiced it at home, and then the day before we talked it over. It went smoothly.

My piece of advice is to make sure the person that you are asking to officiate is comfortable speaking in front of a room/group of people. While the attention is on the couple, they too are in the spotlight.

 

[EGAlford]

Does anyone have experience with having a friend or family member officiate at a Disney Wedding? My BIL is one of our favorite people and since he's not in either wedding party, we would love for him to marry us. We just don't want to give him a ton of extra work since he's not from Florida (we're local to Orlando.) We would probably help find a ceremony script that we love, but I'd love some advice and whether or not we should just choose one of the officiants that are recommended here.

I actually had one of my sisters officiate my wedding this past October. Since I got married in Alabama, we didn't technically need a ceremony but wanted one anyway. Covid was still a pretty big threat, so I only had about 25 people attend, and having my sister involved in the ceremony made it really special. For our vows, I sorted through traditional vows and pieced together what I liked from several to make the end product unique.

 

[starry_solo]

Look into what FL requires for someone to officiate the ceremony, other than the officiating part of it.

I know in CA, it requires the officiant to be the one to mail the signed license into the state to get the marriage certificate issued.