Officiant?

[Shalanel]

Hi! We are having an escape wedding in may 2009 and from what I can tell this package dosent include an officiant? Does anyone know how much an officiant is or have any recomendations of who we should get? Thanks!!

 

[dawrobin]

We are using JoAnn Pessagno and she is $175. The other non denominational recipeint on the Disney list was $175 too, so I would say that is a good estimate. But I am not sure if religious figures are more or less.

 

[Shalanel]

great. I am looking for non denominational, so you'll have to let me know how she was!

 

[hiwaygal]

Nearly all of the officiants on Disney's list will perform a non-denominational or even a "non-religious"/civil ceremony for you.

We used Rev. Kevin Knox. Both he and his wife are licensed to perform ceremonies in Florida.

We wanted a ceremony with some "spiritual" touches but not something overly religious and Rev. Kevin did an excellent job. We wanted him to dress casually (no robes) and he was very willing to do exactly what we wanted.

You can take a look at his services here: http://www.abeautifulceremony.net/

I can't recommend Rev. Kevin enough. He is consistently responsive to Disney brides and just a generally nice man.

 

[imnotaprincess]

We just booked Rev. Knox as well. He and his wife are very responsive and the ceremony packet they provide to help with your ceremony is terrific!

His fee for our wishes ceremony was $200 with $100 if we need a rehersal dinner. I would definately check him out.

If not, there are many others on a list provided by Disney to choose from.

 

[DecemberBride]

I'm glad someone posted this question because I was about to ask the same thing!

 

[Swmhc]

We used Rev Tim Herring. He charged $150 and was very helpful and we were very pleased.

 

[dawrobin]

Shalenel- We are going to Disney in May and staying at the Beach Club. We actually invited JoAnn out to lunch because there are some changes we want to make to her template and review them with her. We are Buddhist and I want to incoporate some of the very general ideas about how arriage is not only a union os 2 people but all living things and to always be kind etc. Nothing outwardly religious at all. If you want to send me your email address I would be more than happy to send it to you. She is super nice and warm when I have spoken with her so I am excited to have her officiate.

 

[Kashmir104]

We are also using Rev. Kevin Knox. Him and his wife have been great to work with!! Sounds like others have had great experiences with him too!

 

[osxgirl]

I just wanted to point out to everyone - don't forget that you don't have to use the officiants on Disney's list.

DH and I wanted to be married by an evangelist from a church of the kind we attend - Christian Church/Church of Christ. Fortunately, since a couple with whom I'm very good friends moved down to Orlando a few years ago, I knew someone to get some help from. We ended up having Ron Camblin, the preacher for the church they attend, Southside Christian Church, perform the ceremony, and he did a wonderful job. He made some great suggestions for the ceremony that we hadn't thought of, too.

For me, this was about the only problem with doing the wedding at Disney. I wouldn't have been happy having just anyone perform the service. I didn't feel I had to get married in a church building, because there's nothing special or sacred about the building. The congregation Ron preaches for meets in a high school right now. But we wanted the service to reflect our beliefs, and to be performed by someone who also believes the same things.

So, for anyone else for whom this IS important, realize that you can use someone else. The only issue is how he is counted in the guest count. We had an escape wedding, and after talking with our planner, the bottom line was that it came down to whether or not we included him in the cake and champagne reception. So, I just explained the situation to Ron. I told him that we might be maxed out on guests, and if we were, then we would ask him not to come for the C&C reception, but we most definitely wanted him to come to the wedding luncheon we were having later in the afternoon - it was just a logistics thing because of the limit on Escape weddings.

In the end, not everyone could make it, and both Ron and his wife were able to come for the whole day, which was great.

 

[DonnaBoo]

glad someone asked this very important question.

 

[dmslush]

We are using JoAnn Pessagno and she is $175. The other non denominational recipeint on the Disney list was $175 too, so I would say that is a good estimate. But I am not sure if religious figures are more or less.

We just used her for our wedding this past January, and LOVED her! She did a wonderful job. Our wedding was outside and it was COLD, but she never let it phase her!

 

[boo2you]

Kevin Knox is WONDERFUL and makes the pictures look good!

 

[JandJ]

We were married almost three years ago back when the officiant was included in the price and we had Rev. Jack Day. He was great! We wanted a non-denominational ceremony and we got exactly what we wanted. Plus, Rev. Jack was super sweet and funny. DH loved him and he's hard to please! Rev. Jack sent us all of the "standard" ceremonies he performs, from completely secular to completely religious. We took parts from most of them and doctored them up so they wouldn't be overtly religious, but still include God's blessing for our day as that was important to me. It really was perfect.

I think any of the recommended officiants will do whatever type of ceremony you want.

 

[Shalanel]

Thanks for all your help! I think I'll look into the few you guys have recommended!!!!