Photo on thumbnail courtesy of Ama by Aisha #amabyclaudia.
In the months leading up to your big day, it’s safe to say that you’ll find yourself completing a variety of wedding planning tasks. While there will certainly be a number of different projects throughout, you can’t ignore the importance of the vendor selection components. Crafting your dream team of wedding vendors will undoubtedly be a big decision and also likely one that you put plenty of thought into. Whether that be in regards to browsing and doing some research of local vendors or scheduling meetings with these vendors to discuss pricing, availability and so on, you’ll want a team of reliable and talented vendors capable of bringing your wedding vision to life!
Given that wedding vendors serve such an important role in this special day, it should also come as no surprise that they’re a popular topic of discussion here on our wedding blog. Having worked with hundreds of engaged couples over the years, we have also had the opportunity to work with plenty of professional wedding vendors too. Whether it be photographers, videographers, caterers, florists or anyone else in the wedding industry, it truly is amazing to see the magic they can bring to a wedding celebration.
Throughout this week’s blog post, we’re going to talk about a wedding vendor that will certainly have an important role in the ceremony and that happens to be the wedding officiant. We’ll provide you with a few tips for finding the perfect wedding officiant for your big day and hopefully help streamline this wedding planning step for you!
Before we get started on this though, we would like to note that the wedding officiant selection process will be dependent on where you plan on tying the knot. For example, if your ceremony will take place inside of a church or synagogue, you will likely have a priest or rabbi performing the ceremony. However, if you plan to do so at a venue, then you’ll want to keep these tips in mind.
Wedding Officiant Tip #1: Family Members or Close Friends
The first potential candidate for a wedding officiant could be any family members or close friends that are either already registered or interested in getting registered to officiate weddings. You’ll also want to put some careful thought into who you select, but this can be an easy way to have a wedding officiant who truly knows the couple. Not to mention, if they already have experience officiating weddings in the past, that can be an added bonus too! All in all, a good starting point in trying to find a wedding officiant could simply involve going through your guest list and seeing if there’s anyone that would fit this role!
Wedding Officiant Tip #2: Ask Recently-Married Friends or Family
We just discussed how a family member or close friend could be an excellent candidate for the wedding officiant role. In addition to that though, if you have any friends or family members that recently tied the knot, they can also be perfect for advice on reliable vendors, including wedding officiants. They can share with you about their experience working with a particular officiant and likely also answer some questions for you too. Plus, if you attended the wedding, you would have witnessed the ceremony first-hand, which likely would impact your decision one way or the other.
Wedding Officiant Tip #3: Ask Your Vendors
There are many benefits to getting your wedding vendors booked in a timely manner. For one, this ensures that you get your preferred vendors and don’t have to worry about them getting booked up on your wedding date. However, another clear advantage of this would have to be that they can be excellent resources throughout the wedding planning process and this includes selecting your remaining wedding vendors. If you’re struggling for ideas on wedding officiants and unsure of who you should pick, ask the vendors that you’ve already booked. They’ve likely already worked with numerous officiants at past weddings and can help steer you in the right direction!
Wedding Officiant Tip #4: Don’t Wait to Book Your Wedding Officiant
We could honestly say this about numerous wedding planning tasks, but for the sake of this blog post, we encourage you to avoid procrastinating on booking your wedding officiant. The last thing you want is to find someone perfect for the job only to realize they’re unavailable on your particular date. This is especially true if you’ll be tying the knot on a popular wedding date, such as a Saturday in early October! Here at Madera Estates, we recommend trying to get your wedding officiant booked 8-9 months in-advance of your wedding.
Keep in mind that if you plan on having a family member or close friend, timing might not be quite as urgent, but it is still something you would like to get finalized as soon as possible so you can move on to the rest of the wedding planning tasks.
Wedding Officiant Tip #5: Research
Just as can be said about any other wedding vendor, it doesn’t hurt to do some research of your own. If you’re not having much luck with referrals and recommendations, then browse through sites online. Whether that be The Knot, WeddingWire or anywhere else, this can be a great way to look through professional officiants, inquire about pricing and availability, and check out customer reviews too. All in all, the internet can be an excellent source of information, particularly when you’re in the early stages of searching for a wedding officiant and simply filtering through potential candidates.
Wedding Officiant Tip #6: Meet with the Officiants
Last, but not least, the final item that we wanted to highlight is the importance of meeting with any potential wedding officiants prior to booking them. This can be recommended for most wedding vendors and especially for wedding officiants. Given that officiants will serve a significant role in the actual wedding ceremony, you’ll want someone that possesses a number of different attributes. What might this entail?
For one, you’ll want to ensure they are great at public speaking. This is obviously a must-have quality for the job! In addition, it’s important that you and your soon-to-be spouse feel comfortable with the officiant. They’re going to be a big part of this special day and you want to ensure they’ll be able to match the vibe you have envisioned for the ceremony. Whether that be someone capable of incorporating a few jokes into the wedding ceremony, someone who adds in some personal stories about the couple or any other ceremony components, the best way to figure out if an officiant’s style meshes with you and your partner is to simply meet with them in-person! With this, you will get to witness their personality first-hand and get an idea of whether or not they’re the right fit for your wedding day.
Tie the Knot at Madera Estates!
We hope this week’s blog post helped provide some clarity for selecting this important wedding vendor. Unsurprisingly, the wedding officiant will serve an important role in the ceremony and as such, you’ll want to put some careful thought into this decision! Nonetheless, with this advice outlined above, you can easily streamline the process for finding the perfect wedding officiant for your special day!
Before selecting a wedding officiant though, you’ll likely have already completed several other wedding planning tasks with one of those being the wedding venue selection. If you’re looking for a venue near Houston, we would be happy to show you around our wedding venue in Conroe, TX. For those that are engaged and interested in learning more about Madera Estates, feel free to click the link HERE to request a copy of our Pricing Guide. Happy Wedding Planning!