Step by Step Logistics

Contact

If you are interested in meeting with one of our ministers or priests to see if he or she might be right for you, the first step is this:

• if you live within the Washington, DC/Baltimore region (for us, that means from north of Baltimore to over the Bay Bridge, to Frederick, to Winchester, to Fredericksburg, and to all of DC, Northern Virginia, and Southern Maryland in between), you may either call Rev. Jim Burch directly (who is the organizer/manager of this web page, and whose photos appear on these pages) at 703-818-8080 to see if he is personally available, or you may click here to reach the form that will locate him and our other DC/Baltimore officiants for you, and you may then select Jim and/or others in the area.
• if you live outside the Washington, DC/Baltimore region, you should click here to reach the form that will locate a local officiant for you.

We are a referral service, and whether or not you "book" the wedding celebrant on our list is between the three of you. You agree, when booking one of our officiants, that WeddingCeremony.org as a referral service, and its staff and principals, bears no financial or other responsibility regarding your choice of wedding officiant, or the service they provide to you.

Please note: we have ministers and priests and wedding ministers in most areas of the USA, Canada, and some other parts of the world but not yet everywhere. We are adding more all the time. Quality, spiritual perspective, no "judgmentalism," and dedicated service are integral to this wedding ministry, so we build somewhat slowly. And since many people seem to want the same date, to ensure you get a priest or wedding minister for your wedding date and time, we urge you to book early!

First Meeting

At this meeting, which lasts about an hour or so, we get acquainted. We talk about how you met and how you feel about each other, about the place of God's Spirit in the world today, the importance of job and family, the great power of love, some of the overlooked but marvelous workings of marriage in our lives, etc. Our minister will give you a workbook, from which you and your fiance together select the prayers, readings, vows, and components of your wedding. This workbook is designed with an array of choices, so that you can go through and pick the parts you like, and discard the parts you do not like. When you are done, you will be able to say to each other, "Now this sounds like us!" What we have done is to create a process that allows you to come up with the wedding of your choice, without our celebrant having to write a new ceremony from scratch each time ... which would be virtually impossible. You have time to go over the options, and then you send your selections back to the wedding minister who will be your officiant. He or she then puts together your own unique ceremony on paper, checking to ensure that the ceremony flows smoothly throughout. After the ceremony itself, the officiant will give you, for a keepsake, that same copy of the ceremony used at your wedding.

Confirm!

Unless you have specifically said to your minister or priest at your first meeting that you want him or her to officiate at your ceremony, you will not be securely "booked" until you confirm that you do want him or her. So ... if you want certainty that you have this officiant for your wedding, be sure to call back in a couple of days after your first meeting and confirm to the celebrant that he or she is confirmed, or that you are making other arrangements and he or she will not be needed. Most wedding ministers appreciate receiving a deposit when couples confirm, lest they change their minds and the officiant will have lost the opportunity to be of service to others.

4 to 6 Weeks Before The Wedding

Mail, fax, or email your selections for the wedding ceremony back to your officiant. He or she will then put your selections on computer, creating a large type version for use at the ceremony and to give to you afterwards as a keepsake.

You should remember to select family or friends to do the readings. Far better that your friends do this than your officiant (he or she will have enough speaking parts). However, try to get people who are at least moderately good at public reading; readers who mumble and cannot be understood detract from your wedding ceremony.

Second Meeting

Sometime before your wedding, after you have gotten your marriage license, call your officiant and set your second appointment of about 30 minutes, to take place about two weeks prior to the wedding. You will then leave the license with him or her (if you have it; if not, be sure to bring it to the wedding!), and he or she will fill it out after the ceremony. He or she will also be responsible for mailing the signed version back to the court for recordation, if that is the practice in your state. At this meeting you will all go over the logistics of your ceremony. The ceremony directions will be self-evident, but he or she will go over them with you at that time. The purpose of going over the ceremony is so that you will see if it is what you want, can make any changes, and have a level of comfort. You will not have to remember any of the cues, because at the ceremony itself, your officiant will softly tell you what to do next. No one will hear these prompts to you, but you will appear to your guests to have practiced for a week! Some couples also prefer to pay their fees at this second meeting, if you think it might be a distraction on your wedding day.

Rehearsal

Some officiants include rehearsals as a standard part of their working with you, but most find that they are not needed. Some charge a modest fee for this on-site consultation. Please check with your officiant for specifics.

Day Of The Wedding

Unless other arrangements are made, your officiant will usually arrive at the wedding site approximately a half hour before the ceremony, so that he or she can run through highlights of what to do with the bride and the groom beforehand, either together or separately. The priest or wedding minister will also meet with your readers, father of the bride, best man, photographer, musicians and any others who need last minute reminders of the few cues they each will have. If you did not leave the license with the officiant earlier, be sure to bring it with you to the wedding. Many officiants usually do attend the reception after the wedding, but not the meal that follows, and never unless specifically asked. This, of course, is by individual preference and custom of each officiant.

You Evaluate Us

Approximately one week after your wedding, you will receive an email evaluation form from our main office. We want to know - in confidence - how your wedding went and how you felt about the officiant, and if you have suggestions for improving our service. This keeps us all on our toes and reminds us that your satisfaction is paramount.

Costs

Fees usually range widely from about $250 to $500 (most hover in the $395-$495 range) throughout the USA and Canada, depending on the geographic location, prevailing local practices, and cost of living. But always check with the individual officiants first, who set their own local fee schedule. Our ministers or priests always put a lot of thought and time into each wedding, so price is not a factor in our dedication or commitment to your having a beautiful ceremony. Sometimes these fees supplement the income of the wedding celebrant, and sometimes it is their only income. Brides and grooms who are planning low budget weddings and cannot afford these kinds of fees will find that many of our celebrants are willing to officiate at your wedding for a lower donation, in cases where there is financial concern on the part of the couple, e.g., a home wedding, or pot luck reception, etc. If this is your case, you should talk to him or her in advance, and give him or her the courtesy of discussing it. (Please remember, though, that after a wedding minister invests thought and time into making sure your wedding is meaningful, he or she then would feel pretty bad if they saw you paid more for the cake, flowers, party favors, etc. than you were willing to pay for all the study, time and effort he or she put into your ceremony!) We think you should value your ceremony as much as we do!

Under no circumstances, however, should you fail to contact us or to ask for our services because of a concern about the cost! We would rather be there for you, if what we offer is what you need and want, than have cost be a dominant factor.

This fee often does not include going to a rehearsal or rehearsal dinner. The reason for this is that we are not needed; you don't practice the actual ceremony, only where you come from, how you get where you are going, and where you stand when there. Also, the priest or minister may have another wedding on the night (often Friday) of your rehearsal.

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