Fairly regularly, we -- and our local colleagues -- get a request like this: "We're planning a short, simple wedding with only twelve people, and we want an officiant who will just come in and read a ceremony. Why should this cost more than about $50 for just fifteen minutes' work?"
Would you go an accountant and say, "I bought and sold some stocks this year, but you should be able to do my tax return in about fifteen minutes. Can you do that for under $50?"? Or go to an artist and say, "I'd like an oil portrait of the person I love. Can you do it for $50?"? (You can guess what quality of portrait you'd get.)
(But if you are on a very tight budget and need to keep the total wedding costs down, please see our Limited Budget page. WE WILL GLADLY WORK WITH YOU.)
There may be officiants around who are willing to come in and read a standard ceremony, and this is potentially cheaper than working with a couple to develop a very individualized ceremony. And if you don't want a rehearsal, this should make the ceremony even cheaper. After all, a big part of what you are paying the officiant for is time, so the less time involved, the cheaper the officiant's fee should be.
Fine. And true -- up to a point.
But here are some other points you need to consider:
1) YES, YOU ARE PAYING FOR TIME -- but how much time? Even if the ceremony is only fifteen or twenty minutes long, the officiant (if he or she is at least a little bit conscientious) needs to arrive at least fifteen or thirty minutes early -- just so the wedding couple doesn't panic that the officiant might not show up. And it takes a few minutes to sign, and have the witnesses sign, the marriage license, and time later to send the signed license back to the courthouse that issued it. And the ceremony is probably at least a few miles from the officiant's location. So let's figure on at least half an hour driving time (plus car expense -- $4/gallon) each way. So that fifteen minute ceremony is up to at least two hours of the officiant's time (plus costs) already -- and probably more.
2) YOU'RE ALSO PAYING FOR EXPERIENCE. Your officiant may or may not have had "professional" training -- academic classes in how to perform a wedding. In fact, probably not. But your officiant has most likely had years of experience in performing weddings, experience that results in a ceremony that will be smoothly performed, in a way that puts the wedding couple at ease and makes a favorable impression on all the guests. In addition, most officiants have learned what works well in a wedding, and what can make the ceremony seem awkward and disjointed, and they can suggest minor changes that can make all the difference in how the ceremony flows. You are not paying someone to "just read the words" but to apply all of this experience and expertise in order to make your wedding enjoyable and memorable. You are buying the services of a trained professional
3) AND YOU'RE PAYING FOR INDIVIDUALIZED ATTENTION. We know that some local officiants are willing to perform a sort of "quickie" ceremony, perhaps for a reduced fee (but only reduced so far -- keep in mind points (1) and (2) above). But most of the officiants we know prefer -- to a greater or lesser extent -- to do what we do: to work with couples who want to play an active part in putting together a very personalized wedding, and to help them put together a far more memorable wedding ceremony than they would have thought of without our participation. (In fact, if a couple is not interested in doing this, we want to ask, "Why isn't this wedding ceremony important enough to invest some time and effort in?")
4) WITH US, YOU'RE PAYING FOR -- and getting -- A WHOLE LOT MORE. We find that, on average, we spend about eight hours on each wedding we perform -- and for some we invest considerably more of our time than that. We meet with every couple for an hour or longer to talk about possibilities that most couple had been unaware of. We develop an individualized script for every couple and work with the couple to tinker with that until it says what they want it to say. We meet with the couple again on request. We attend the rehearsal and fine-tune the performance, so that everyone knows what to do, when to do it, and where and how to walk and stand. We get to know the wedding party and family members so that everyone is comfortable with us and with the ceremony. We arrive early at the wedding to be sure everything is set up as it needs to be, to make the guests will feel comfortable, to be sure everyone is close enough to hear what is said, and to be sure that everything is properly arranged. We try to put everyone -- especially the bride -- at ease during the ceremony. And we get the license signed after the ceremony, and later we scan (photocopy) it (just in case the courthouse tells us they didn't receive it) and we mail it back to the courthouse. We submit the order for certified copies if the bride is changing her name. In summary, we earn our fee -- as do just about all of our professional colleagues.
