Officiant Officiant Where For Art Thou?

Finding an officiant is like finding a piece of hay in a proverbial pile of needles.

Why? We aren't planning on having a religious ceremony, our wedding is not nestled in the inner sanctum of a church.

We REALLY dont want to pay several hundred dollars for an officiant. Plus we would really like to write our own ceremony in it's entirety, and that is so difficult to find... someone who will basically just stand there and read exactly what we want them to.

We are also forgoing the usual unity candle and sand ceremony. Instead we will be using an Irish tradition of handfasting as a literal tieing of the knot. It is a nod to Brian's deep roots in his Irish heritage.

The handfasting ceremony is done as follows. In Irish tradition, the bride and groom are asked questions to the depth of their devotion.

With agreement they answer each question and a colored cord is laid across their joined hands. When all 6 questions are answered, all six cords are loosely tied and the bindings of their devotion together are made.

So... where to find an officiant willing to literately read our pre-written ceremony AND preform the handfasting which is not a usual ceremony and probably something new to them?

Where to find one that isn't going to charge us an arm and a leg and a few toes on the other foot especially since we'll have done all the work?

Well in Massachusetts there is this little thing called Officiant for a Day. You send in an application to be legalized as an officiant for just that one couple for just that one day.

When it is approved, the chosen person is a legit officiant.

Who are we choosing? My younger cousin Ashleigh. Well, we hope we are.

She has agreed to do it, and was quite enthusiastic but I am a little bit afraid she is going to get anxious so we are thinking of asking for a backup because we certainly don't want her to feel uncomfortable.

Needless to say we are going to create our own officiant and that way we get to have the entire thng preformed exactly to our specifications.

And frankly, if there is a mess up then it's family - our whole family - and it's SUPPOSED to be fun and we dont care about a little word flub.

We know she will do an amazing job and I am very proud of her. Total cost of the license? $25 dollars.