When should we hire the wedding officiant?

Now is a good time. 🙂

Once you set your wedding date and have a venue confirmed (or a general idea of where you’ll be married), go ahead and hire your wedding officiant. Flowers are beautiful, food is yummy, music gets you swaying. But if you don’t have an officiant to write and conduct your ceremony, or sign your marriage license, you’re, well, not married. (Ok, in PA, you could self-unite, but you could still use someone to write and conduct your ceremony.)

Pre-COVID, couples generally started considering who you want to hire as a wedding officiant 6 – 12 months before their wedding date. In 2020 – 2021, with wedding dates shifting frequently, it’s best to hired an officiant as soon as you decide to get married. If you hire me, I’ll happily work with you to create your ceremony even if your date shifts multiple times, or if you decide to change the size and location of your wedding.

Popular officiants get busy, especially during the Spring and Fall wedding seasons, so you will want to book them early.  Plus, you will likely want to meet a few officiants, to see who you feel most comfortable with and who will honor your ideas and traditions.

If it’s 3 months before your wedding date and you don’t have an officiant yet, now’s the time.  If it’s 2 months before, you may have to do a lot of phone calling to find someone. If it’s one month before, yikes.  I did get a call once to replace an officiant who was unable to officiate – on the morning of the wedding!  I happened to be available, the couple had a draft of a ceremony, and we pulled it together.  But, this is not my recommended timeline.

You want your officiant to get to know you, to prepare a lovely ceremony, and to conduct the ceremony professionally.

Quality takes time, and you want quality.  Right?