Courtesy of Chris [weddingsoflove@sympatico.ca]
The following is my response to a bride being upset at an Officiant charging
$300 for what she believed was only half an hour's work:
"Half an hour of work?"
It takes an average of 10-20 hours of work per ceremony:
- consultations
- scheduling
- emails, phone calls
- a lot of chasing couples to get ceremony, vow & reading choices (sometimes
this alone takes months)
- sometimes research for a particular ceremony (definitely the benefit of tons
of research over the years + education / training)
- ceremony prep, proof-reads, approvals, updates, modifications, last minute
changes, re-approvals
- practice time
- waiting before rehearsal
- rehearsal
- waiting before ceremony
- ceremony
- sometimes mingling after ceremony
- paperwork, paperwork...paperwork...overhead costs
- not to mention the time lost with their own significant others on the
weekends,...usually Friday night & part of Saturday, when significant others are
at home
Here's the most important part:
- your Officiant is a LICENSED professional without which there would be
no marriage.
It is the least expensive cost in the
typical wedding, yet the only part that is really required.
You can have a wedding without a gown, flowers or center pieces.
You can't have a legal marriage without an Officiant.
Be careful where you cut your corners.
I have performed over 500 weddings since my
ordination 8 years ago. That is more experience performing marriages than many ministers get in an
entire lifetime!
