5 Questions to Help You Dodge a Poor Officiant

Don't find yourself embarassed in front of all your family and friends with a poor Officiant choice. Make sure you are hiring a professional. Here are some questions to help you check.

1. No Shows: What happens if your Officiant can’t make it to your wedding? People get sick, get into accidents, cars break down. No one wants to think about this but it can happen. Who is the backup Officiant and what is their phone number? Regardless of their answer, you should always have a copy of your ceremony at the site as a back up plan. Worst case scenario, a friend can do the ceremony and an Officiant can do the paperwork after the big day.

2. Double bookings/Cancellations/ Lateness: Typically people are early, on-time or late. You know you have friends who fit all those groups and there are Officiant who fit those groups as well. Ask how they track their weddings, how often they have double bookings, if they have ever cancelled a wedding, and how far in advance do they arrive at a wedding.

3. Experience: You should get a pretty good idea about the level of experience of your Officiant by how they conduct your introductory meeting. Let them take the lead and see how much information they offer. In the end, it’s good to ask how many weddings have they done. This is especially important if you’ve hired your Officiant off of Kijii and they seem to be a bargain, likely they are a bargain for a reason!

4. Tolerance: Ask your Officiant to give an example of the worst wedding they’ve ever been to. The story they tell is not as relevant as the insight you’ll receive in what they value as a positive or negative experience.

5. Licensed: And MOST importantly, ask and check to ensure your Officiant is legally licensed in the province or state of the ceremony. Ask them what month they renew their license. If they don’t know, run. This information is available online on government site – Ontario Government. Some people may have let their license expire and others get Officiant certificates online and unfortunately believe they are fit to do weddings legally when they are not.