Explanation of our Pricing
Choosing an officiant is not always an easy task. Many couples have no idea about how to book an officiant. They come to us not really knowing where to begin, what pricing is, or really how important the officiant is. Some couples often say that they have only budgeted a couple hundred dollars for their wedding officiant. Couples have referenced articles on pricing in national media or websites for middle America norms. It is a bit different here in So Cal.
Some think it’s for someone to come for a half hour and do the “I do’s”. If that was all that was involved, it would be so easy, but it is so much more. Unfortunately, pricing for wedding officiants is the most inaccurately published fee for all of wedding professionals, especially in this geographical area. The following is some useful information to shed some light on the worth of a Professional Officiant.
Before there were “Wedding Officiants”, there were two basic ways to get married here in the US. You could have a church wedding, where the minister/pastor/priest/ etc. was paid a salary through their church. A ‘tip’ was all that couples would need to offer. The other way couples tied the knot was to go to the county clerk. In both cases, Church or Clerk, the same script is read to every couple that is getting married, no deviation or customization at all. It the same old blah blah blah.
We now have friends and family who can become ‘ordained’ online have no fee involved. In the minds of most industry professionals, this the worst thing to happen to ceremonies EVER as the friend or family member has no clue on how to properly and legally perform their duties. While it may seem “nice”, many times the results are less than desirable. With no knowledge of how to use a microphone, tell the guests to stand, proper wording, how to seamlessly work with other vendors, and to step aside for the kiss shot, they can turn an amazing life moment into awkward scene. Additionally, if your marriage license is improperly signed or misplaced, your marital status may be in limbo.
Just as bad are those who become ordained online to officiate weddings, but have no training or style in creating ceremonies. They copy/paste a ceremony from the internet and call themselves officiants. Their performance is just monotone and lackluster which provides a very uninspiring ceremony. They charge a very small fee because no one will hire them if they knew how substandard they were.
What Great Officiants does is very different, we spend time getting to know our couples. This begins with an initial meeting with your selected Officiant where they find out what the two of you are like as a couple, gather a lot of general information, and get a feel for your personalities. If additional customization is requested, we then send a link to a detailed questionnaire for you to fill out. This gives the Officiants tons of information to use for writing your story and for additional personalization. We will then spend hours, and we mean hours, writing a ceremony that is unique to the two of you. The Officiants will call, email, skype, facetime etc. before your wedding to go over all sorts of details. There are things we will help you with that you never knew to even consider.
On your wedding day, you can feel confident that you will have a professional officiant. We will be prepared, on time, sober, and have a wonderful presence as a speaker. This will create an atmosphere where everyone will feel part of the celebration. We write and perform exceptional ceremonies that guests will be talking about for the rest of the night and reminisce in the future. By reading our over 2000 online reviews, you can rest assured that we can accomplish this and hopefully exceed your expectations. In fact, our couples often say the ceremony was the one part of the day that they didn’t have to worry about at all – and in many cases say it was actually the best part of their wedding day.
Finally, we ensure that your marriage license is properly signed and filed with the appropriate county clerk’s office. If there are any errors, we will be there to remedy them quickly.
Venue managers and wedding coordinators love working with Great Officiants as they know the ceremony will be done properly every time. This is why we are honored to be on the preferred vendor list of well over 100 wedding venues.
Photographers and videographers constantly comment that they love it when a Great Officiant is there. They know that the couple will be able show true joy in their ceremony. The laugher and passion the couple share is brought out by a Great Officiant’s performance, and these emotions are able to make these images even more amazing. Face it, after it is all said and done all you have is the pictures and video so you might as well make it as amazing as can be.
We completely understand needing to keep within a budget. We just hope you understand that we have priced our officiant services as fairly as possible. We respect that you have many decisions to make with your wedding dollars. In the end, we want you to know that we support the decision you feel is best for you and your fiancé. Your everlasting memories of a great ceremony experience is our ultimate goal. Our hope is that you will give a Great Officiant a chance to chat or meet with you so we can share the process and journey we use to create a ceremony.
To create and officiate an exceptional ceremony and a memorable wedding experience takes time, expertise, and skill. If this sounds like the type of experience you’d like to have for your ceremony, let us know!
