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@kellykinns: I was the same way. I called my mom in tears because I couldn't find anyone that I would even seriously consider performing our ceremony. She suggest a friend that she knew from high school who would do it for free. I'd ask and see if you know anyone is is already a notary/JP or ask a close friend to do it.
This was one of my biggest worried too. FI and I are not particularly religious and we don't belong to any churces.
Have you thought about having a friend get ordained by one of those online ordination things? They usually charge a nominal fee or nothing. We are having a friend get ordained by the universal life church. They don't charge anything. Just make sure that this is ok in the county/state you are getting married in. Some places don't allow this. Good luck!
This was also a really stressful part of planning for us also. I'm not sure how it works in FL, but in PA magistrate judges can preform weddings. We called around to a bunch of different court houses and asked the clerks whether the judge would preform a wedding. We lucked out with an amazing judge and the our ceremony was wonderful. I'd start by calling around to local court houses first to see if you can get any names.
i agree with rachaelrobin, we ended up getting a local small town mayor who did a completely secular ceremony for us and he was great, in PA that's totally allowed. check with the marriage license office in Florida if you haven't already and see exactly who can perform a marriage and sign your certificate.
i had the same prob with online searches for people who do ceremonies for profit, it was so cheesy and stupidly expensive. good luck!
We asked a friend. He got himself ordained online and we are checking into it being all legal and it seems the best and most fun way for us. Free too ;)
So I think my solution is (after putting poor fh through my first and probably not last bridal freakout) that we are going to ask a friend (and help pay for) them to become a notary, and then write our own ceremony... Hello more work for me!
Kellykins - do they make an ordained person become a Notery??? I know here is Southern CA they dont. Our friend is ordained and it is free.
In some states if you get "ordained" online or just have a friend become a notary your marriage isn't recognized. In IL that would be a problem and a couple could have legal issues down the road.
EDIT: If FL has the same rules as IL, this would be true:
To be valid, a marriage must be performed by one of the following individuals:
This is late, but the deal is that FH and I don't want the person to be ordained in anything. This is a secular wedding, and I want it to be secular. Notaries have authority to marry people in Florida and our friend has offered to go through the process and pay as a wedding gift to us. So freak out averted! For now!
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All I am looking for is an officiant, and somehow it has turned into one of the most maddening experiences of my wedding planning. I'm a decisive person, I like something or I don't, and after weeks of searching around online for wedding officiants, I don't like any of them. I was a "secular" wedding and I'm finding quite a few "ordained" folks who will offer a non-religious ceremony, but I don't want my wedding officiated by an ordained anything. I want a notary or JP, and I want one who doesn't come across on their websites as super cheesey. No dice. I also found out that it costs like 90 bucks to become a notary (in the state of FL, unless I am mistaken) so why do I want to pay some cheesy person a minimum of 250 dollars to do this... I am having a bit of a freak out here. I'm thinking of paying for a friend to become a notary or something... Any advice?